Harold Meyerson makes the comparison in the Washington Post.

Meyerson highlights how Muskie fell, partly because of a rumor that he was crying during a rebuttal to an attack, but also to his softness on the anti-war message which the other candidates in the Democratic primary of that election were much stronger on. Meyerson argues that Clinton could fall to the same fate unless she indulges the primary voters and veers left like Edwards and Obama.

The argument falls VERY flat at the end when the author writes that the country is so anti-war that even Dennis Kucinich could win the general election. I always find it interesting when members of a political point of view see their popularity rising and forget that there is an alternative POV that will actually fight back and do so hard.

Primaries are traditionally always like this. The extreme flanks of the party believe a candidate can win by taking the extreme position. They disregard the need to be in the middle and vocally attack their own candidates for not believing 100% of the things they believe. Then they send their nominee out to the general election mortally wounded and with every vulnerability exposed.

What Clinton and her strategists would do well to remember is that it was Nixon — by his escalations of the war even as he was withdrawing U.S. ground forces — who was chiefly responsible for driving Democrats toward the candidate who most clearly repudiated the war.

The problem with this argument? Nixon won that election. He didn’t just win the election though he slaughtered McGovern. For many reasons, yes, but the party ran to its left and Nixon won those in the middle and the right across America. Taking New York, California, Texas and 46 other states.

I am a firm believer that this election is going to be decided in the middle of the political spectrum and that almost every state with a few exceptions is in play. This goes against the way many pundits, political consultants and politicians have run these campaigns over the years but in a time of uncertainty like this the knee-jerk reaction is to go back to conventional wisdom and play to the base. I say run to the middle and grab those votes on the other side who might actually turn. The base isn’t going anywhere.