Posted on 09/03/2007 4:36:17 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
Before reading A Glorious Disaster my knowledge of the 1964 presidential election was shallow. I knew Lyndon Johnson defeated Goldwater in a landslide, but I never really knew anything about the nuts and bolts of the campaign. The 1964 election is an odd one. Johnson had just become president after the Kennedy assassination (killed by a Marxist, go figure). As senator Johnson served as a conservative southern Democrat. He voted against every Civil Rights bill while he was in Congress. Johnson only shifted his opinion later because of the popularity of the measure. Johnson's ambitions were much stronger than any ideology. Wishing to leave his mark on history, Johnson moved rapidly to the left as president.
Goldwater become the conservative choice in 1962. The liberal wing of the Republican party was always hostile to a Goldwater nomination. Unable to rally behind the candidate it was Nelson Rockefeller and George Romney (Mitt Romney's father) who ultimately torpedoed any hope for Goldwater. Early on they branded the Arizona Senator as a tool for the extreme right. It was an absurd accusation, but one that Goldwater was never able to shake during the campaign.
I got the sense reading this book that Goldwater wasn't exactly warm and fuzzy. His campaign was run by a bunch of Arizona loyalists that weren't involved in the draft movement. From the beginning Goldwater was consigned to defeat. He didn't want to run against Johnson who he felt would do anything to win the election. Goldwater's fears were indeed founded. LBJ used the CIA and FBI for campaign surveillance. These abuses of power by the executive branch dwarf anything Nixon ever did, and perhaps anyone that's ever served as president. However, it's not likely it effected the outcome of the election. Goldwater never communicated a clear vision, and was constantly on the defensive. The campaign was run poorly and most of the major newspaper editors throughout the country were adamantly opposed to Goldwater.
Despite the election setback it was the birth of the conservative movement. I don't think Goldwater was ever really the right person for the cause. He didn't communicate well enough, but at that time he was the closest thing to an electable candidate. During that election the former actor Ronald Reagan made his now famous a Time for Choosing"(ViaYouTube) speech that would ultimately make him the face of the conservative movement. His speech is still relevant today.
The author of the book J. William Middendorf II served as the treasurer during the campaign and later for the RNC. His meticulousness attention to detail paints a clear portrait of that period. Middendorf later went on to serve as the Ambassador to the Netherlands under Nixon and later became the Secretary of the Navy. The book is a nice little historic insight into the birth of the conservative movement. A movement that ultimately changed our current political landscape and brought us Ronald Reagan.
Address on behalf of Senator Barry Goldwater
Rendezvous with Destiny
October 27, 1964
Reagan Library
This speech is a verbatim transcript of "The Speech" given as a portion of a pre-recorded, nationwide televised program sponsored by Goldwater-Miller on behalf of Barry Goldwater, Republican candidate for the presidency whom Ronald Reagan actively supported.
VIDEO EXCERPT OF SPEECH
Begins: Those who would trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state have told us that they have a utopian solution of peace without victory. They call their policy "accommodation." And they say if we only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he will forget his evil ways and learn to love us. All who oppose them are indicted as warmongers. They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer--not an easy answer--but simple...."More
If you haven’t watched a Reagan speech in a little while, you almost forget how great he was.
Goldwater was a great personality. He was a modest person, and did not have the fanatical lust for power that he confronted in Johnson, and which we see in so many politicians today (think Hillary, for example). Goldwater was fair to his opponents, and freely agreed to debates. One classic debate was with Eugene McCarthy, the anti-Vietnam Democrat who opposed Johnson in the primaries.
Goldwater was friendly with Jack Kennedy, and the two had an informal agreement that if they ran against each other in 1964, they would travel together throughout the country in a series of debates which would inform the citizenry. That would have been something!
A true Arizonan, Goldwater loved the stillness of the desert. His informality and humor, and his courage, openness, and honesty represented the best in the character of the American Westerner.
I will always remember him. When I shake hands with my children and grandchildren, I can tell them that they just shook hands with a hand which shook hands with Senator Goldwater.
>If you haven’t watched a Reagan speech in a little while, you almost forget how great he was.<
I am so grateful for this opportunity to see President Reagan deliver this extraordinary speech. Surrender=peace=chains and slavery. Appeasement - fight or surrender; duty = face the ultimatum, a decision to be made - preserve the last best hope or condemn to a thousand years of darkness.
He was my kind of man. Duncan Hunter is my kind of man. Preserve the best of Barry Goldwater, revive the spirit of Ronald Reagan. Make the right decision. Give Duncan Hunter a chance.
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