By Denise Ross

It’s not unreported news, but if I ever knew it, I’d forgotten that George McGovern dismissed the idea of asking Walter Cronkite to be his 1972 running mate, thinking the revered newsman wouldn’t risk his gravitas on a political campaign. Years later, Cronkite told him he would have accepted.

McGovern told the story on public radio’s Dakota Midday program today, saying that with Cronkite he believes he could have defeated Richard Nixon.

Listen here. (As of this posting the audio is not yet up. Given my experience, it goes up as a full hour-long chunk and isn’t divided into segments. The McGovern bit starts roughly about 40 minutes in.)

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