Nixon, Haldeman & Sanchez on Public Approval Ratings and Press Conferences

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Yeah.

I'm Mr. Haldeman for you now, sir.

Yeah, okay.

Just a second.

The Quakers are due.

As soon as we get Vietnam over with, they'll all be for us, too.

Yeah.

Basically, they're conservative, you know.

They're really basically conservative.

They're not, they're pacifists, but they're, you know, they're tough with money and all that sort of thing, you know.

That's what they're doing.

Let me ask you a couple things.

Did you have in this poll any questions where they rated the issues which they were most interested in?

No.

But we will in the other one.

Yeah.

uh i noted one thing uh in and at least depending you you have here revenue sharing reorganization didn't turn up any at all did it nope i don't think there was no way that yeah well environment did uh you know uh i don't know maybe maybe you listed that as something to ask them about as i understand yeah we gave them that the uh and we didn't ask them about revenue sharing uh we asked them to uh

rated on each of 13 issues.

That was not included in the list.

No, and I think the reason we took these was because we had some previous data on them, at least on some of them.

Could have been.

Yeah, we did.

Right, good.

No problem.

I'm just curious.

On the next one, we'll ask them.

I think it's important to know.

Now, we'll have a lot of that in this one that's coming in the end of the week.

What do you mean?

Like the domestic consult.

poll they taken a poll yeah see they've done one that that's uh well basically on issues so completely issue and uh i have a lot of detail on it it's one that the government's paying for you know i have a feeling that uh myself that they that they uh got the two big ones that we have uh you mentioned cancer and i agree it isn't much but it's better than the others but oh yeah as far as revenue sharing and environment are concerned i think they've got about as much i just don't think there's much to them

I just don't think the environmental thing except for a rather fanatical group sends a hell of a lot of people.

You know, I just don't think it does.

Right.

I think that's right.

And I think about every survey that we take shows that.

Because it's just for the reason that the average guy sitting in his place just doesn't have a hell of a lot to do with the environment, you know.

It's only certain people that do.

Let me ask you another thing.

Do you have a... Could you go back to the approval rating?

Do you have the regional breakdowns on that?

Yeah.

I'd like to hear that.

I'm just waiting for some materials in the press book right now.

Approval.

Overall, it's 48.

And what is it?

What's the negative?

And the negative is 36.

648.

In the east, it's 4046.

4046.

Disapproved.

In the Midwest, it's 5034.

In the south, it's 5428.

Jesus Christ.

Now there's a hell of a 5428.

Yep.

That's about what it ought to be nationally.

Very solid there.

And in the West?

West is 46, 39.

That's pretty good in the West, isn't it?

So a little weak in the West, strongest in the South.

Midwest a lot.

A little strong in the Midwest and weak in the East.

The East thing is a little hard to figure for me.

I don't know.

I can't quite figure it as different from the rest of the country so much, except for the

enormous impact of the sort of the liberal anti-war feeling here I mean I know but but you know what I mean that's it's all over the country it's even in the Midwest and the Midwest is very isolationist yeah but I think in the Midwest the sort of Spartan virtues appeal a little more don't you think that's it what do you what do you attribute it to because the east you know with New York and Pennsylvania we think we thought we were doing a little better well

no now you look at the of course the east is where there's been the big drop too as we were talking about before yeah it's down from 59 to 40.

59 to 40 in one year you remember an earlier poll you had a situation where there was an aberration in the far west you remember that was the march poll wasn't it remember they you had you went back to them and you found that they'd made a mistake

that was that last june poll it was yeah where the far west was 49. it ended up 49 actually was lower than that at first yeah it was down to 42 or three or something like that or something yeah and you had them go back and they reworked it right right because they had it weighted to the north the democrats okay uh i still have a feeling that one there's something wrong on that one

though, because of the fact that the East was so high that the East was 59 and the West was 49.

Yeah.

And the East has never been as high as the West in any other place.

It doesn't seem to make any sense, does it?

No, I don't see why it would be.

We'll take another another whack at it.

How many how many people were sampled in this case?

Fifteen hundred.

Well, that's there.

That's enough.

You know, they do it by personal interview, but it's 1,500.

That's what Gallup takes, doesn't he?

Yeah.

That's enough.

Yeah, it's what they all figure is about the right.

When is Gallup coming out?

I don't know that it is.

I don't even know that it is, and we won't know until... Well, it's not so far different from the other, whether his last one is 5038, wasn't it, or something like that?

Yeah.

The last one he published, my recollection is that.

Yeah, 40... Yeah, 5037.

Mm-hmm.

And this one is...

This is May 14th one.

And this one is, is tentative figure at least, or is it the final one now, 40, 49, what?

No, it's still tentative, but I, well...

Yeah.

That's what it is.

It's tentative.

What does he have as his negative, the same as ours, 36 or 38?

I think it's 36.

Right.

Okay.

That sheet here, but I don't have it.

Let me come back to one other point on the schedule.

It seemed to me that one thing that I wonder if you were able to analyze in this, and I guess maybe you can't, is what, if any effect, we've all felt press conferences are so damn important

they have uh i just wonder about that you can't that can't quite i suppose everything the press conference contributes to everything but there's nothing that specifically kind of brings that up does it no uh press conference is basically the image maker of them all isn't it more than well the speeches too but the press conferences and when you stop to think of you the magic number of people you have with one of these things the press conference and the conversations and the rest that's how they know the man

That's it.

That's where they form what opinions they develop.

Well, the real question, and that's what all this is related to, is whether we are following about the right line in the press conference.

Well, we can't change it that much.

I mean, there's much to do about it.

But, you know, when you're talking about strength, if you're talking about, you know, all that sort of stuff, that's where they get it, don't they, in the press conference?

Mm-hmm.

I made up a little, I'm going to, I'll give it to you Wednesday, but I made up a little memorandum with regard to things.

I think on this, one thing that naturally would follow from it would be to give to the cabinet people and the top staff people, in other words, the speaker team and even the top partisan types and from the House and Senate, just about three points to emphasize.

I mean, one, world leader, two, dignity, and three,

the whole business of doing what is right, bold and courageous and so forth.

Wouldn't you think so?

Yeah.

Those are points that really have to be made by other people.

And if you just get them down to that, rather than in terms, gee, this guy's cleaning up the environment and he's giving you revenue during and, you know, except basically for war, unemployment.

jobs and inflation.

I mean, inflation and crime.

None of the other issues really matter, Bob.

No, that's just really.

It's sure clear, but we've got a lot of ground to gain, certainly in the crime area.

In the crime area?

Crime and dope.

The crime and dope.

In the economy, you're either going to gain it or not on the facts.

What happens in the economy and what happens in the war will determine that.

Crime basically is an issue of rhetoric.

You always have crime.

You're always going to have a hell of a lot of it.

You're going to have a lot of dope.

But it's a question of whether or not they think you're out fighting the goddamn stuff, you know.

Now, in the war, we do the best we can, indicating we're fighting it.

And on the economy, we can.

But you can talk to your blue in the face, and they say, well, we still got it.

But for the average person, as far as crime is concerned, it doesn't, you know, it isn't affecting him, you know, except that he reads about it, hears about it, and maybe his kids are exposed to it.

I think this is a real chance for us, don't you?

Yep.

I mean, be the crime fighter.

Take Dewey, you know, when he made his great reputation.

Sure, the fighting DA.

He made it as a fighting DA.

I mean, he didn't end crime in New York City, but he put a couple of pirate people behind bars.

And he made a lot of fuss about it.

It was an enormously publicized thing.

That's, of course, the secret of Edgar Hoover.

Edgar Hoover is a tremendous publicist.

And in our case, we just mosey around, you know, and do the right thing and sign memoranda, and that's about all.

And as I say, Mitchell, with all of his class and everything, he doesn't get that across to folks, Bob.

I don't believe, I would say this, you would, across the country, they might know Martha, but they might not know who the hell he was right now, you know?

You get a lot of that.

It's a...

Because basically he hasn't been exposed.

He's not colorful and he's not dramatic about the stuff he does.

I would imagine that Connolly right now is better known than Mitchell.

Probably.

Well, I don't know.

Martha would make a lot of difference.

Well, she would help.

That's right.

Now, coming to your calendar, we were talking about what we might do.

You know, we were thinking about the possibility of that main junket on the 19th.

Yeah.

Now, did I understand that then we'd come back and do something on the 22nd?

Was that it?

Yeah.

Well, either that or we could do the AMA the next day.

23rd.

No, the 22nd.

The AMA has to be the 21st or the 22nd.

You do... Yeah, I'd rather do it the 22nd if we do the damn thing.

You could do...

Now then, do the Rochester thing on Friday the 18th, if we can move Senegal, Senghor.

Or you can meet him in the morning and still move him.

You can goddamn near cancel him.

You know what I mean?

Move him to the morning.

He is in the morning.

As a matter of fact, we could do the Rochester background of the afternoon of the 18th and then go on to Maine that evening.

Yeah.

That might be an idea.

Yeah.

Rochester out of the way then go to Maine spend Saturday and Sunday and then Maine then do Portsmouth Monday Monday and then come back here come back here and then go up then just shoot up to the AMA on Tuesday right right now what I was wondering about was whether we ought not really to try to put a press conference in on the 24th my view is you see you won't have one this month otherwise

Well, yeah, I had one tentatively on the 23rd, but you wouldn't have time for it.

No.

That'd be too much of a workout.

What about doing one in California?

Well... At the end of the month.

Or, yeah, do it the 24th.

The only problem with that is the hovdee, Darren.

I don't see it.

To me, you're just as well off without that anyway.

I think we could let that one go.

I think we could really let that one go, yeah.

Well, that's kind of hold on the hubby dinner then.

Will you do that?

Figuring we might do that on the 24th because you got the 28th trip coming up, see?

Yeah.

And I think you might as well...

The trip, would you have announced the trip by then?

Oh, hell yes.

You'd have to announce it by then.

We can announce this one a little bit more ahead of time?

Not a hell of a lot.

Maybe...

almost like to announce it.

Well, about then, about the 23rd or so, but we don't, we can't give too much.

We just don't want to have the build up in the Congress.

I wouldn't want to announce more than a day before the press conference.

But the press conference would be then.

Because if you announce the trip before the press conference, then you're going to spend all your time in the press conference talking about the trip probably.

If we could wait, maybe it'd be better to do the press conference.

And then announce it, huh?

And then announce it the next day.

Well, I suppose another thing you could do would be to do the damn doctors on the 21st.

Well, that'd be the other thing.

You could do Portsmouth and then the doctors on the way down.

That thing is not a good story for the public.

Not worth a damn.

It's a good story for the doctors.

Yeah.

Because Portsmouth isn't a good story for the public either.

We really aren't doing it for stories, are we?

No, that's right.

They're both local.

Dropping in.

They're both for their own purposes.

So there's something to get them over with.

Portsmouth is a better story than the doctors.

I'd a hell of a lot rather see people cheering around in Portsmouth than doctors.

Then you can move the press conference to the 23rd.

Is that your point?

Mm-hmm.

Well.

then going out to Indiana on the 24th that night.

Well, the Indiana isn't the reason we're doing it.

I'm just thinking of, I mean, as far as the announcement is concerned, you see, we ought to get the press conferences in a routine to be useful.

Don't you think so?

Yep.

To a degree we can.

I can't think of any other event unless we have a conversation sometime along.

But we don't want to have that yet.

I'm not quite ready for that.

But it went on the 24th.

I'd rather not.

I tell you, I'd a little rather have it announced.

It's hard for me to have a press conference and then have it announced the next day.

So I think it's really better to have it announced.

Well, maybe just as well to have it announced so that I can put it in context.

Have it announced, you can put it in context.

I can say that I'm going, yes, and the purpose of this is to discuss our further program of withdrawal and replacement.

And until we've had our meeting, I'll have nothing more to say on it.

Yeah, we'll have an announcement at that time.

It's a way to put the trip in context and to turn off any other discussion of Vietnam stuff.

Yeah.

I think the 24th, Bob, makes a better date, don't you think, and then not do Indiana?

God damn it, I don't think that hubby dinner is.

I don't think it's going to get you a hell of a lot of halfway promise to do it, really.

I sort of told him I'd do it.

You just say that the trip has come up and then I've got to go.

But the 24th, as a matter of fact, if you wanted, you could then put the press conference on the 25th, couldn't you?

Yeah.

On Friday.

Yeah, right.

And have the announcement on the 24th.

And then what, go to California on Saturday, huh?

Oh, hell, I'd go out to the press conference.

That night?

Sure.

Get you there late?

Well, maybe not.

Well, it doesn't get to you very late, you know.

You go at 9.30, you get there at 11.30.

California time.

Yeah.

Well, the 24th is probably the best date, isn't it?

I think it is.

Well, hold it, will you, and let the other one go.

Because the more I think of it, I think that the press conferences are probably our best device.

The conversation thing, I...

guess we're not really we really don't want one right now do we like I'm not sure I don't know I'm just not sure it's the that's another thing we could do rather than a press conference we could have a conversation that might not be bad the difficulty with having it with Cronkite it was a beat all beyond virtually all on

Vietnam, you know, he's so obsessed with the damn subject.

Yeah, and it seems to me maybe it'd be better to do that after the, after the two visit and all that stuff.

We've got a little more positive.

Got some more things pretty kind of wrapped up.

That might be a good one to do.

Maybe do it in July or something.

You don't get as big an audience for that anyway.

And that's right.

But it's still a big audience.

And you might as well do it then.

I think the press conference makes a little sense there, Bob, doesn't it?

Mm-hmm.

Also one, two.

Yeah, well, that's where we had figured it.

What are we working on?

Let's just try to bang it in the 24th.

Give me a day afterwards.

Yeah.

Okay, then I think I would not, then I would spread the doctor thing to the 22nd, don't you?

Don't you think?

Yeah.

Try to do two in a row.

Okay.

All right, fine, Bob.

Thank you.

Okay.

Nixon, Haldeman & Sanchez on Public Approval Ratings and Press Conferences

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on May 31, 1971

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