Nixon, Colson & Buchanan on 1972 Election and Campaign Strategy

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David, the part that I hate is this.

What happened here is that our people got the idea of a weapon, and they're going to use it as a weapon, and they're going to use it as a weapon, and they're going to use it as a weapon.

You were right.

We've tried to change the card, and we haven't been apologetic about it.

And I don't mean that we're betting on it as much as we should, because if we hold this and show that there are not enough people to know it, well, they're beginning to know it.

At least it's the whole land that comes after it.

But when you come right down to it, sure, I'll get a lot of flag-waving speeches.

That's the beauty of the non-speech.

Every one of those back-and-forths has got something about the country and all that.

It's been delivered.

I don't sense the sense that you could search the NSC Center.

You know, they, you know, they've got, except for Henry and Kate, they've got to be, you know, the research that they're involved in, you know, what do you do?

You do it because we are basically getting something that Americans are just thirsty for.

They're hungry for it.

They want to be reassured that it's not that bad.

It's not that bad.

I mean, by that, they've got to be brought in.

They've got to play the part, and we've got to get away, frankly.

Instead of, I mean, they talk about me about having a black in or a Jew.

Goddamn, I have a Jew's mind.

Why do I have this here?

Why do I have Stein?

Because of the two smartest guys in their field.

Or anybody in their league.

Right?

But basically...

But we have overlooked, we simply haven't found what's hard to find.

Basically, an honest Italian was made.

And that's not set in barricades.

It's the way they think they've grown up, you know.

They have a tradition, you know, the way we've got that.

There's Irish out there, there's Italian out there.

You know, when I was about to make that last point to the court, I was going to put Mulder on it.

And, you know, it was important that we would put Mulder on it.

What the hell is the matter with me?

I'm not kidding.

The next one's going to be, believe me, I've told him already, the next one's going to be Catholic.

There's going to be two Catholics on that.

Wouldn't you agree?

Absolutely.

I would prefer to tag it.

I think it's time to get me to tag it, huh?

They're not so much for lawlessness.

Yeah, that's quite a lot.

They're not so much for lawlessness.

Well, I'll tag it.

Basically, it's a very interesting thing is that what has happened here is not by accident.

And we have fought this battle.

We've been fighting it in and out, all up and down town.

Now, this doesn't mean that we aren't going to still care about blacks and so forth.

We do.

I mean, you see that nice dog around here.

He works his dog.

He brought in three great big hulking dogs like this one.

I have to tell you, they're lining with the Cleveland Browns.

So I saw them.

I'm glad we got them.

I want a few.

We've got Jimmy Brown.

But my point is, we should have some.

We must have a lot of them, even if they're out.

But this idea of pandering, basically, you see, our upper middle class crowd, being a Republican, and most of them are Republicans, but Republicans are Democrats, they pander.

if only minorities they can get through, let's face it, are blacks and jews.

Am I right or wrong?

Well, as far as I'm concerned, the jews don't need it.

The jews don't need it because they're smart enough to make it on their own.

And they know that.

They know that I know it.

So that's that.

This idea that

What we really got to do is not take him to Teddy Lee's and the rest of these guys and say, thank you very much, and then afterwards go right back to having our usual wasp kind of gray good man in the captain.

What do you think?

And what might do is direct your social spending in the second case administration to the working class in the middle class.

That's their concern.

That's when you hit them with your pro-QA.

That's to hit the guys that work for a living and send their kids to cat school.

That's one of the reasons why I think they only have performance in the middle class.

I don't know if it's much of an issue, but at least it's upper middle class.

I mean, it's the middle class, so that's a common issue.

So, you move money out of, like some of the manpower training and lower class public housing, you move money out of those areas and target into areas which are concerned with working people, which are really productive.

If you can build a permanent majority out of it, I think you're going to have a lot of money.

Yeah, and as far as the lower classes are concerned,

Goddamn treatment.

I said, it was just charity.

Charity.

Make the value of work in the store of respect.

You know, the thing about that work, I think, I give them every goddamn speak.

I said it in Rio Grande.

I said it on Labor Day.

I said it there to the little young laborers.

I died with my grandfather who gave me the cigar the young day.

You see that on the very end of the

But the story of this movie that I was supposed to start on, they were doing some recording of the fire in New York.

And he said, when I listen to this man talk, I'm willing to go out and break my back into two jails.

Because when I listen to this man talk, I want to work in this country.

Oh, geez.

I mean, that sums it all up.

That follows the reaction.

It just sums it all up.

They heard you talking about it.

Well, he said, I don't know whether it's a plan.

There's a point that should be made, which I need to talk sometimes to the people in the PR types and all the rest.

You see, the point that they, first of all, whoever is the president, and it's got to be like this.

I am not going to get buddy-buddy with people.

That's not my style.

I'm not going to do that.

But the point that has got to be made is that I talk their language because I basically know how they feel.

You know what I mean?

I'm not snobbish about it.

You know what I mean?

I have as much respect for Jetty Gleason as I have for Roger Block, in fact, a little more.

Now, people cry because they're more defensive, more steel.

What do you think about it?

Isn't that the same thing?

And the thing that the political people have underestimated as far as I'm concerned is that, basically, that I do have a, despite the fact that I have, of course, an advantage in a superior education, that I do have a method of communication in a way that's really, you know, it's an understanding, it's an empathy.

Most upper middle class people, most politicians, most politicians treat these people as a class.

I say class, I treat them as people.

Individuals.

Individual people.

And that's important here.

I know how they work there.

They're good people.

Don't say that they're racist.

This is not what they're supposed to be.

It's a real sharing of values and views.

Wow.

It's a sharing of values and views, your concerns, and sort of elevating to at least the same thing that you guys do.

The other part of it is that they say, yeah, it's just what I feel.

It's talking about them.

Now, McGovern's people are going to, frankly, make a mistake.

They're going to provide a option to kill somebody by that big ride they're going to run.

And it'd be important.

Are we getting that out?

Because I knew they were going to ask her.

I want to be sure it gets out.

Don't ever assume it gets out.

I know the telephone calls and so forth, but it's big.

And then these are McGovern's people.

Oh, yeah.

He's tried this about his people, saying that they're not out of this town, but they moved out of his headquarters and set up another one.

And doing the same thing as the same people, and some of them were traveling.

And I think that both of those were very good blessings, and that doesn't take long.

I think they just, one way or another, should move now.

Very good, and by the way, you should recruit them.

But you should do it on the basis

I call upon him to disassociate himself from these radical

whatever you want, they should have just a, just a tough statement like that.

I call upon him to disassociate, to repudiate his supporters who are planning violent demonstrations against the President of the United States.

And I would have him do it.

I would have him.

He should stop.

He has allegations now.

Right.

I had him to call off the dogs, call off the, you know, pick his up.

He, that's when you can really hit him.

I'm sure this is it.

I didn't tell him that.

He has to be the same.

When did they make a break?

It's only in L.A. or San Francisco.

San Francisco is where we expect the worst riots.

But they've been organizing.

I don't know if they're going to put something in.

Well, the reason I know that's a hot issue is because we have so many on the board.

I didn't know it turned out that way.

I thought it was going to be much worse.

I don't know about the board.

They're confident.

I thought they were terrible.

You know, they saw them swimming in the pool and all these horrible things.

I'll tell you, I didn't like it.

I didn't, too.

It was just terrible.

I thought it was horrible.

It was the part of me that was getting jackasses up in front of me.

.

and how far they would realize by the time the program is over, you don't know what the hell is going to happen.

That's the point.

That's setting it back a little bit.

Why does it do it in the press?

I'm not talking about something else, but I've got a buddy of mine who's very high on his campaign, and they feel the fact that the government has been extremely

He's supposed to have all the new ideas and the new programs and the like.

And here he is just yelling about this one thing that people don't understand.

He's come off himself as sort of a hot-eyed, prostituted-type gentleman.

His own image has suffered because he's carrying a case himself, trying to let somebody else do it for him.

So if they see him on the stump every night, the gentleman is one of them.

That's right.

That kind of exclusion.

If you do the same thing, yeah, it just doesn't look presidential at all.

No, that's right.

That should be left to the manager.

Well, Brian was captured.

Well, Brian was captured by the novel presidential candidate.

Even though Brian has to be going to that notice, it would be so dumb if he was happy.

You know, they'd help us.

They know practically nothing about it.

There's nothing to it now.

It's just doing it.

saying the same thing about some nutty Cubans and this guy, a guy, another fucking beggar guy who's partying around doing some of the shit that they're doing.

We were still doing what I'm doing.

But yeah, that's about, that's about the most that we can be self-reliant in.

And where the hell are people that don't believe in what they're doing?

Maybe it was something that they, maybe these Cubans really knew something was going on.

That's the way to take these things.

Nixon, Colson & Buchanan on 1972 Election and Campaign Strategy

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Transcript (AI-generated)

Also recorded on September 25, 1972

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Nixon, Colson & Buchanan on 1972 Election and Campaign Strategy

AI Summary

Audio

NARA Description

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Transcript (AI-generated)

Also recorded on September 25, 1972

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Cite this conversation