Everyone’s got to march to his own music.” And hours before declaring his candidacy he told advisers who were still begging him to change his mind, “I’ve got to try it, even if I fail. While driving to an event on Long Island with Sylvia Wright on March 15, he asked her if she thought he was crazy to run.

For the reality of recent events in Vietnam has been glossed over with illusions. I run because it is now unmistakably clear that we can change these disastrous, divisive policies only by changing the men who are now making them. I run for the presidency because I want the Democratic Party and the United States of America to stand for hope instead of despair, for reconciliation of men instead of the growing risk of world war. I run to seek new policies – policies to end the bloodshed in Vietnam and in our cities, policies to close the gaps that now exist between black and white, between rich and poor, between young and old, in this country and around the rest of the world. I run because I am convinced that this country is on a perilous course and because I have such strong feelings about what must be done, and I feel that I’m obliged to do all that I can.

I do not run for the presidency merely to oppose any man but to propose new policies. I am today announcing my candidacy for the presidency of the United States.

The Last Campaign by Thurston Clarke