BY VIC FINGERHUT AND STEPHEN J. FARNSWORTH
As Democrats survey the unappealing political scene of 2014, with its dispirited incumbents, energized Republican opposition and an unpopular incumbent president, they need to look back at the late innings resurgence of the Hubert Humphrey 1968 presidential campaign.
That election, waged under the some of the most unfavorable circumstances for Democrats in the last 50 years, offers three lessons: The party wins when it focuses on working-class voters; half-hearted attempts to split the difference with the GOP are doomed to fail; and this vigorous populist appeal will fall short if, like in 1968, the party waits until the last minute to push the election toward the party’s most favorable terrain in the most effective terms.
