The Third-Party Challenge.

In the battle for the presidency Humphrey and Nixon had to fend off the advances of George C. Wallace, a segregationist former governor of Alabama, who attracted voters from the conservative wings of both parties. Wallace, who had managed to get on the ballot in sixteen states before withdrawing from the presidential race in 1964, was on the ballot in all fifty states for the 1968 elections. Between May and September 1968 Wallace's approval ratings rose steadily from 9 to 21 percent. If these numbers continued to increase at the same pace, some pollsters suggested, Wallace would get nearly 30 percent of the vote on election day. This projection suggested that Wallace's campaign strategy was working. He knew he could not win, but he hoped that he could take seventeen southern and border states (north to Delaware and Missouri) for a total of 177 electoral votes. If he...