Anecdotal Evidence, August 25: Getting clean for Gene
In our Anecdotal Evidence column, movers and shakers share personal stories of how intriguing (and often odd) presidential campaigning in their respective swing state can be.
Terry Shumaker – New Hampshire Lawyer and Longtime Clinton Family Friend
Terry Shumaker. Photo: Lars Gesing/CU News Corps
“I came to New Hampshire to go to college at Dartmouth. I was opposed to the Vietnam War. Lyndon B. Johnson was president. There was a candidate from Minnesota (in 1968), a United States senator, not very well-known, Eugene McCarthy, who decided to challenge Johnson on the issue of our involvement in Vietnam.
“I thought the Vietnam War was a bad idea, as did a lot of college students. The late 60s were an era of rebellion, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. A lot of us had longer hair. A lot of people had beards.
“We did what was nicknamed back then, ‘Getting clean for Gene’ – which was shaving and cutting our hair shorter so we could go door to door in rural New Hampshire and not look like hippies.
“McCarthy came close enough in the New Hampshire primary that Johnson decided two weeks later not to run again.”
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