How did one of the McGovern coordinators in 1972, Bill Clinton, end up as the chair of the DLC?

"The Liberals' Moment: The McGovern Insurgency and the Identity Crisis of the Democratic Party" is a book anyone interested in the state of the current Democratic Party should read.

Drawing upon the energy of the McCarthy and RFK primary campaigns in 1968, George McGovern came out of the red Plains State of South Dakota as a WW II hero who became the Capitol Hill voice of the anti-Vietnam War movement.

Richard Nixon's strategists capitalized on McGovern's shaky start to his campaign (the infamous Eagleton vice presidential choice), but really went to town with a southern and blue collar strategy on steroids.

It's a bit of a gross generalization, but the McGovern wing of the Democratic Party became populated by the affluent, the college-educated, suburbanites and young people. The other wing (some of whom defected to the Republicans -- McGovern only carried the State of Massachusetts) consisted of the working class, seniors, and the poor.

African-Americans and Mexican-Americans have tended toward the second group, but are swing voters between the two factions.

We want to re-emphasize that these are not meant to be proscriptive descriptions, just tools for analyzing the lines from the McGovern campaign to today.

If you carry this analogy along, you could say that, in general, Obama represents the McGovern coalition in its modern incarnation, and Hillary Clinton represents the second faction.

John Edwards owes more to the RFK primary campaign of 1968.

Unfortunately, "The Liberals' Moment" won't be read by many Democrats. It's from an academic press, and a lot of Dems are too young to remember or care about McGovern. But it's a well-researched recount of both a shining point in the integrity of the Democratic Party, and the beginning of much of its loss of a cohesive identity.

George McGovern was -- and is -- a man of great conviction, honesty and honor. But those characteristics don't always "sell" well in America when put up against cynical ad campaigns and dirty tricks.

McGovern would have been a fine, decent and compassionate president.

But the Democratic Party has been like Moses leading his people around in the desert since 1972, waiting to reunify and enter the promised land.

"The Liberals' Moment" recalls the beginning of that journey, and is a testament to an authentic politician, who was one of the first modern victims of the GOP attack machine that distorts and vilifies opponents.