I got to thinking this morning, what does the 'pub campaign remind me of? And it hit me. Where the 'pubs are now reminds me a whole lot of where the Democrats were about this time in 1972. Younger liberals like me were excited as all hell about nominating Sen. McGovern, but the enthusiasm was shared dramatically less as the demographic rose above age 30. Party "regulars" were upset and there was already muttering about "Democrats for Nixon". Any support he had from the "base" was pretty much limited to the anti-war Left. Organized labor; moderates; Democratic elected officials, not so much. Of course, as it turned out, the Democratic convention that year was pretty much a disaster. Subsequently, Sen. McGovern was just pounded by Nixon and his campaign, and he proved to be too modest to bring up his own war record. George McGovern was one of the genuine heroes of WWII and Stephen Ambrose wrote an excellent book about McGovern and the other Americans who flew B-24s over Europe during the war. Had he talked about that more, it might not have been quite as easy to portray him as "weak".
But this is a question for those of you who, like me, are old enough to remember the '72 election year or have read about it. Isn't Romney's situation vis-a-vis the 'pubs somewhat similar and may we look forward to a similar result in November? I will stipulate, Romney has no saving grace like Sen. McGovern's unspoken-of heroism in the service of his country.