political conventions - the bomb squad

8/3/2019 Political Conventions - The Bomb Squad

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THE BOMB SQUAD 93

The Bomb SquadAll campaigns have lit fuses hanging around. We just

never know whats at the end of the fusebig bomb ...

little bomb ... no bomb.

Some candidates walk into a room and change the temperature.

Others walk in, take the temperature of the room and then decide what

to say or do. In Canada, it was said that Pierre Trudeau would walk into

a room and the room would change. His Conservative rival, Joe Clark,

would walk into a room and someone would send him out for coffee.

Similarly, some candidates light fuses that may have bombs at the end.

Others are one-person bomb squads who can defuse difficult situations.

Its hard to decide whether Harry Truman lit bombs, defused them or

both. When he ran for president, he was not thought well of, largely

because he was not FDR. In 1948, the Dixiecrats on the right and

Henry Wallaces Progressive Party on the left were eroding Democratic

votes. The media, the money and the polls all expected Republicanrival Thomas Dewey to win the election. Truman began his Give em

Hell, Harry campaign at 2:00 a.m. at a raucous convention by pledg-

ing, I will win this election and make these Republicans like it. But

he also ran a bitter campaign. Where FDR would have turned a witty

phrase, Truman spoke of gluttons of privilege ... silent and cunning

men ... puppets of big business ... bloodsuckers who have offices in

Wall Street and of Republican congressmen who would cut the

throats of the farmer and the laboring man. He provided a turning-

point in nasty campaigning.

Richard Nixons various careers and comebacks put him in several

categories as a speaker. His Checkers speech was a defining moment

and turned some memorable phrases. If he hadnt known how to

defuse a potential scandal, he would have had no vice-presidency and

perhaps no presidency. That speech also marked the moment when

political discourse turned from intellectual oratory to expedience and

creating media sound bites and quotes that could salvage or win a

campaign. Nixon was 39, a one-term senator who found himself onEisenhowers ticket as candidate for vice-president and facing a news

story accusing him of having a secret fund of $18,000 from rich

supporters in his home state of California. But there was no evidence

of influence-peddling, and other candidates in history had had their

supporters contribute to a fund. Still, the story wouldnt go away, and


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some eastern newspapers started calling for Nixon to get off the ticket.

Nixon was not entirely sure what to do but got a shot in the arm from

his wife Pat, who urged him to fight to stay on. Former candidate

Thomas Dewey suggested a national broadcast, and Eisenhower then

advised his running-mate to tell all.Nixon prepared to speak to the largest political audience to that date.

Dewey called an hour before air time and advised Nixon to resign from

the ticket at the end of the broadcast, but Pat bucked him up in the

dressing-room.

Nixon turned few eloquent phrases but got the job done. He noted that

the Democrats candidate for president, Adlai Stevenson, had a similar

fund and their candidate for vice-president had his wife on the senate

payroll. Ironically, given his later performance in the 1960 debate,Nixon was a great TV performer for the time, using eye contact with

the camera and moving around the living-room set with skill. At the

end he asked viewers to write the Republican National Committee with

their verdict on whether he should stay on the ticket, and support was

overwhelming.

Few people remember the money issues involved or the laundry list

of personal assets Nixon cited, but at the time some may have been

impressed with the way he used an auditors report and a legal opinion

about his fund. What people do mostly remember, though, is the quotethat Pat doesnt have a mink coat. But she does have a respectable

Republican cloth coat. But it was the little dog, Checkers, that gave

the speech its shorthand name. In a melodramatic moment, Nixon

confessed to receiving a gifta little cocker-spaniel dog in a crate ...

sent all the way from Texas... And our little girlTricia, the 6-year-old-

named it Checkers. And, you know, the kids love the dog, and I just

want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it,

were going to keep it. Nixon diffused this bomb but would face others

in the 60s and 70s.

Few bombs have been as big, or defused as skillfully, as the religion

issue in the 1960 campaign. JFK used all the rhetorical techniques he

could muster. In a speech to newspaper editors he said, I do not speak

for the Catholic Church on issues of public policy, and no one in the

church speaks for me.

When influential protestant minister and author Dr. Norman Vincent

Peale said religion should be an issue in the campaign, Kennedy needed

to do more. The ironically named National Conference of Citizens forReligious Freedom, led by Dr. Peale, claimed Kennedy would be the

captive of his church, which would influence his government.

Kennedy spoke to the Houston Ministerial Association and clarified:

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no Catholic prelate would tell the President ... how to act, and no

Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote.

Today, a presidential candidate would have to proclaim his faith and

how it influenced his public policy, rather than stating, I am not the

Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Partys candi-date for President, who happens also to be a Catholic.

George McGovern not only blew up in 1972, he also made the bomb,

lit the fuse and made sure there was a nice dry place for the fires to

rage after the explosion. The image he helped to create of Democrats

as weak on national security and big spenders has undermined the

party to this day. Having to deliver his acceptance speech at 3:00 a.m.

further detracted from the party image. If they couldnt run a conven-

tion, how could they run a country? He pledged a full withdrawal from

Viet Nam in 90 days. He said it was time for America to come home

and deal with domestic issues. To many at the time this sounded like

abandoning the fight against Communism.

Much the same was true of Walter Mondale in 1984. In his accept-

ance speech he said Mr. Reagan will raise your taxes, and so will I.

Thats exactly what happened, but nobody wanted to hear that it

would happen.

Candor, humor and timing can defuse bombs: bombast, ego and wish-

ful thinking all make them go off.

THE BOMB SQUAD 95

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