In 1968, for instance, a Minnesota senator, Eugene McCarthy, engaged the incumbent President, Lyndon Johnson.

FORBES: Fact And Comment

And Eugene McCarthy, whose opposition to a war in Southeast Asia helped topple a president.

NPR: In Memoriam

In March, Eugene McCarthy rocked the political world with a 42 percent showing in the New Hampshire primary.

CNN: Remembering Bobby Kennedy Thirty Years Later

And when, in 1968, the dovish Eugene McCarthy narrowly lost the New Hampshire primary to Johnson, Robert Kennedy belatedly declared his candidacy.

ECONOMIST: An American political fight to the finish

In 1968 Eugene McCarthy was an imperfect candidate leading an improbable cause.

NPR: Remembering Eugene McCarthy

And when, in 1958, a formidable new class of liberal Democrats entered the Senate including Edmund Muskie, Eugene McCarthy, and Philip Hart the legislative machinery began to produce reform.

NEWYORKER: The Empty Chamber

He grew up in Queens, New York, and his first involvement in politics was campaigning for Eugene McCarthy for president in 1968, when he was 12.

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But the big donations that jump-started the insurgency of Eugene McCarthy, the anti-war candidate who prompted Lyndon Johnson not to seek re-election in 1968, would be illegal today.

ECONOMIST: Lexington

Individuals face strict limits on how much they may give to a candidate, so the kind of big donations that jump-started Eugene McCarthy's anti-war candidacy in 1968 are still illegal.

ECONOMIST: American politics

Edmund Muskie, Walter Mondale, Eugene McCarthy and Phil Hart while they regaled each other with the foibles of Washington was a treat that helped lighten the often tense atmosphere of debate on heated issues.

CNN: Commentary: Kennedy a worker, not a playboy

And when you think of 1968, you also remember Eugene McCarthy, the Democratic senator from Minnesota, whose presidential candidacy was based on opposition to the war in Vietnam and who helped bring down a president.

NPR: Remembering Eugene McCarthy

Shortly after it went into effect, a group of politicians, including James L. Buckley, then a senator from New York, and Eugene McCarthy, the former senator and Presidential candidate, challenged the new rules as unconstitutional.

NEWYORKER: Money Unlimited

If Mr Gore presses that issue, and finds others that appeal, he may persuade Minnesotans to remember their native liberals: Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale and Eugene McCarthy, who helped to foster among many Minnesotans their once-deep belief that government was more benevolent than meddlesome.

ECONOMIST: The campaign