McCain isn't the first Arizonan to use 'socialist' epithet.
John McCain recently accused Barack Obama of advocating socialist policies. It turns out he was channeling one of his illustrious home-state predecessors—Barry Goldwater.
In newly unearthed correspondence, Goldwater, the famed GOP senator from Arizona and a conservative icon, wrote a stinging letter to Lyndon Johnson just after he heard the news that the then Senate majority leader had agreed to be John F. Kennedy's running mate in the 1960 election.
Goldwater's complaint: that Johnson would be running on a "socialist" Democratic Party platform.
"Dear Lyndon," Goldwater wrote to LBJ on July 15, 1960. "It is the morning after, so to speak and as I sit here in my study, I still have a numb feeling of despair over your actions of yesterday in accepting the candidacy for Vice President. It is difficult to imagine a person like you running in a second spot to a weaker man, but it is even more incredible to try to understand how you are going to try to embrace the socialist platform of your party. I think many people, Lyndon, share my feeling of disappointment."
Read entire article at Newsweek
In newly unearthed correspondence, Goldwater, the famed GOP senator from Arizona and a conservative icon, wrote a stinging letter to Lyndon Johnson just after he heard the news that the then Senate majority leader had agreed to be John F. Kennedy's running mate in the 1960 election.
Goldwater's complaint: that Johnson would be running on a "socialist" Democratic Party platform.
"Dear Lyndon," Goldwater wrote to LBJ on July 15, 1960. "It is the morning after, so to speak and as I sit here in my study, I still have a numb feeling of despair over your actions of yesterday in accepting the candidacy for Vice President. It is difficult to imagine a person like you running in a second spot to a weaker man, but it is even more incredible to try to understand how you are going to try to embrace the socialist platform of your party. I think many people, Lyndon, share my feeling of disappointment."