Camelot Anew

[MAINEiac4434]

Without him, I probably wouldn't be here today. - Barack Obama, 50th Vice President of the United States

As a young man, I idolized him. I wanted to be him. I studied what he said, his mannerisms. I thought, if I could be half as good, no, a quarter as good as this guy is, I'd be doing alright. - Joe Biden, 43rd President of the United States

He was exactly what the country needed at that moment in time. War abroad and unrest at home, he rose to the occasion. Even though he was a member of the other party, he's one of this country's greatest ever leaders - maybe the greatest ever. - Lisa Murkowski, 46th President of the United States

He may, in fact, be the single most consequential figure of the 20th Century. God knows what would've happened if Nixon'd won. - Bernard Sanders, Secretary General of the United Nations

He galvanized our generation, to make us live up to his promise. And my generation answered the call. I hope he'd be proud of us. I think he would be. - Hillary Rodham Clinton, 47th President of the United States

Camelot Anew:
The Presidency of Robert Francis Kennedy

[MAINEiac4434]

Part I: Los Angeles and the Aftermath

“We’re getting some extremely disturbing news here...Senator Kennedy has reportedly been shot at the Ambassador Hot--I’m sorry, the Senator is apparently unharmed, and the assailant has been pacified. Senator Kennedy has been shot AT, but he has not been wounded, thank God.”

Excerpt from the Los Angeles Times, June 5, 1968

KENNEDY UNHARMED IN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

Los Angeles - Senator Robert F. Kennedy was attacked in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, just moments after he had finished his speech declaring victory in the California primary.

The assailant was identified by LAPD sources as Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Arab who is reportedly opposed to American policy in Israel. Mr. Sirhan was tackled by Senator Kennedy’s bodyguards and supporters after brandishing a pistol and firing one round, which missed the Senator and struck a post to his immediate left. After bodyguards and supporters pacified Mr. Sirhan, Los Angeles Police apprehended him and took him to central booking. Mr. Sirhan is expected to be charged with attempted murder, a crime which carries a potential life sentence in California.

Senator Kennedy was transported to Central Receiving Hospital but was released after a brief examination confirmed that he was indeed uninjured. He received phone calls from President Johnson and his opponents for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Senator Eugene McCarthy, as well as his brother, Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy and the likely Republican candidate former Vice President Richard Nixon. Afterwards, he returned to the Ambassador Hotel, against the wishes of his campaign managers and the police, but where many of his strongest supporters were still held, where he delivered another speech, declaring his intention to continue his campaign.

President Johnson is expected to sign an executive order expanding Secret Service protection to major party presidential candidates sometime today.

“They can try to kill me, but they cannot kill a dream, the dream my brother died for, a dream of equality, a dream of a peace, a dream of an America better tomorrow than it is today. Though shaken I am undaunted, I will continue to fight, and I will win.”

-excerpt from Robert F. Kennedy's second remarks in the early morning of June 5, 1968.

[MAINEiac4434]

"While Sirhan didn't kill Kennedy, he effectively killed my campaign. Everyone rallied around Bobby after that. I kept fighting the good fight, but I knew it was over, too."
- Excerpt from Eugene McCarthy's interview with Barbara Walters, May 9, 1998

"At that point in time, Hill and I were working on the McCarthy campaign, like a lot of young people. But after the Ambassador Hotel incident, Gene probably lost half of his most committed volunteers to Bobby. The thought of another Kennedy being gunned down made a lot of people want to rally around Bobby. Hell, he landslided us in Illinois the next week."
-Excerpt from an interview with the First Gentleman, the former Secretary of State and Ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Clinton, July 15, 2014

Illinois Democratic Primary, 1968
Robert Francis Kennedy: 85%
Eugene McCarthy: 11%
Unpledged: 4%

"A few hours after the results from Illinois came in, Missouri announced that its delegates would be pledged to Bobby. About that time I received a call from my friend John Podesta, who was one of the McCarthy ... defectors, for lack of a better word. He convinced me to join Bobby, too. At that point I was convinced he'd be the nominee, no matter how much establishment support Humphrey had."
-Excerpt from an interview with New York Governor Hillary Clinton, April 28, 2008.

[MAINEiac4434]

"You know, privately, a lot of us in the Democratic establishment always wondered how minority voters would split between a white candidate with a great civil rights record - in the case of '68, Gene - and a black candidate. Well, Bobby already had significant minority support. By far, he was the choice of Civil Rights leaders from John Lewis to Cesar Chavez. But after the Los Angeles incident...well, the minority communities rallied even more behind him."
-excerpt from an interview with Mayor Richard M. Daley, June 2, 2010.

"He was, already, the candidate of black America. And when he was nearly killed, it infuriated black America. He was...basically, one of us. And they tried to kill one of us? Just a few months after Dr. King?"

"I visited Bobby's campaign a few days before the Illinois primary. In Chicago, almost all the volunteers were black or Hispanic. He had become, effectively, the first black presidential candidate. I knew then that Gene was basically a dead candidate walking and Hubert Humphrey stood no chance at the convention."
-except from an interview with Democratic Vice Presidential candidate John Lewis, October 30, 2008.

"The convention? Jeez...that's a whole story in and of itself."

[MAINEiac4434]

Part II: The Convention that Changed America

"No comment."
- Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley's response to the question, "Was there an order to violently disperse the protesters?" Press conference on August 30, 1968.

"I'll be honest, we didn't know what to expect in Chicago. We knew there'd be protesters, we knew Abie Hoffman was planning something, we knew Daley didn't want jack (expletive) to do with them. We were afraid that the CPD might violently disperse the protesters. I had Bobby on the phone with Daley every day trying to get a straight answer."
- excerpt from an interview with Pierre Salinger, September 30, 1979.

"Yeah, what dad had planned wasn't going to be good for Democrats."
- excerpt from an interview with Richard M. Daley, June 8, 2011.

"We should remember that at this time, Mayor Daley was still a Humphrey supporter and looked at Bobby with suspicion."
- excerpt from President Hillary Clinton at a "Bobby '68: 45 Years Later" event in Manhattan, November 8, 2013.

"If Mayor Daley had anything planned, he never let Hubert know. Hubert told me everything."
- excerpt from an interview with Senator Muriel Humphrey, January 14, 1990.

"Some of us left on Gene's tattered campaign hoped that something bad would happen. They figured, '(expletive) Kennedy, (expletive) Humphrey, (expletive) Johnson, (expletive) the Democrats.' Many of us felt betrayed. Of course, my girlfriend was working for Bobby at the time so I didn't feel that way at all..."

"I don't think Dad or [Chicago Police Superintendent James B.] Conlisk had any idea how many were going to come."
- excerpt from an interview with Richard M. Daley, July 10, 1998.

[MAINEiac4434]

"So thousands of them arrived. Hell, tens of thousands of them. And they marched. And the Police were on edge."
-Excerpt from Pierre Salinger's 1993 book, With Bobby Kennedy.

Someone told Senator Kennedy what the police were going to do to get the protests 'under control' -- I use that term loosely, by the way..."

"He was watching on TV in his hotel room...and he saw that things were on a knife edge out there...that they were going to get pretty bad pretty quickly."
-excerpt from Chief of Staff John Podesta at a "Bobby '68: 45 Years Later" event in Manhattan, New York, November 8, 2013.

"He told us he was going to go out to try to talk to the crowd. I distinctly remember someone shouting 'you can't go out there, you're gonna get killed!'"
- excerpt from an interview with Pierre Salinger, February 14, 1999.

[MAINEiac4434]

"It was the most remarkable thing I’d ever seen. Bobby grabbed a megaphone, got on top of a police car, and asked everyone to be calm. And they listened. Both the protesters and the police."
-excerpt from an interview with Richard Daley, July 10, 1998

"I know that many of you feel like your voices are not being heard, that no one truly represents you. I understand. The war in Vietnam is a tragedy of unspeakable proportions. I know many of you are angry that nothing seems to be done about it, that the Democratic Party's establishment is committed to continuing the war. But I'm here to tell you, that as long as I'm standing I will oppose this war. And if I'm lucky enough to be elected your president, then I promise you, the war will be over before the next presidential election.

"I also have a message for the police officers. I know that you are under orders to suppress this demonstration. But I beg of you, let them hold a nonviolent march. It reflects poorly, not only on your department or your city but our great nation in its entirety to see unarmed young people being harassed by police. As a nation, we must be better than that. I beg of you, officers, from the bottom of my heart: allow them to protest unmolested!"

"It worked. I don't know how, but it worked."

"It was absurdly quiet after the speech. Bobby stepped down from the police car and went back inside. I remained outside, and watched as the protesters began singing 'Kumbaya'. The police stepped out of the way and allowed them to march."

"It seems almost like a cliché now....the hippies singing Kumbaya, the police quietly stepping aside and allowing them to march. I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself. But it happened. And thank god it did."

"I saw the speech live on NBC. After it was done, I told my aides I was dropping out and endorsing Bobby. A few months earlier I had hated his guts for stealing a race I felt entitled to. But, while he standing on that police car addressing that crowd, I realized that this man was the only hope for America."

[MAINEiac4434]

"My fellow Americans...my fellow Democrats! When I first entered the presidential campaign on November 30, 1967, I had hoped to emerge as a candidate who could bring the issues of vital importance to the youth and the disaffected of America to the forefront of the debate. Never, ever, did I think I would actually have a chance to win the nomination of this fine party, that I'd be here in Chicago with a puncher's chance of taking on Nixon!

"But, my friends, while we came close, we did not come close enough. So it is with...a heavy heart, but boundless optimism and enthusiasm for America's future that I withdraw my name from the nominating process, and free my delegates to vote for whomever they may choose.

"But who I am choosing, my fellow Democrats, is the man that bested me in many primaries this year. It is the man who has united women and blacks and immigrants behind him. It is the man with the plan to remove US forces from Vietnam as soon as 1972. It is the man with the best chance to defeat Nixon and the Republicans in November. That man, is Robert Francis Kennedy!

"Kennedy has united the country behind him. He has experience in the executive branch and legislative branch, knows Washington inside and out and is a helluva strong liberal to boot! Robert Kennedy will have my full support during the balloting, and he should have yours too! With Kennedy leading the ticket, the Democrats cannot be defeated in November!"

"Yeah, some of us were heartbroken. But we realized it was for the best for the country."

"At that point I think Hubert knew he was very unlikely to be the nominee."

"We were ecstatic. We didn't think Gene would actually do it."

"At that point, Dad realized that Kennedy would be the nominee, and he knew he had to get on board the train or get run over by it. President Johnson protested vehemently, but as Chair of the Convention, Dad had the final say: a voice vote for the nominee."

"All those who wish to nominate Senator Robert Francis Kennedy of New York as the Democratic Party's nominee for President of the United States, say aye! All opposed say nay! The ayes have it!!"

[MAINEiac4434]

"My fellow Americans. It is with tremendous pride and optimism that I accept your nomination as Vice President of the United States!

[MAINEiac4434]

Oh please. Don't abandon this.

One of the best threads I've seen on here. Any updates coming?

Yes! Just super busy right now.

[MAINEiac4434]

"Thank you, thank you. Eight years ago, my husband Jack stood in front of you, and stared down Richard Nixon in a battle for the soul of this country, in a battle that would define the civil rights of our black brothers and sisters, the health and safety of our seniors and our poorest, and the battle worldwide against Soviet imperialism. Without the leadership of Jack, of Lyndon Johnson and of Hubert Humphrey, America would not have a strong economy, unemployment below five percent, and shrinking poverty levels.

But there is still much work to be done. Blacks feel that their issues are being ignored. Crime levels are rising in our cities. And a generation of young people are being lost due to a disastrous war. America has faced tough times before. Few tougher than these. But every time we've faced tough times, we've seen a tough president stand up and fight to make our great country even greater.

My friends, the choice is clear. Richard Nixon, a man of the past even eight years ago, or Robert Kennedy, a man whose forward-looking and optimistic vision can make the dreams of my husband reality?

During the civil war we needed an Abraham Lincoln. During the depression, we needed a Franklin Roosevelt. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, we needed a Jack Kennedy, and for the Vietnam War we need a Robert Kennedy!

Won't you please join me in welcoming the Democratic Party's nominee, the next President of the United States, Senator Robert Francis Kennedy!"

[MAINEiac4434]

"Ladies and gentlemen, delegates from around the country, and Americans watching at home.

Today, our nation stands divided. Divided because of laws unevenly enforced. Divided because of opportunity unequally distributed. Divided because of a war unjustly prosecuted.

But throughout my campaign, throughout the dozens of states and hundreds of communities I've traveled, I've sensed hope. Hope that, if the American people are given a chance, they will prosper.

And it is with that hope held deeply in my heart that I accept your nomination for President of the United States.

It's not hard to see why America is divided. Just turn on the news. Riots and crime in our cities. Our rural areas, left behind. Our young men dying in a war that that their families don't even understand.

But this hope, this almost undetectable yet indefatigable sense of hope still permeates this country. It was the hope of 56 men in Philadelphia, signing a document declaring this nation's independence from an autocratic and undemocratic regime. It is the sense of hope that led to Abraham Lincoln to issue a a proclamation freeing this nation's greatest shame, the slaves held in forced bondage. It is the sense of hope that led John F. Kennedy to declare that we will land a man on the moon before the end of this decade.

This hope cannot be defeated. No matter what Mr. Nixon says - our best days are still in front of us. It may be hard to see, with the discord in our streets and the unrest overseas. But America's greatest strengths - our ingenuity, our compassion, our freedom - have guided us through a Civil War, a depression and two World Wars. It guided us then. It will guide us now.

Mr. Nixon has made solving the crime epidemic one of his central campaign planks. And yes, of course we need more cops on the beat to protect American lives and livelihoods. But in order to truly solve the crime epidemic, we need to hit at the root of the problem. The jail door opens when all other doors are closed - inadequate education or access to education, inadequate access to job training once convicts leave prison, inadequate access to jobs and other opportunities. And that is why I'm announcing that in the first 100 days of my Presidency, I will form a cabinet-level Department of Education, to set national education standards to see which schools and school districts are underperforming, and funnel resources there to get them up to standard. And under the purview of that new department will be a system of post-primary non-collegiate job training centers, designed to get kids - and adults - off the street, off welfare and into jobs, so that a life of crime is never an option for them. The first of these institutions will be built in America's 10 largest cities, with potential expansion into other cities and rural areas at a point in the future.

And for too long, Americans have suffered from the burden of overpriced health insurance. While Medicare and Medicaid were good first steps, they do not go far enough. Which is why, in my first 100 days, I will propose an expansion of Medicare to all Americans via a public option. If a person has insurance, and likes it, they can keep it. If they have insurance and don't like it, they can opt-in to expanded Medicare coverage. These programs will go to great lengths to help Americans in their pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.

Pollution is choking the life out of America. While the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act are good starts, the country must go further, and I will establish a federal Environmental Protection Organization, designed to weed out polluters and clean up polluted areas of our country.

And I believe that the 1970s - the decade of our nation's bicentennial - would be the perfect time to put forward a constitutional amendment to finally declare that men and women, black people and white people, and people of all faiths are equal in this country!

But it is time to address the elephant in the room...and the elephants gathered outside this room.

Allow me to be abundantly clear: on day one of my presidency, the we will immediately cease bombing North Vietnam and begin to wind down American military presence in the Indochinese region. Over the course of the first 12 months of my presidency, I will begin negotiations with the South and North Vietnamese, the French and Australians to negotiate a lasting peace settlement protecting the sovereignty of both North and South Vietnam, and ensuring a peaceful and prosperous Indochinese peninsula.

Mrs. Kennedy laid out the contrasts in this election perfectly during her introductory speech. Richard Nixon was a man of the past eight years ago. What is he now? He claims to have a secret plan for peace and victory in Vietnam. Mr. Nixon is a private citizen, he is no longer Vice President and was defeated by our good friend Pat Brown in his pursuit for California's governor's mansion. His secret plan is that he has no plan. He receives no classified information. He has few contacts in the nation's military or defense department. Mr. Nixon is lying to you! This country deserves better than half-truths and false promises!

This country deserves a government that behaves honestly and ethically. This country deserves a return to the principles of my brother. The country deserves Camelot Anew!"

[MAINEiac4434]

Part III: Nixon Now

"Bobby may be a good kid. But when he calls to return to the principles of his brother, what does that mean? I mean, his brother got us into Vietnam. His brother's Vice President is still the president now, and he's responsible for the mess we're in domestically! Bobby rides in now, on his white horse and says 'follow me, I'll take you back to Camelot.' But his plans are the same as Johnson's. More taxes, more regulation, and no changes to what happens on Main Street."

"It was a deliberate campaign strategy, to refer to Kennedy as 'Bobby'. To infantilize him, to divorce him from John Kennedy's legacy. It probably backfired."
-Roger Stone, in an interview on the Colbert Report, June 14, 2014.

"And [George] Wallace's presence hurt us, no doubt about that. He took away traditionally Democrat states in the south but those were the only states we had won in '64. There was a very real possibility that no candidate would win 270 electoral votes. It was all about California, Illinois, Wisconsin and Ohio. Kennedy's people completely ignored the south and the mountain states Johnson'd won in 1964.
-Lee Atwater, in a recorded private conversation, c. 1984

"The first thing Kennedy did [after the convention] was go back to Los Angeles. And crowds of thousands greeted him there. So Dick said to go to Chicago, to bring up the fact that thousands of hippies descended on the city during the convention. It didn't help that Daley kept declaring each space we wanted 'unsuitable.' So we wanted to give a speech in the park. And hundreds of our supporters came. But thousands of Kennedy's did."
-Murray Chotiner, in an lecture to the John Birch Society, "How to defeat Kennedy," May 9, 1971.

"Many of us privately believed Daley sent city workers to disrupt our gathering."
-Richard Nixon, in an interview with TIME Magazine, April 2, 1990.

[MAINEiac4434]

"We made a big play for Jersey. Bobby, representing New York, and Jack having won it -- narrowly -- in '60, but it was a lean Republican state at that time. Except for Jack, it had only gone for Democrats in landslides, like FDR's four and Woodrow Wilson's. It was Republican for Ike and Dewey in '48. And nearly for Dick."

"We never took any state for granted. After what happened to the GOP in '64? We'd have been crazy too."

"We definitely took New Jersey for granted. We thought it was fools gold for the Kennedy people."

"Dick was obsessed with Illinois. Every day it was Illinois this, Illinois that. It's why he wanted to go to Chicago immediately after the Democrat convention. What happened in 1960, what the Kennedys and Daley did to him, it haunted him. He wanted to make sure it never happened again. He didn't realize that it already had."

"I probably neglected the states around Illinois in favor of Illinois. And I could've gone home to California more frequently than I did."

"He let us run all over California. That was his biggest mistake."

[MAINEiac4434]

"I was working in Wisconsin at the time, in Green Bay, and everyone around me was wondering where the Nixon campaign was. My mom sent me a letter saying that they were crawling all over Illinois. Bill sent me one and said they were nowhere to be found in California."
-Excerpt from Hillary Clinton's portion of Camelot Anew: An Oral History of Robert F. Kennedy's Campaign, Presidency and Legacy, Knopf, 2012.

"While Bobby was in California, he had me tour the midwest states. As a Senator from Indiana, he felt I had a personal connection. It was Fred Dutton's idea to have us tour by train, visiting every small town in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri. That had to have helped us. When Bobby was done with California, he flew back out and went on the tour with me."
-Except from an interview with Vice President Birch Bayh, June 2, 2017

"The Hope Express. It was a stupid name if there ever was one."

"The [expletive] Hope Express. It [expletive] us completely. And it was total [expletive] too! It was blatant [expletive] pandering. Any [expletive] idiot could've seen it."

"We got no press coverage, except the local papers, when I was on it. But when Bobby joined me? Hell, I think Walter Cronkite did his evening broadcasts from the caboose."

"People would come in thousands from miles around into these little small towns that hadn't seen a Presidential Candidate since McKinley, to see Bobby. It won us the Midwest. There's no question about that."

"The press loved Bobby, no doubt about that. When he went on that train tour, I thought I'd have to shoot someone just to get my name on page one of a paper. And it worked for him."

"People got to see and experience Bobby. And it helped, definitely."

Gallup poll, September 1, 1968:*
Robert Francis Kennedy (D): 44%
Richard M. Nixon (R): 41%
George Wallace (AI): 10%
Undecided/Other: 5%

*Before Kennedy train tour

Gallup poll, September 11, 1968:*
Robert Francis Kennedy (D): 48%
Richard M. Nixon (R): 39%
George Wallace (AI): 10%
Undecided/Other: 3%

*After Kennedy train tour

"At that point, we needed to do something drastic. We felt the race was almost over and it had barely begun."

[MAINEiac4434]

"Dick thought Texas would be in play, because the LBJ machine wouldn't work for - or would actively work against - Kennedy."

"We knew Johnson would try to screw us in Texas, so we completely ignored it. We wrote it off for Wallace long before Nixon ever went there."

"I did think it was odd Nixon went to Dallas first off. At that point in time it was still heavily linked to Jack's assassination."

"Bobby hasn't once come to Texas. You know why? He and the President can't stand each other. The Democrats are divided. George Wallace is also a Democrat and he left the party to start run his own damn campaign! You can't trust any of them. You can like Lyndon but that doesn't mean you have to vote Democrat. He blames Texans for his brother's death. Bobby blames your favorite son for the death of his brother. Bobby does not deserve Texas' support!"

"It enraged us."

"Lyndon didn't come to the rescue either, not that any of the Kennedy inner circle really believed he would."

[MAINEiac4434]

"We already knew the screw was in in Texas. The LBJ machine was working against us. But it was important to us and the nation to show we were unafraid to go anywhere in this country. That we were unafraid to do everything we could to make America everything it could be."

[MAINEiac4434]

Thanks!
----

"My platform is best for Texas because my platform is best for America. We are going all over this country to send a message of hope and equality and fairness, because that is what Americans young and old, black and white, southern and northern want. They want a great America. And they deserve a great America. Ask yourselves, why is Richard Nixon attacking me so much? Because he knows the nuts and bolts of his plan can't match up with mine. Why do you think he won't debate us? He knows what happened against Jack."

"We really started hitting the debate thing hard."

"Of course we didn't want to [expletive] debate. The debates are what [expletive] him in 1960, and Bobby was the architect of it, the puppet master."

"We were not afraid to debate Bobby Kennedy. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar."

[MAINEiac4434]

Part IV: The Rumble in Arundel

"When Kennedy called us out about the debate, we knew we'd have to do it. The next week we met with Kennedy representatives and the networks to negotiate rules and locations."

"We wanted New York or Chicago or California. We figured we could pack the debate hall with our supporters."

"We wanted a more rural or suburban location. Not a college. Naturally, we found a compromise: St. John's College in Annapolis."

"A tiny liberal arts place in a tiny city in Maryland. Not radical like Berkeley, but not conservative. Maryland was a state that trended Democratic, but Sprio Agnew was Nixon's running mate. Annapolis was a Democratic city, but Anne Arundel County was Republican. It was the perfect backdrop for the debate."
-Excerpt from an interview with Walter Cronkite, July 9, 2007.

"As soon as the debate location was announced, the media immediately picked up the nickname: the Rumble in Arundel. It was a heavyweight fight. It was the place where either Nixon would stage a comeback or we would bury him."

"Neither us or Kennedy wanted Wallace at the debate, because he was gonna [expletive] our southern strategy right in the ass, and Kennedy still held out on some stupid hope of winning Texas as one final insult to Johnson."

"I still can't believe they asked me to play Kennedy in the debate prep. I thought Chotiner was messing with me."

[MAINEiac4434]

"It was a bloodbath from the handshake. I pretty much failed as a moderator."

"Good evening tonight from Annapolis, Maryland. Tonight, we have a very unique program for you: the first Presidential debate since 1960. Tonight, the Democratic candidate Robert Francis Kennedy, the Senator from New York and Attorney General under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, squares off against the Republican candidate Richard M. Nixon, the former Vice President under Dwight Eisenhower, former Congressman and Senator from California and 1960 Republican candidate for President. Tonight, two contrasting campaigns, two contrasting backgrounds, two contrasting visions for America go head to head to try to win your vote."

"Senator, how can the American people trust you? You're a Democrat, the President's a Democrat, you were this President's Attorney General before you were forced out--"

"Now hold on, Mr. Vice President. I was originally appointed to that role by President Kennedy, and I retained that role when President Johnson succeeded Jack Kennedy. I left because I wanted to have a more direct impact on people's lives, and I saw the Senate as a good opportunity to do that. But by no means was I forced out of the President's cabinet and by no means do I agree with Lyndon B. Johnson on everything or all his actions as President, particularly his actions as Commander in Chief. As a matter of fact, you can ask him how much we agree."

--------

"Bobby, you have no experience. You've been a Senator for less than four years. And I think even you'd agree that President Kennedy nominated you as Attorney General, there were more experienced and more qualified candidates to choose."

"Well, maybe on paper there were more qualified candidates for Attorney General than I in 1960. But I think anyone, even you Richard, can look at what I achieved as Attorney General and think that John Kennedy made the right choice. Just look at what both President Kennedy and President Johnson did in the fields of civil rights, in reducing organized crime, in labor rights. I believe I had a successful tenure as Attorney General, I believe I've had a successful tenure as a United States Senator, and I believe I'll have a successful tenure as President of the United States."

"Bobby, er, Senator, let's be real here. You may have tackled organized crime, but now there's even more crime, unorganized crime. You had no legal experience before your nomination. You owe your career as Attorney General to finagling by President Kennedy, then-Vice President Johnson, Senator Russell. Senator, you were a nepotism pick, and you'll be a nepotism president, unable to bring the change that this country desperately needs."

"You know, Dick, I'm glad you've attacked me like this. Because it shows what your campaign is based on. It shows all you have to fight against our movement, of hope, of fairness, of change. Just throwing barbs at me. That's all you have. Well, it's better you to attack me than attack the miner who has no healthcare but black lung, the inner city youth who has no job prospects and is forced to steal to feed his younger siblings, whose high school is falling apart due to under funding, who's harassed by a Sheriff who also is a member of the KKK. Those are the people I am fighting for, those are the people I've always fought for, those are the people I'll fight for as President."

[MAINEiac4434]

"But the Worst was yet to come from the Nixon camp."

[MAINEiac4434]

Thoughts? Comments? Critiques?

[MAINEiac4434]

It's pretty good so far. there is just one minor error in this.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Birch was a Senator from Indiana not a governor.

Ooh, good catch. Thanks.

[MAINEiac4434]

Part V: November Surprise

"After that, it was over. They were already popping champagne corks in Hyannis Port. The final two days didn't matter."

HR Haldeman and Anna Chennault refused to be interviewed.

[MAINEiac4434]

Part VI: Election Night '68

Chet Huntley and David Brinkley of NBC just before the start of their election night coverage.

7:45

"Good evening from New York, I'm David Brinkley."

"And I'm Chet Huntley. Tonight, three men vie for the most powerful office in the world, the Presidency of the United States. For all three men, this election has represented a political rebirth. For Richard Nixon, a defeated Presidential candidate in 1960, a defeated gubernatorial candidate in 1962. But he orchestrated his political renaissance perfectly, winning the Grand Old Party's nomination virtually unchallenged at the 1968 convention."

"For the Democrat, Robert F. Kennedy, he carries the hopes of an entire family. After his brother was gunned down in Dallas in 1963, and after Robert himself nearly lost his own life in a similar assassination attempt in Los Angeles in June, Kennedy was overwhelmed with an outpouring of support which he was able to ride to the nomination in Chicago over Hubert Humphrey and Eugene McCarthy. But it's not just the hopes of the Kennedy family; indeed, the hopes of young people, of Negroes and Chicanos, of peace activists, of liberals, hoping for the old New Deal Coalition to rise once final time."

"And finally, for the man who seeks to tear a portion of that coalition away. George Wallace was a lifelong Democrat, until he wasn't. Nominated by the right-wing American Independent Party, he seeks to be the voice of white southerners in this election; pro-segregation, pro-Jim Crow. Indeed, President Johnson's - and Senator Kennedy's - work on civil rights has spurned him on, and Governor Wallace is expected to carry a handful of Deep South states tonight, though he's on the ballot in all fifty."

8:00

"And now the time has come for our first call tonight, and it's the state the Kennedys call home. Massachusetts has gone to Bobby Kennedy by an overwhelming margin. And we can also call the District of Columbia, safe Democratic territory, and Kennedy is expected to get north of 80% of the vote. Rhode Island as well we can call for Kennedy, another four electoral college votes. That leaves Kennedy with 21 electoral college votes, Nixon with zero, and Wallace with zero. Uncalled states with polls closed include: Indiana, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and New York."

8:08

"We have a call to make, and it's a big one: New York and her 43 electoral votes will go to Robert Kennedy. Not much of a surprise, but Bobby's already over 60 electoral college votes."

8:36

"It's been awhile since we've had a call at the Presidential level, but we can now call Delaware for Bobby Kennedy. That pushes the New York Senator up to 67 electoral college votes, none for Nixon, none for Wallace."

8:45

"Richard Nixon picked Maryland governor Spiro Agnew as his running mate, but Agnew apparently couldn't help him in that state; Maryland and its 10 electoral college votes go to Kennedy. Kennedy 77, Nixon 0, Wallace 0. Don't turn off your TV and think Kennedy's on his way to a 1964-style landslide though, the popular vote is much narrower, but still a decisive Kennedy lead: 2,181,123 popular votes for Robert Kennedy, 1,712,200 votes for Richard Nixon, and 187,893 votes for George Wallace, but the states where Wallace is strongest in have yet to close their polls, so we're not getting reports from, say, Alabama, Wallace's home state where he's expected to win very easily. The map so far:"

8:49

"Maine has somewhat surprisingly given its four electoral college votes to the Democratic candidate Bobby Kennedy...for over 100 years, from 1856 to 1964, Maine was one of the safest Republican states in the country. Maine and Vermont were the only states to hold out for Alf Landon in his landslide defeat to Franklin Roosevelt in 1936. The only exception between 1856 and 1964 was 1912, when Republicans in Maine were split between GOP nominee William Howard Taft and Progressive nominee Theodore Roosevelt, the former Republican president, allowing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to win the state of Maine with a plurality of the vote. But now, for two straight elections, Maine has gone to the Democrats, its four electoral college votes now pledged to Bobby Kennedy. That makes the electoral vote totals 81 for Kennedy, 0 for Nixon and 0 Wallace. We'll be back after a brief break."