and from george mason, we want to welcome to the class mitt kohen and he's talking about hubert humphries specifically. thank you for being with us chls. >> thank you. >> let me begin whether the year began with the ted offensive and the decision by lyndon johnson not to seek another term in march of 1968. both of those events really had had a huge impact on the politics of that year and hubert humphries decision to run for the presidency. >> right the. ted offensive, while it really wasn't a victory for north in the end because they were able to reach the -- reach saigon and reach the enemy. it appeared for all practical purposes to look like a victory for the north vietnamese, and it just devastated johnson had been telling people for months and years that we were doing well there. that just negated everything he had been saying. so they -- it was just a terrible blow to his popularity. he just crashed after that. gene mccarthy had already been out, you know, campaigning against the war and against johnson and then along came kennedy, bobby kennedy, and all of this just sort of caused h