Democratic presidential favorite Edmund Muskie appears to break down while attacking newspaper publisher 50 years ago #OnThisDay #OTD (Feb 26 1972)

1970s, U.S. Presidents


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(Saturday, February 26, 1972, morning EST; during the 1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries) — Two Saturdays before the March 7, 1972, first-in-the-nation presidential primary in New Hampshire, U.S. Senator Edmund S. Muskie, the favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972, delivered a speech today in front of the offices of the Manchester Union Leader, calling its publisher, William Loeb, a liar and lambasting him for impugning the character of Muskie’s wife, Jane.

Newspapers reported that Muskie cried openly: David Broder of The Washington Post had it that Muskie “broke down three times in as many minutes”; David Nyhan of The Boston Globe had Muskie “weeping silently.” Jim Naughton of The New York Times, standing immediately at Muskie’s feet, could not confirm that Muskie cried.


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Two days earlier, the Manchester Union Leader had published the “Canuck letter,” which was later revealed to have been a forgery produced as part of the “dirty tricks” campaign by U.S. President Richard Nixon’s staff members, claiming that Muskie had made disparaging remarks about French-Canadians.

Subsequently, the paper published an attack on the character of Muskie’s wife, Jane, reporting that she drank and used off-color language.


Video: 'NH Primary Vault: Tears of rage or wet snow? Muskie's '72 meltdown'

Muskie made an emotional defense of his wife in a speech outside the newspaper’s offices during a snowstorm. Muskie maintained that if his voice cracked, it cracked from anger and what had appeared to the press as tears were actually melted snowflakes.

Whether he broke down and cried, fear of Muskie’s alleged unstable emotional condition led some New Hampshire Democrats to defect to George McGovern. Muskie’s winning margin, 46 percent to McGovern’s 37 percent, was smaller than his campaign had predicted.

The bounce and second-place finish led the McGovern campaign to boast of its momentum. By the time of the Florida primary, with McGovern clearing other left-leaning candidates from the field, Muskie’s campaign was dead.