Conversation 194-014

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Anyway.

But what's your view about that?

I'm just thinking we have to use.

Maybe it's just too large.

Too large.

No, it may not be.

So to have that, have Bill on the end.

They can't bitch about it at a conference televised.

Well, I'll miss

What you do then is you make a... You set up a thing where you let them do a televised press conference that they don't televise.

And I don't think that's a good idea.

Well, I know, I know.

But first you've got to realize that you're going to televise the conference.

Then you have to announce it.

And then you've got 300 representatives.

Okay, let me just stop.

Yeah.

Hello?

Stein, please.

Herb, I wondered if you would pass one thing to Burns before he gets to Argentina.

He raised the point about Argentine beef coming in, and I said, sure, that's great.

I mean, explore about that, because we are in Ireland and so forth.

The fact of the matter is that

Then Bud says the reason it doesn't come in is because it has a mouth disease.

Well, of course, I'm inclined to think there's a lot of phoniness in that.

The British take it.

They don't comprehend everybody eats Argentine beef except us.

But that apparently is a very, very tough issue over there.

So what I'd like, I just want to be sure that Burns, when he goes down there, is aware of the problem and doesn't tell the Argentine government, look, we're going to start taking your beef.

and then all the hell breaks loose here.

So if you would do a little check with Butts, and then you just cable Arthur at some place, or talk to him on the phone and pass the word.

Would you do that, please?

Good.

Okay.

Thank you.

You see, if you would televise press conferences, if you're going to televise a press conference, you've got to announce it and go with 300 reporters.

Right?

Yep.

Now, the point that I'm making is are we making a mistake not to have television cameras present when I don't tell them I was in Congress?

Having in mind the fact that you're going to get a little bit more, you're going to get my voice on radio.

You see what I mean?

We get the voice on radio.

I think we ought to try one and see.

If we want her to do one, we don't have to decide that we're going to do them forever.

We've said we're doing different things.

We might try one.

Yeah.

You know, and see what happens with one of them.

You've got a problem if you do it over the EOB, which is that you've got to give them time.

ahead of time to set up, which will then run in a lot more pressure.

You almost have to go out and do it in the pressure, in the molecular pressure, which isn't bad.

I don't know, I've done it in the pressure before.

It looks, we get a good picture out of the pressure above you.

And it's an action shot.

I think the pressure is what I prefer.

I just walk up.

I'm comfortable for that, but that doesn't make a difference.

I'm no more uncomfortable in the Oval Office than I've been.

But today, the right way to do it, the problem is, of course, you can't tolerate it.

Now, the problem is, if it hadn't been announced, then you would have had 5,000 people there, and it would have totally lost its character.

The question is, you're going to have a hundred press men around, and asking me questions rather than mine, and lying around and suppressing the poor damn people.

Now, what is your view?

Maybe we are too, we go overboard.

In fact, the television's got to be there every goddamn time you open your mouth.

Maybe sometimes it's got to sort of, in some way, sit back and not, you know, Helen Thomas is there, so EPI will get a hell of a good story, because it wasn't.

The wires have got great stories.

What you'll get is a, have you seen it?

Just, I've got a report on the wire, on the pool report, which is great stuff.

And they've got still pictures.

And the opportunity now, the networks, and they can do it very easily.

They can do some great stuff with still pictures.

And that's what they should do.

The question we'll see now, what do they do?

Those are wire photos, so they have access, their networks have access to them.

They can use the stills.

They can, by, you know, making a little effort observing the day so they have plenty of time to do it, they can do a lot of work with the stills and make a hell of a good story out of it.

And I don't know whether they will or not.

They got great human interest in the whole, you know, the people crying.

The Little Black Girl was just a spectacular story.

Walking around holding my gun.

Wouldn't tell anybody else her name.

She told you her name, she wouldn't tell anybody else.

And then your line about she wanted something to hold on to, like everybody else there.

Sometimes, you know, that kind of story, the triple effect can be even greater than blurting it out on television.

I think, I'm inclined to think, I agree with McCrory a certain amount, but I'm inclined to think there are ways

Sometimes a very small story, what appears to be a small story, it has an effect of talking about it and so forth being long, long remembered.

We may tend sometimes to just be knowing that we do the television thing and insisting that the camera's there every time I move.

If you're comfortable with that, it's a good chance for me to have any personal contact with people with more than three or four reporters

No way.

If you have even 15, it's too many.

And if you have television there, it ruins it.

I mean, it's really terrible.

It's really terrible.

The one way around it, take our own crew, I don't know, get my way more than that.

No.

It's to have one cool, real camera without lights, and they can shoot you without lights.

Yeah.

Let's go.

Two stills have one reel and one still.

Have the wire service reel.

That's just one small thing which I should do it now because I would .

I am doing anything for television.

There's nothing to do with these anymore.

I have to still camera them.

Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick

You know what I mean?

They get the line of vision.

I mean, even though it could be my dearest friend, when I'm on the television, you know, when they're looking at me, I've got to do it alone.

And I always got enough pictures to be bothered.

Good God Almighty didn't have a picture of me sitting there.

I really argue with you.

No, I do agree.

They're obsessed with this idea that they've got to be... Well, he's good.

I can't really discourage him.

Don't discourage him.

Sure, sure.

I just say that my television...

claim on the television people.

Probably don't find anybody in the room when they're doing that.

Oh, they shouldn't have anybody.

Why don't you agree they shouldn't?

It does sort of...

It's hard enough with the television camera there to try and...

It really is natural.

Well, to be natural, but then when you've got the goddamn still camera in there, even a friend.

Well, you know what it is, you sort of work around it.

Mm-hmm.

They're starting again on Monday for this thing on meat prices.

They're doing a 92nd.

I know.

Think for it.

They all, they at least think of 90 seconds as sort of three minutes.

It used to always be a three-minute spot.

There ain't going to be any.

Now they're saying 90 seconds, and I said, no, it's got to be 100 words.

100 words.

Oh, we can't say it in 100 words, and that is bullshit.

All right.

Don't say it.

You don't have the option of whether you can say it.

They're only going to carry 100 words.

That's right.

100 words are going to be carried, so let's pick them.

So let's us decide which 100 rather than that.

I know.

I figured that was what would happen.

Plus, it simply isn't true that he can't say it.

You can say anything.

Yeah, I'm going to say it.

I'm going to take words.

You say because of my concern over the fact that because of the shortage of meat in this country and the prices, therefore, are going up, it's necessary to do something about it, and therefore I ordered a temporary suspension of all orders being imported meat from abroad.

Thank you very much.

I'll have an immediate effect.

We'll have an effective one.

We've got to get the supply up.

We've got to get the price of meat down.

Now, that's less than how it works right now.

And that's what needs to be said.

They put it out in the statement.

It's the very problem we've had of the preparation of the news conference, which I don't know.

I mean, we have fought and fought and fought until we finally get a demonstration first on a smaller number of questions and also shorter answers.

It, of course, depends.

If you can't, it's just a terrific job on that.

I don't know what exactly he gets into, one of his own pet subjects like us and the rest of them, he'll come for it.

But the major problem we have on that, of course, is Henry Shock.

every step that always has got to have a total dissertation so that i have to and that is a monumental amount of work for me for boiling down and so forth now i'll do it but if in preparing for this thing next time 27 minutes you've got to figure that at least seven minutes will be taken by the questioners

Well, let's figure seven.

All right.

That leaves you 20 points.

I've got to do 15 questions.

If you don't like 15, you know, it drags.

You know what I mean.

And I've always done between 15 and 25.

That's been my pattern.

All right.

So 15 points.

All right.

That means I've got...

a minute a question.

One minute.

That means 125 words.

Every answer's got to be 125 words.

Go to 200 words.

I'd say that maybe one that I want to go to 200 words, but I'd say preferably if you appeal them, the answer should be 100 words.

And if necessary, only if necessary, 200 words.

The area where Sapphire is somewhat of an advantage over

You can.

He does.

He really recognizes you.

He's got a real touch.

I really want to do this thing next week.

Is it your opinion that we should do an East Road Spectacular?

Very strongly.

Because I haven't done one before, so when they ask me why I haven't done an East Road Prestige this year, I tell them it's a great deal of money.

We don't have to be a bit defensive with the press.

That's my point.

Somebody might ask it, but if they do, that's...

I suppose they do.

Is it going to hurt you?

No, and nobody's going to care.

The reason I would argue strongly for doing it is a counter-argument.

If you don't do it, then you've wiped out, in my view, the possibility of ever doing it.

through the rest of this term for the election.

I don't want to wipe out that option.

It may be that you won't ever want to do another one.

But this is really the last chance.

If you don't do one before the Democratic Convention, there's no way you can come back afterwards, I don't think, and start doing another one.

Well, as you have well said, we have an enormously potent option of the Oval Office

which we can always, always be on there and right through the election.

I can have an Oval Office come without ever getting into any election stuff.

Do those twice a week if you want to do.

We'll be coming on any time you want.

What I meant is you don't have the embarrassment before a huge argument, you have the embarrassment of saying, well, I won't answer any political questions after the election.

That would be hard, right?

I'm not sure that I...

There's a...

If it does turn out to be hard.

But there's no problem at all in the Oval Office.

I'm in the Oval Office, so I won't answer your questions early.

I'm not going to take on my opponent for answering partisan questions.

In here.

Your view, or one other thing on the schedule, is that we will allow the tree on one view.

I think that's going to be a total chance for the opposition to get equal time.

It won't be as equal, we know, but I think... Well, it might be.

The three-on-one could be as equal.

Because they could decide to do a three-on-one with the amount.

And they play it as a debate.

You don't have that much that you want to get into that kind of detail on anyway.

Well, the only...

I guess it's the detail I'm talking about.

It's the image, the picture, I know.

People like Helen and others, I think that's by far the better format of the field.

But then you get a pretty strong division there between churches, whether that is or the other, the Eastern.

Thanks.

Thank you.

there is i think there's a great deal you've done it several of these ones to be said for a very

wide range of pace where you go for maybe a three or four minute answer to one question.

And also knock off a few with one word answers or one sentence answers.

Questions are asked don't deserve more than a one word or one sentence answer.

You can answer just by saying no or yes.

Or you just remember.

Gave all short answers.

Gave a very fast-paced one.

That's good.

And then you can eat the interspersed answer on a thoughtful kind of question.

I don't know how I was going to say it.

I just decided to press on something.

I mean, it was an unexpected deal.

It can only be done if you can't pay them.

In California, Rob, well, you know, he's virtually resistant, but we do it from here, too.

But in California, he'd have to go over to the service center and inform 40 or 50 press guys over there, and the president's going to go out to the supermarket and give them the price of the eggs, and they don't know what happened.

So after you've gone, but he feels he has to, once you're there, he has to, but you can time those, and Rob will play that game.

Well, how do you do it with a pool?

I don't know, but how do you do it with a pool?

That's the problem.

How do you get a pool?

How do you get a pool there?

If you get a pool there, the best way to cover me, basically, is when I...

If I'm going to do anything that's person-to-person, more about where people really act like themselves, it's got to be with a pool.

See?

The argument I have with Ron is the size of the pool.

He's more than happy to get a pool, but he pushes for too big a pool.

And I think you're right.

I think you've got to go...

I'd go with the two wire riders, one wire still photographer, and one real photographer, and that's at four people.

Sure.

The wire rider's proper copy.

I wouldn't go for sound.

Don't let them take the sound camera.

No sound.

Because that can work against you.

Sure.

You never know.

You never know when someone's going to shout something.

Or start to get you in an argument.

Yeah.

You've got that in any of these.

I mean, this one came off perfectly, but you can run a risk on these.

Oh, I'm sure you could.

I'd rather it be someone down there who says, get out of here and go into war.

The only way I would do it is to take our own son to war.

And if we...

You know what I mean?

Give the sound out to them.

You could do that for the future.

Although I suppose the wire service person would want to have the sound, well, just to give it out.

So you're taking the sound along for the archives, you know, and you don't want to give it out, well, it's just a recording.

You can follow up with this kind of thing.

Well, the coverage of this thing will be interesting.

example we'll see whether to see what we get and you know damn well you'll get good newspaper coverage you'll be good still picture coverage because the flood will be a big magazine story not so many deaths the deaths are not the problem but they're just white drug people out

The worst, apparently, was in Richmond.

There's been some riddle trouble.

It's depressing now.

A very interesting comment.

I'm sure Julie backed it up over in the southern area, then the Seahawks and the Colossians.

They don't mention the time they came down there.

Do you remember that bird?

Sure.

At the airport, when they surged in there.

Well, they sure did.

I saw the flooded area on the way up.

I needed to fly it over now.

But I mean, it was well-intentioned, but it just wasn't a good idea.

That's why I said, fine, I'll come back.

I'll try tomorrow, but we'll stop next month.

Are you clear with that?

Yeah.

They were trying to fly over a flooded area, bruising it.

No, they were, the only point, yesterday we were trying to work out a stop there.

Where you could have stopped yesterday didn't work out.

The people moved out of the one area that looked pretty good.

So they were going for just a thing.

flyovers, they get a picture that go with the disaster declaration, but this was much better.

Ehrlichman was working on trying to put a suggestion for today together anyway, which we would have come in with a plan for today even if you had done the thing yesterday.

Oh yeah, completely.

That was the ideal way to do it.

Now on the convention, I've talked about

They insist that they want to stay in a hotel, and the reason, candidly, they insist that, despite the celebrity body going into it, Matt wants to do every damn delegation.

Now, I've got to tell you, it's her way.

Dre doesn't like to speak.

She does love to shake hands and sign autographs.

And my view is, she should do the big delegations and have the others get together and let her go in.

you know, and I got in a little cheer and raised hell.

It was great.

And shake all their hands.

That's how I told her.

She said, now we all three should go together.

And I said, no, I'm going to do that girl over.

And I said, no, no, no.

I told her a little story about how she would live.

I'm sure it is.

It's different from before the election, Bob.

It's different.

Oh, why?

Right?

Absolutely.

Even then, they told all of themselves.

But now,

Each of them, there is a sense of royalty in this country.

Each of them is a little princess.

So they go out, they go out and they do things.

I think it's a, I have trouble being impulsive.

The girls are much better without her, because she sort of irritates them a little.

And it's like anything else, you shouldn't double the star or anything.

But a star, I also tell her with regard, she has to remember the campaign.

I said, well, you're nice.

We will.

I said, we go to the after show.

It's just a waste.

I said, we've got hundreds of terrific competitions.

I think she has done, which I think is all right.

She has accepted.

She's had a number of events.

I just don't think she's got that.

For a sort of non-political type of event, she said.

But as far as I remember, I've said time and again, we've gotten together to control her schedule to be sure that she isn't there when Hayden is there or the rest.

Is Connie the one that charged you with this?

Well, she has been, but Ms. McCoy has talked to her.

And of course, he talked to Pat or Connie.

He talked to Pat.

And Pat said, and he was very encouraged by this, Pat said, now Bill, you and I have got to work this out.

We've got a problem with Connie.

And we've got various, various problems.

Because somebody quarreled something or other.

And she didn't want to hurt her feelings.

Well, I don't hurt her feelings either.

But I said, no woman in this program can be an advantage.

I said, a woman can't go in and talk to the chief.

A woman can't go and talk to the fire department, sir.

A woman can't go.

It's got to be a man.

You see, that's the problem.

I think we'll help a lot.

Parker, working with them on the schedule.

Connie has been cooperating.

I'll find out if she's sent some stuff by us.

I'm amazed she's accepted anything, because she shouldn't have any schedule locked at this point.

No schedule for Pat.

Julie.

without at least running it by the central, you know, course, the central schedule of service.

Because of the WCAP problem, the train, could we get a horrible mess that way?

I'd rather it's that serious, but she said that, well, the other part that she was making was that she thinks that she would prefer to do simple non-toilet-free medicine.

I appreciate that.

I think in Trish's case, though, it's really a question of what kind of non-political men.

If you go to an art group, you know, with garments or outfits or whatever, you're bound around a bunch of communist, left-winger types of kind of people, you know, that are around those things.

Good people, too.

But, you know, they're a bunch of assholes, most of them.

They really are.

You're going to run into the long haired types of people.

But Jesus Christ, you can do things like pray at the cross, Salvation Army, the cancer drive, and so forth with no problem.

Would you agree?

Sure.

That's right.

I think she can do this real good.

But there'll be some political things where she can really help where she has to do it.

Statewide,

you know, kickoff thing or something like that, where they're, I mean, a bunch of celebrities and all that sort of stuff, and they insist on the president of the pack to go do those, or Julie, or Christian, you know, or ritual things, stuff like the pollen contest and things like that, without any...

Yes, sir.

They're told that we have to do tonight.

I'm not going to do it.

Or Connelly.

He said Connelly was about to contest.

Connelly could go.

Or Eggman could go.

But I remember they ever raised this money in the National Assembly.

I always did those things.

The car-husting and the plowing things.

And the turkey trucks.

They have to be done.

Maybe those aren't the right examples, but the things of that kind, the family can do damn effectively.

Set them up both at the beach, so we can, they can always move over to Key's game.

One point that Dwight raised on that.

They want to be, incidentally, in the hotel where the most action is, so that if the beds are in that hotel, the less they have to move, the better.

That's our whole point.

Headquarters hotels are fun, but maybe the thing to do is put them there instead of in the Nixon Hotel.

Oh, Christ, I wouldn't put them in the Nixon Hotel.

Well, see, all the cabinet and Mitchell and all your people should be in the Nixon Hotel.

We'll put them there.

They're interesting in our own people.

That's the Doral.

Why?

That would be the normal place.

Well, that's a good idea.

The London Group.

I put it there.

Yeah, and that's where the big press room and the fashion shows and the big... Of course, if they're doing delegations, they'll have to go to the delegation and tell us to move around.

We'll have a lot of action.

The place in the Doral, they don't need to stay there.

The point Dwight raised, which is a valid one, is to remember the Democratic Convention and remember that it can happen here.

That you're likely to have large crowds of demonstrators, 24 hours a day, standing in the streets.

And you just may not want to sit in a hotel and listen to that until we'll watch.

But the beauty of that is we'll have a sweep.

So it's hard.

If that happens, all we need to do is give them a car to drive to keep this game going.

Have a sweep available.

Just have a sweep.

They should have one anyway.

They get over there to go back.

That's the other point I made.

That's right.

Even if they don't stay in Miami Beach, they've got to have facilities in Miami Beach so that they can between the house there.

Would they like separate suites or should we get one big three-bedroom suite?

They want the big living room.

There ought to be two living rooms, actually.

Two suites.

We've got a two-bedroom suite and a one-bedroom suite.

so that they can, that's right, or a royal suite.

We'll figure it out.

You can see why they need two, sure, and they have to have different events going up, and maybe have to have interviews.

I think she's right on celebrity value.

I think it's better for them to do more rather than try to be new guys.

Especially, you've got to, I've got to kill them, and it's

With you doing that, there's some real merit to there.

Let me say it that way.

I don't think you're a celebrity.

I'm just going to be yours for that one.

I don't think it is, Bob.

It's a view.

No, it's going to be good for them.

They'll get an enormous acclaim.

People will, you know, just really, it'll be a big thing at the convention to see Pat next to her.

Sure, sure.

Well, every place they go, they're just swarmed over and signed on the grounds.

That's right.

Also, there's another way.

Get the family from the center.

Keep exit in front of him all the time.

And build up the family image.

That's right.

Chris, do you hear what we've convinced her of the campaign of the cadet?

She's wrong.

Probably.

She should not believe you.

Well, I think it's a convention.

It totally wastes her.

It's just a tragedy to have her.

It's flooding along by.

We know, you know, because every time you come to get us, it's a hell of a problem for me.

How the hell do I get her up, and how is she introduced?

Now, half those assholes don't know how to introduce.

On certain events, she ought to talk to you.

She should be with you.

Yeah.

Very major things.

Yeah.

You know, there's a...

Some square garden thing, or master dome, or motorcade through the loop, or something like that.

There's certain things like that, so you ought to be there.

One thing you can do when you won't is you're not a motorcade producer.

I don't think I should motorcade Bob with any other candidate.

That's the fact.

And he made your motorcade.

I always thought he would do it.

You see what I mean?

Absolutely.

But because me motorcading with the governor ain't no good.

I suppose the one exception we've got is Rockefeller.

He may end up doing it in New York if you have to motorcade.

They may want to do the big motorcade in New York.

I don't consider even doing that one like we did in 56, or 60, I think, with you and Agnew and Rockefeller all together.

I don't think Agnew and I should ever be together in order to...

I just think it's bad.

And then I think it's that they should be put on security.

Oh, that's right.

You've got to help them.

Yeah.

You've got to not do that.

You've got a security problem.

And they said, so the east is not something you can talk about.

You said you've got a security problem.

It's just not ever being the same way.

It's not going to be the same way it came.

Whatever possible, you shouldn't even be in the same hall.

So you get your two stars, you ought to be an opposite end to the normal thing.

On motorcading, I find that it's never good to do it with another star.

So it's a little different.

That's another thing.

You've got to really ride harder in Secret Service.

And the press bus, you know, by the time, if you put the press bus, you know, or the pool press car in the Secret Service, all of the train names in Rockport are crazy.

Then you just go right up the top of the envelope.

Right.

I'm sure we'll do something.

We want to do what we do.

You're really right.

Investigation.

Morning.

The floor is recorded.

The message delivered and properly received and no problem with the director.

It's been out since 9 o'clock.

Guilty.

I would hope so, because I know there's some people who are trying.

I've heard questions.

Simple grand jury indictment on the clear-cut accounts.

Pretty good shape on the civil suit, which was the most worrisome thing of all.

How was that?

Because we have the right judge.

What would she do?

The Democrats are...

The big pitch was to move fast on depositions.

They missed that, and that kind of takes the seat on them.

That was the fun for them, and that was going to be to slap a subpoena on a bunch of children.

You know, hurt folks.

Idiots, idiots in the world.

Nobody believes the truth.

I don't take this way.

They don't.

I don't think anybody, you know, even our own people don't think that people think it's the Cubans.

You know, the press and the Democrats are trying to push it on us.

You know what I'm saying?

I don't believe it.

We're just still going to go keep it to the Cubans.

We're just going to keep it to the Cubans.

Fortunately, McGovern played right into our hands yesterday, telling us that he didn't possibly do that.

How was that?

He said that if he were elected president, he'd make sure that the U.S. maintained very good, solid relations with Cuba and Chile.

So, did anybody take him on?

No, I don't know where it came out.

It's just a little fox.

I'm going to go find out what...

That's what the occasion was, but I'm sure that's pumped down to Miami.

He is basically a believing leftist.

He is.

Perfectly into our hands, and that's why the Cubans were scared.

They knew that this was McGovern's view.

Now McGovern's confirmed that it is.

The American Marxist, American continent Marxist,

Yes, that does it.

He made his flat heel and whatever it was.

And that figured it out.

I figured it out by the name.

15 years old.

I don't know.

He's on the Today Show.

He said, McGovern's welfare plan just won't work.

He said, I won't have any part of it.

It's fiscally irresponsible, and it will spell our doom as a party.

In defense, McGovern's cuts are in the extreme and border on being dangerous.

He hopes the platform riders will come up with something extremely less than that.

In politics, he said he supports the California suit by his backers.

He says he doubts Wallace will run on a third-party ticket and says Wallace might back Nixon if McGovern is nominated.

Further, he said Nixon will become very pro-labor if he feels he can take labor from the Democrats.

He said the gathering of black newspaper publishers and the newspapermen have distorted his position on accepting Wallace as a possible running mate because of his journalistic fiction.

He feels, in contrast to Clifford, Averill, and Chase, that the Democrats should concede Nixon's smart policy is a political plus.

Oh, yeah.

Terriman.

Terriman and Clifford.

Clifford who?

Terriman.

Chase.

Whatever it is.

They want to attack us, of course.

Yeah, he says we're so true.

That's just great.

The Democratic Policy Council has urged a negotiated binding political settlement in Vietnam before final withdrawal of U.S. forces.

But McGovern backers want to guarantee a halt to all U.S. armed action in Vietnam on inauguration day if McGovern is elected.

The board ruling.

Henry put it very toughly last week.

He said the only thing that's cheaper is war.

The only thing that's delayed is McGovern.

That's what he said.

That's what he said very toughly.

A lot of fights in the platform hearings.

All right.

They don't have any chairman anymore.

They now have a chairperson.

Instead of calling it a chairman of the committee, it's now the chairperson.

Mr. Chairperson.

That's going to look like a goddamn minstrel show when I get up there and get Mr. Chairperson.

Oh, I'll be damned.

The damn officer.

Democratic platform committee elected four women as vice chairpersons.

And they've agreed that there's a 150-member platform committee.

They've agreed that 15 delegates will write the platform.

Sorry, everybody's upset about that.

A lady delegate from Michigan said she'd spent too much money to get here, and she had a lot of expertise, and she didn't plan to just listen to the hearings.

The city delegate said he didn't come for the illusion of participation.

He said everybody in this room is excited in the morning, but now the hearing room looks like every damn political meeting he's ever attended with the people bored to tears.

They'll get a hold of that one day.

They're trying.

Well, I don't know.

That's what they're saying.

They've been trying to do a bit.

Because the Rules Committee and the Credentials Committee.

Why are they starting so early?

Because they've got, well, the platform.

They've been doing hearings.

These are hearings.

These are regional hearings.

When does the damn convention begin?

It must begin the three weeks.

No, two weeks.

A week.

Tuition Monday.

Two weeks Monday.

The convention itself begins Tuition Monday.

John McCormick has said that he might accept the nomination despite his declarations.

I'm sorry.

He would not feel uncomfortable with the government.

When Corbyn says he would not feel uncomfortable with the government, he's nominated and elected.

He'll change his views.

That's good stuff, though.

Boy, the columns are just on and on and on.

But the columns are on and on, but are the columns, but people, Wall Street Journalists, are they hitting him or are they writing in a sympathetic way?

That's the real question.

Wall Street Journal had a headline story yesterday.

Alarmed businessmen discover McGovern and don't like him.

And the lead line is, McGovern is scaring the hell out of most corporation bosses.

And then it goes through the sort of reaction to that.

McGovern in the White House is kind of like putting an amateur at the controls of a 747.

McGovern presidency would set the U.S. back 100 years.

McGovern scares me to death.

When a man works all his life, it isn't right to take it all away from him.

The depth of feeling toward McGovern, sometimes bordering on hatred, is noteworthy.

He can express fear of Humphrey or Muskie, and many businessmen have pledged redoubled efforts for Nixon and McGovern as an nominee.

One said the financial support for Nixon increases every time McGovern opens his mouth.

And many Democratic businessmen will also vote for Nixon.

One said if McGovern wins the nomination as a Democrat, I would work and vote for Nixon.

It's a rough story.

Who wrote it?

I don't remember.

I don't remember out of New York only or out of the country.

It was around the country.

It was a national.

Teddy says it would be a mistake for McGovern to pull back on his basic welfare and tax positions and defense cuts.

I don't think he needs to trim any sales.

Teddy says it's what the crisis is.

He says you know his positions on the key issues aren't extreme at all.

Is the feeling among the people still that Teddy will not go on as president?

Marcus Child says Teddy won't run this year because at age 40 he can afford to wait.

Furthermore, the Republican National Committee has a several volume record on Chappaquiddick which includes the secret managerial report on the incident.

In 1976 and later, Chappaquiddick will be an old story and Teddy can wrap up a favorable record on medical care and other issues.

He knows just the Democratic here, so he'll wait to follow either Nixon or the governor.

And only a Kennedy-Mills ticket can carry this out of the beat, Nixon.

She said she didn't believe a McGovern-Mills ticket could carry this out.

Kennedy-Mills could carry this out of the beat, Nixon, but McGovern can't.

She said that McGovern wouldn't win on the first ballot.

The problems in erosion would set in after that.

And if the women and blacks that are now running challenges on delegates don't win, there'll be a third-party movement.

The feeling, and according to John, as opposed to Dr. Johnny Burns, feels Mills wants to run for vice president with anybody, including McGovern.

What's your evaluation of what effect that would have on those in particular?

Would that be enough?

I don't know.

I don't think Wallace would be enough.

That's the real problem.

Mills is a lousy candidate.

I'm not concerned about him.

He's a lousy candidate, first of all.

Second of all, he's not really a southerner.

Thirdly, he's not.

Nobody's ever heard of him.

went through the South now, you wouldn't be able to find one person in a hundred who could tell you who Wilbur Mills is.

As a matter of fact, when you come down to it, if you look back to 1960, you have to think of it for other areas of history.

They put Spartan on for only one person, Sharon.

It didn't help them with one man, but they would stop.

Oh, and that was back when the South belonged to that?

And then Stevenson put Keefe up around it.

I don't think Mills is all that much of a push.

I think he's got the surrogate advantage and the rest, but I don't think anything that he does have is sort of an arm of responsibility in the business community, I suppose.

who knows their vice president.

Tell him to advise him.

That's going to clean up the country.

And here, to take that to rivets, too, you just make the point that you name one vice president in history who has had any policy influence on the president.

Garner, for example, had none on Roosevelt.

The question I really have is that I suppose that people will ask is that he's going to be desperately, like a true leftist, he's going to be killed desperately.

He tried to trick me, though.

He was trying to trick me.

He put Johnson on for the South, too, and did help him.

Yeah, a great deal.

Johnson didn't do him a goddamn thing.

He did do the South a bit of good as vice president.

He did as president, maybe.

Good question about that, too.

But coming back to Mills, the real question, I guess, is not whether he wants you to carry some of this, but whether he does clean you up on the economic issue.

You don't think so?

Because the people that he would, the only people that Mills means anything to are the knowledgeable people about the Congress.

And to them, Mills would clean up, but those people are also so knowledgeable about, they know about McGovern.

And you're never going to convince those people that anything could clean McGovern up by no time.

And they're knowledgeable enough to know that a vice president is going to need deletion as far as policy is concerned.

Once McGovern gets in, McGovern's constituency and his ties and his pressures are not going to come from his vice president.

They're going to come from where his backing is, his roots.

Terrible.

Talk about lack of charisma.

Boy, you put those two on it.

He's repulsive, really.

He's all those mannerisms and everything.

He tries to act like Sam Rayburn, but he doesn't have Rayburn.

He doesn't have the character.

He doesn't have the style.

He doesn't have the style of Rayburn.

He doesn't have the character.

He doesn't have the style.

Rayburn was a character.

Miller is not a character.

He really isn't.

really almost character-less.

He just, you know, wanders around there, you know, raising his eyelids and moments and everything.

I think the most significant thing you've read here this morning is what that most significant thing is.

Yeah.

Not because it was businessmen, but because of the depth of their feelings.

I think the McGovern Post editorial page has a, The Fear of McGovern is the title of a, who was it, Bill White?

Bill White, probably, yeah.

There's a column.

by somebody who goes through all this stuff, and he can talk a lot of that, and drop by drop, and then all this platform stuff, and then you get all these gay folks, and all this stuff going down there, which is to say that he will be a problem of our generation, and he will be a problem of our generation.

Guaranteed, there won't be anything wrong with that.

Good story.

A of the LCIO official for hailing as a victory a Supreme Court ruling that unions may collect voluntary contributions from members who contribute money to congressional presidential candidates.

That's a lot of new ruling.

Now if we only had a candidate just suggested one source in the A of the LCIO.

They're going to have a tough time.

Yeah, we're going to have a good seance with the sacred and see what the hell the questions are.

Yeah, we would like to have a chance to hear them.

What is your interest?

I don't want to work on that.

Just say, put it this way, no answer over 200 words.

That's the best way to put it.

I can put it in there, and preferably 100 words, wherever possible.

But no answer over 200 words.

The reason why he's got a lot of them down, mainly the ones that he does particularly well are those where he gets secondary issues.

That's all he needs in those issues.

Usually they are secondary, and I seldom get a question.

I don't get them anyway.

The only purpose of that is just so that I know what the hell a subject is in case it comes up.

So you don't get caught by surprise on Sunday.

Right.

And the other issue is the primary issue.

You're over there right now, aren't you?

I don't think so, Senator.

Furniture?

Furniture's in.

Let's walk over.

I think the carpenter's pretty much through.

Yeah, I didn't know it was here, but I've given it.

They have two books that I've already given.

All those are very, I do a lot of them.

I heard just there if you have the time.

I heard.