Senator George McGovern passed today at the age of 90, and we shall miss his open-hearted, Midwestern way of thinking about social policy. From the WashPo’s obituary:

Sen. McGovern, a minister’s son, was raised in a South Dakota farm community during the Depression and was a decorated bomber pilot in World War II. Both experiences — seeing hobos begging for food at his family’s doorstep and witnessing emaciated child beggers in wartime Italy — molded his political career from the moment he was first elected to Congress in 1956.