Nixon phone call with Colson on Economic Policy and Public Opinion Polling

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Hello.

Good morning, Mr. President.

Well, you bumped any stuff this morning?

Well, got a few things going.

Jack Javits gave us a great hand yesterday.

Saw that.

I talked to him yesterday morning, and he didn't expect him to make quite such a splash with it.

Well, it's nice that he got a play.

Well, it'll help us.

One of the meeting people meet tomorrow morning?

Tomorrow morning, yes, sir.

And they will have Fitzsimmons in the meeting, and I've talked to Fitz.

They've just got to come with us now.

I mean, if we

get any kind of a reason, well, we'll take our poll result, whatever it is.

I mean, if it's kind of a positive thing.

We told Bob a moment ago, I think these special programs jobbed us on that.

They took interviews and said 100% people, working people, were against it.

Well, you know, goddamn well, it's not true.

Yeah, I saw those, and I have Al Snyder here calling the networks today.

There were two separate interviews.

It's a

And then there was one last Thursday.

Actually, there have been three network interviews where they interviewed workers, and every one of them was negative, and yet you look at all the polls, including the Harris Poll published this morning, and you see that... Did the Harris Poll publish this morning?

Yes, sir.

Good play in the Post.

And I understand it's on the wires.

Which one was it?

This is the one that...

Let me look here.

This is the one that says that public opinion well over a month after you announced your dramatic new economic program indicates the initial positive reaction of the people who have held up remarkably well.

Good.

That's the one.

I know that.

It's positive, and they rewrote the lead to make it even more positive, to say that... Good.

I don't have it in front of me.

I'll get a copy of it.

But the network question, you're absolutely right.

Just the job, huh?

Well, I'm sure it is, because 70% of the workers favor this, and if you go around and interview people, you're going to find some.

Well, of course you are, naturally.

Is there any way you can get at him?

We're going after him this morning and tell him we want to see that Daniel Shore is still kicking us.

What about... Well, Shore turned around.

Last night on TV, he came on last evening, and he made a hell of a mess for us out of quoting Schultz improperly.

Schultz talked to him.

Oh, I wouldn't have talked to him about that.

Well, to his credit, what he did, Mr. President, was to call every one of the labor leaders involved and tell them that he had misquoted Schultz and then came on television last night at 11.15.

Midnight, yeah.

Well, that's the first CBS program they had and said that he had misquoted Schultz and

that Labour now showed signs of going along with this.

Actually, they've had a hell of a lot of pressure this weekend, and this Harris poll this morning, which is headlined in the Post, Phase 2 Controls Suit Public, President Nixon's Phase 2 Assurance is Just What the Public Wants, that plus...

It really wasn't that, but that's all right.

Well, he rewrote it to get it, to make it timely, and...

Very clever.

Yeah, it's a very good lead.

Bob tells me that the Efron book got put down by the Post.

That's to be expected.

Well, as I said, there's nothing more important than to get that damn thing around.

I just think it's going to stir up a few people.

CBS has just done a major mailing with Salant's analysis of the book.

which I read this week.

I read CBS's analysis this weekend, and they come back and run actual transcripts of what they said and then put their comments side by side.

And they've sent this all over the country.

Now, of course, what they do, typical of goddamn New York reaction, what they do is build up the book when they do that, because people want to read about it then.

But what are we doing?

Let's do a little mailing ourselves.

We have all that underway, haven't we?

Yes, sir, and I think we're going to have her testify this week.

We've been pushing to get it before then.

I consider this, Chuck, the highest priority.

Oh, I do also.

To make it a bestseller.

Sure, that's another thing.

We're finding out what stores contribute to that rating, and then some friends may want to buy some of those.

Oh, I think she can do us a world of good.

Of course, we've got her in business for the next year, and I think we'll...

Well, incidentally, I noticed one thing in reading a new summary up, apparently quite a bit of play on Muskie.

When does that poll on him come out next week?

Two weeks.

The week after next.

Yeah.

But...

I noticed that they were trying to, obviously, I think they're trying to pump him up a little.

They said he got the biggest reception at the Liberal Party thing.

Did you get a report on that?

I saw that.

I just saw it.

I just read it.

I didn't get a firsthand report, but... And that...

The press was mixed on that, actually.

He did better than the others, apparently.

Well, right now, I don't mind them puffing him up a little bit, because he's going to be...

The Liberal Party, basically, as you know, is the Jewish party.

Oh, sure.

It's a total Jewish vote.

Maybe they like his position on Israel.

Well, on the other hand, I read some analyses this week

And I think in yesterday's New York Times that the Jews were now holding back, trying to pressure the other Democrats to take stands like Jackson's, rather.

Jackson, oh yeah, he's that guy.

But they were holding the money back, and I know that to be the case.

I know that he's not getting... Well, I really think, Chuck, that Harris thing in Muskie is going to be a hell of a bombshell, don't you think?

Oh, it's going to blow him right out of the water, because the only thing he's had going for him is the polls.

When you stop and think, Mr. President, he...

Yeah, where he was.

Sure.

He doesn't have anything except that he looks good in the polls.

He looks electable.

Every one of these people that say something nice about him that go on his team say, well, he's electable.

That's the big thing.

And to show in a poll that he isn't is going to have a very damaging effect.

Also, I think one thing is the Harris poll next week showing you at 51 where you haven't been in Harris since May of 1970.

That's almost 16, 17 months.

Yeah.

is going to tell us something.

The straws in the wind are all there, Mr. President.

The Becker poll in Connecticut showed that you've gone up 10 points to 65% approval, which they're polling in the past.

You know, through the 70 campaign, I dealt with Becker.

Yeah, I know.

His polls were very good.

And, Jesus, that's just... And we took Connecticut, too.

Well, anyway, keep going on that thing, and...

I keep the heat on those labor guys.

We've got a lot of pressure on them, Mr. President.

There'll be more statements today.

Hugh Scott's going to put one out.

Good.

Mansfield helped us.

Good.

I know you.

Humphrey this morning on the Today Show.

I couldn't believe it.

He said, I think labor should go along with the president.

I think the president's...

well that shows you mansfield and uh humphrey and mills all have their their clever politicians i think they took the line that the public wants and i think muskie and criticizing the economic thing went the wrong way exactly and we uh i've got some stuff in scott's statement today which answers muskie and if he that's right i've also got dole uh putting a statement out today so between the

We'll knock Muskie down, but it's very significant to me that Mansfield and Humphrey did this because they are reading the public science.

And they put their finger up to the wind and can tell which way it's going.

We're also interested in getting a rash of editorials criticizing Kennedy's crawling statement.

I've seen now eight or nine individual ones, including one in the Boston Herald, that just absolutely eviscerates him.

God, it's a devastating editorial.

I think he will keep that, that one will keep building also.

There's a lot of, I think, a lot of political mileage in that one.

Okay.

Well, we'll be out soon.

Thank you.

Nixon phone call with Colson on Economic Policy and Public Opinion Polling

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on October 11, 1971

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