Many thanks for your description about this man, Mr. Keillor. The world seems colder without him and it does not appear that anyone is holding any matches.

. . . for Garrison Keillor.

thanks for the article, garrison. i met E. McCarthy as a college girl helping on his campaign in New Hampshire.

I regret my children will never have an experience like that.

I can never tell when Keillor has his tongue in his cheek and when he's speaking straight. I hope he was kidding about history eventually getting things right and that his airy dismissal of McCarthyism was a joke.

In any case, I have a lot of residual affection for the other McCarthy -- Gene -- having been old enough to be drafted but not old enough to choose my government when he ran against LBJ. Still, young as I was at the time, I can promise you that Gene McCarthy was not the only person who could count votes. On the other hand, there was never a sense that "quixotic" was a perjorative, and maybe that's the crux of the problem here.

Old radicals will tell you that the demonstrations in Chicago were nearly abandoned when it looked like Bobby Kennedy -- less pure in motive than Gene but better positioned to gather the necessary favors -- would win the Democratic nomination. But as Abbie Hoffman said, "Then Sirhan Sirhan stepped up and it was a whole new ballgame."

We needed people like Gene McCarthy, not because he had a snowball's chance in hell of becoming president, but because he served to turn a lot of apathetic people into people who cared, and he did it more effectively than bland John Anderson and without the histrionics or extremes of Ralph Nader. He was a rare man, and one to be treasured.

But of course he was quixotic. A lot of us were in those days, thank God. But Gene was one of the best. If they don't make many like him anymore, it's probably because they didn't make many like him even back then.

I was completely gobsmacked by those other 'remembrances' of Gene McCarthy. Thank you, Mr. Keillor, for sharing yours.

And Garrison as well for his touching column about the man who propelled me into activist politics at the age of 16. I will always remember -- & thank -- Eugene McCarthy for his principled stands, smart words, & intriguing poetry. Bon voyage....

Thank you, Mr. Keillor, for the beautiful article concerning Senator Eugene McCarthy. He was a gem and you have paid him a wonderful tribute. -Monica Baldwin Indianapolis, IN

Garrison Keillor is the best columnist currently active in America, bar none.

Garrison Keillor prefers Eugene McCarthy to Ralph Nader's "extremes". Nader was the anti-war candidate in 2004 whom Democrats drove off of ballots

before the people could voice their displeasure with the war a full year

before thousands more died and Democrats acknowledged dissent. Stick to your small town pap, Garrison, and leave

political commentary to people who can tell the truth about the two major parties and their special and protective relationship where war and dissent are concerned. As McCarthy well understood, neither protects

American youth from dishonest wars or the right to support a third party or independent movement.

It appears there was a problem with the posting of my last letter, I have reposted.

That was a nice tribute to a man who must've been a politician head and shoulders above his peers of the day (I wouldn't know, I wasn't even born until 1971).

Though the rest of Mr. Keillor's comments make it seem like old people can judge historical figures only by what good things they may have done, and somehow judging them by particularly horrible things they did is invalid. Is that really the way he wants history to be written?

Thank you Garrison for casting light on the real Gene McCarthy. My wife reminded me of sitting in front of our B/W T.V. in Iowa City when Lyndon Johnson withdrew from the race for president in the election of 1968. She remembered that I gave her hug and emitted a "yes!" because we believed that it cleared the way for Bobby Kennedy to become president. We believed that Gene McCarthy had done a noble and great service to the nation in allowing us to express our opposition to the war in a measured, political proces. I am happy that he was never elected president because it would have detracted from his true gift of revoluntionist. I think he was far too bright, kind and literate to have succeeded as president of the U.S. We were deeply saddened by the death of Bobby and Martin. We loved Hubert. But most of all we were encouraged by the shining example of Eugene McCarthy's courage to stand up for what was right without thought of personal gain.

Dear Mr. Keeler,

Thank you for your honesty and clairity in briefly describing Gene McCarthy. He was very unfairly miscast after 1968

You mentioned hearing him speak on occasion. Were you ever able to meet him personally? His country home in Woodville Va. featured the sign, "Lake Woebegone" at one of the larger ponds. I'm certain he listened to your show, but never did ask him for an opinion.

Best, Franklin LaCava AKA: f_lacava@hotmail.com

Keillor writes: ".... You can work hard all your life and in the end they will get you wrong. It's merciful that you get to die before you have to chance to read what they say."

Have you ever watched the movie The Ballad of Cabel Hogue?? At the end, Cabel says that the worst part about dying is that you never get to hear what they say about you afterward, and demands that the preacher begin his eulogy as he is dying. So, which one is right? It seems to me that you can't be spared the bad without giving up the good as well.