George McGovern has died.  RIP.  He was ill...

for some time and was non-responsive in hospice care for several days prior to his death.

His legacy will be a failed presidential campaign and one of the central reasons he failed was a very bad decision.  Actually, two bad decisions.  The first was to appoint Senator Thomas Eagleton as his running mate with only a cursory background check.  The second was to remove him from the ticket because of his prior mental health issues after having said he would back the man "1000 percent".  It cost him dearly.

In the 1972 presidential campaign, I was 12 most of the time, 13 for the last two months of the campaign.  But I worked as a campaign volunteer when able, for the McGovern campaign.  Yes, I, who many remember as a Republican (I've been an independent for a long time now) worked for a Democratic political campaign.  There was a cute girl involved, but I did believe at that time I was working for the right guy.  I just didn't trust Nixon.  Turned out, I had good cause.

But today, in the wake of Senator McGovern's death, I want to remember the man's legacy for something he himself discovered late in life.  He went into business and his business failed.  He wrote about that failure and it's something everyone should read.  Here's a link to the article, titled "What I Know Now:  Nibbled to Death"

http://www.inc.com/magazine/19931201/3809.html

For those who don't want to read through the whole piece, here's the important part:

"The second lesson I learned by owning the Stratford Inn is that legislators and government regulators must more carefully consider the economic and management burdens we have been imposing on U.S. business."

This from a man who didn't meet a regulation attempt he didn't like while in office.  Now, in the light of being an overly regulated business, he says government should more carefully consider the impacts of the burdens they impose on U.S. business.

States have the same issues.  Businesses have been fleeing California's heavier burden of regulation and taxation for years, and Prop 30 will only accelerate the process.  It's no good having a state with fine weather if all of the businesses that can choose to move elsewhere.  Hollywood has lost major amounts of film production to Canada and other states who are more willing to provide tax incentives to productions in return for their taking their money and jobs elsewhere.  There is a lesson to be learned and we aren't learning it quickly enough.

I hope the legacies of the late Senator George McGovern will be two-fold.  One, that mental health issues aren't in and of themselves disqualifying factors for a job, particularly when they have been treated, and/or are treatable.  Two, that legislators need to provide thoughtful, meaningful, productive regulation of business that manages to keep consumers and the rest of the population safe, without driving such businesses out of business.