>> low key minnesota democrat senator eugene mccarthy entered the race against his party's incumbent giving the voters a voice in the vietnam debate. >> campaign '68, the new hampshire primary. the big surprise of the first primary of campaign '68 has been the strength of senator eugene mccarthy. the volume with which new hampshire's voters today endorsed his effort signals trouble for president johnson's yet undeclared re-election bid. on the republican side, richard nixon entered the race to shed that loser's image he acquired in 1962 and '62. >> seems to be quite apparent from the early returns that we won't have to have a recount tonight. >> nixon, the only active campaign, ran far in front, even farther than expected, with 81%. >> mr. nixon, which tactics and issues do you feel got you this vote in new hampshire? >> very effective use of television. i know i'm not supposed to be able to use television, but i think that's one myth we knocked down this time. we were pretty good on television. >> the nixon campaign needed this kind of a shot in the arm. his supporters now around th

johnson's fellow democrats like eugene mccarthy who took him on over doing the right thing in vietnam. >> we must undertake at all times, so far as we can, not to do the wrong thing for the right reason. >> here we are carrying out foreign policy. they're asking for support for a republican policy. we are a long ways from that. i certainly admit that. we don't even know if he does feel any opposition. we can read the polls. a rough comparison showing that nationally, crattic parties favored half the country. in his home state, he sits even lower. so despite all his experience and power and strategy, senator mcconnell is less popular than trump nationally and far less popular than him in kentucky and they're both up for re-election in 2020. which means, yes, senator mcconnell's future may be much more on this president than other people, and others may not be as dependent as he is. he may have reversed on that and now focused on doing whatever it takes for him to avoid defeat. >> you don't simply wet your finger before deciding what to do. they send you here to lead and ultimately, if

we have seen in 1968, for example, senator eugene mccarthy challenge the sitting democratic presidentn primaries but very slowly build a level of support that became threatening to president johnson in new hampshire. we saw senator bernie sanders last time start off in single digits in the polls and climb slowly and steadily and strongly to present a very strong challenge to hillary clinton. but gene mccarthy was a very well-known united states senator who almost got the nomination for vice president four years earlier. bernie sanders was a well-known united states senator when he started his presidential campaign. but most of us didn't know who the mayor pete buttigieg was just last year. i certainly didn't. i was still practicing how to say his name a couple of weeks ago when we first mentioned him on the show. it is the speed just that stunning speed with which pete buttigieg has risen to national prominence in this campaign we have not seen before. tonight we're very excited to have mayor pete as he likes to call himself joining news tonight's segment of the contenders for his fir

when eugene mccarthy did the unthinkable and announced his candidacy to run in just four presidential primaries against incumbent democratic president lyndon johnson. gene mccarthy did not believe that he could defeat lyndon johnson for the nomination, but he was running against lyndon johnson's war in vietnam and he believed his candidacy was the only way for americans to get a chance to vote against lyndon johnson's war in vietnam. he wanted to put vietnam on the ballot. gene mccarthy scored what was considered a resounding victory in the new hampshire primary by coming in such a strong second to the president of the united states, and by the end of that week there was a second challenger to president lyndon johnson from within his own party, new york's democratic senator robert kennedy jumped into the race against lyndon johnson. we had never seen anything like this, two power challengers against an all-power incumbent democratic president who had won a landslide in the last election, and the pressure from these two challenges against the incumbent president forced something no one

. >> that's what eugene mccarthy did when he got in on the democratic side.xpectation of winning. he said he was only going to run in four primaries, he ended up running in more. he showed there was great vulnerability for lyndon johnson. bobby kennedy jumped in. is that something that you envision possible here? >> no, i intend to run a national primary, except for parts of the deep south where it really wouldn't make a lot of sense for me. i'll start in the six new england states led by new hampshire and go to the mid-atlantic states where i'm a native and spent a lot of time. this next month in may, i'm going to go out to california, probably oregon and washington. california is mr. trump's worst state. they don't get along on anything. that's a lot of electoral votes. i'll strenuously contend pennsylvania and new jersey and new york. >> any challenger who stayed in the primaries after new hampshire did not win the nomination but that president did not win re-election after being damaged in the primaries. >> well, in all five cases the president did lose t