by Sharon O'Connell

Created on: August 07, 2009

Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 is another of his bizarre mixes of fiction and journalism. This is a compilation of his coverage of the 1972 presidential election. His coverage begins before the primaries in December 1971, following the campaign month by month until December 1972 after Nixon has been reelected. The piece ends with an appropriate Epitaph and the poem Be Angry at the Sun.

I was interested in a mock letter that Thompson had written to Larry O'Brien, the '72 Democratic Party chairman. The letter is thrust in the middle of a discussion of the McGovern problem which Thompson defines as proof-positive for the liberal cynics' conviction that there is no room in American politics for an honest man. He finds this to be true because American politics is traditionally a Two Party system: the Democrats and the Republicans. Or as Thompson describes them: The Ins and the Outs, the Party in Power and the Loyal Opposition. Thompson mentions at this point that Loyal Opposition is the term that the national Democratic party, with O'Brien at the helm, has taken on as their catchy election year phrase. Much to O'Brien's chagrin the local party headquarters across the nation were not bursting at the seams with dewy-eyed young voters completely stoned on the latest Party Message. From this description Thompson launches into his fictional letter to Larry O'Brien accusing O'Brien of stringing him along, leading him to believe that he would somehow appoint Thompson as the Governor of American Samoa.

Well, LarryI really hate to lay this on youbecause we used to be buddies, right? That was backing the days when I bought all those white sharkskin suits because I thought I was going to be the next Governor of American Samoa.

You strung me along, Larry; you conned me into buying all those goddamn white suits and kept me hanging around that Holiday Inn in Pierre, South Dakota, waiting for my confirmation to come throughbut it never did, Larry; I was never appointed. You bushwhacked me.

The letter goes on to describe the aging party leadership, something that Thompson describes as a major problem with the Party. In earlier chapters he describes various candidates like Senator Ed Muskie pining for the endorsements of the Party Faithful like Chicago's Mayor Daley and the aging leader of the AFL-CIO George Meany. Thompson views their influences as negative. According to Thompson's reporting, George McGovern's

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