(Shirley Chisholm - just slightly ahead of her time)

When people run through lists of Presidential candidates, the ones who tried but didn't quite get there, the name Shirley Chisholm doesn't really ring any bells with people who weren't around for the '72 elections.

During a time of protest and great upheavals (the Womens Movement got it's big kick off in 1970 if you'll remember), the idea of a black woman running for President was probably a little bit much for mainstream America to deal with. It was, if anything an opportunity to kick a few doors down and to free up the dialogue and, even though I would like to think Shirley Chisholm was able to do that, the reality was it didn't, least not for a while.

But I suspect not a lot of people have heard Shirley Chisholm (she died in 2005 after leaving the political scene some years earlier) or had a chance to hear where she stood on issues. This clip comes from a PBS program called "Thirty Minutes" from April 28, 1972. The questions are pointed and Chisholm doesn't flinch.

Shirley Chisholm: “We double talk. You know, we don’t carry out what we really mean. And this is why I think the American people have come to distrust their politicians, have come to distrust their leaders. Because we say one thing and we do something completely different. We have to restructure our foreign policy in such a way that our dollars, our monies that we work very hard for in this country does not continue to perpetuate countries that suppress liberties of other people.”

She came around at a time when all things were possible, despite established machines to the contrary. Had she made it or at least got in a position to implement change, it's a tantalizing thought to consider what might have been.

Since we arrived at an anniversary; forty years since the infamous Watergate Break-In on June 17, 1972, I thought I would run this episode of ABC's Issues & Answers featuring RNC Chairman Sen. Robert Dole and DNC Chairman and Chairman of the McGovern-Shriver Campaign, Lawrence F. O'Brien.

In what started out as an assessment of where the Presidential Campaign of 1972 stood, quickly evaporated into a thirty-minute discussion on the Watergate Break-in and its implications for the Nixon campaign.

Dole was quick to dismiss the allegations, and eager to change the subject. O'Brien and the ABC News reporters weren't, and it turned into a lively exchange that Dole repeatedly attempted to deflect the seriousness of the charge by saying "oh, the Democrats are guilty too".

In hindsight, hearing this exchange, the intense amount of misinformation, smokescreen and outright prevarication is palpable. At the time it seemed like there was more to it, but the amount of denial, with hopes of keeping the lid on until at least the election, kept everything in a state of confusion some three months after the initial break-in.

And perhaps in 1972 it was realized the Press were a far more dangerous commodity than previously realized. The fallout from that no doubt has made mainstream media what it is today.

Here is that complete episode of ABC News Issues & Answers, first broadcast on September 24, 1972.

Five days after his assassination attempt, Presidential hopeful George Wallace was handed two pieces of news: The bad news was he had a 50/50 chance at permanent paralysis from the waist down. The good news was, he just got 26 more delegates as a result of the Maryland and Michigan Primaries.

Other news, was a report that two Soviet Sailors were killed in a U.S. bombing raid in Haiphong and word that Soviet Naval vessels were spotted in the South China Sea. No immediate threat, but a few raised eyebrows.

Back in the States - there was a report on the California Primary heating up and just around the corner.

And in France, a new disturbing trend was reported among Francophiles; the introduction of "Franglaise" into the vocabulary.

And that's how this day went, on May 17th in 1972 as reported on the NBC Nightly News.

As everyone is gearing up for Iowa Caucuses this year, I ran across this report from the 1972 Iowa Caucuses, the first one to be held in January and the one which has become the standard for electing a President for the last 40 years.

An interesting one then. It's changed a lot since. But then, so have politics in general. Had they known . . .

Here's a report via NBC News, originally broadcast on January 25, 1972 - when the original caucus was held on the 24th.

Horse races past.

Nothing like Crystal Ball gazing and knowing the outcome beforehand. That's what it sometimes feels like, listening to a lot of these interview programs of the past. We know better now, but we didn't know at the time. And maybe that was a good thing, particularly in 1972.

But in August of 1972, on the eve of the Republican Convention, Lawrence E. Spivak and Meet The Press did an interview with two Democrats, Senator Erneset Hollings (D-S.C.) and Representative Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill (D-Mass.) on the chances of a Democratic win in 1972. Interesting when you consider that less than two months earlier arrests were made in connection with a burglary at The Democratic National Committee offices and what that would eventually evolve into.

Of course, at the time who would know?

History in hindsight. Always interesting.