There’s been no shortage of people willing and eager to argue that any move by the Democrats toward an anti-war position will be an electoral kiss of death in 2006 and beyond. The victory of Ned Lamont in the Connecticut primary over incumbent Sen. Joe Lieberman has been hysterically denounced by friend and foe alike as evidence that the Dems are being taken over by fanatically anti-war hippies. Inevitably McGovern’s 1972 campaign is dredged up as indisputable proof of the folly of taking an anti-war stance.

But historian Lawrence S. Wittner argues here that running as a “peace candidate” has in fact frequently been successful in American politics. Unfortunately, perhaps, some of the candidates he mentions were in fact crypto-“war candidates” (Wilson, Johnson), but the point stands. Naturally historical analogies are of limited usefulness, but I know I would be more likely to vote for someone who was running on some kind of anti-war platform. Then again I may well be an outlier.