“Handsome, energetic, and tremendously successful at everything he did, Romney was thought to be the GOP’s best hope at capturing the White House—until September 4, 1967—40 years ago today—when his candidacy suddenly imploded.”
“Romney, on the other hand, was a relatively liberal Republican who had openly refused to endorse Goldwater, criticizing him as an extremist, and who had led a 10,000-person civil rights march in Detroit in 1965 to protest the events of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama. And many party leaders in 1967 were in no mood to listen to the party’s growing conservative wing.”
” George Romney was cut from different cloth. A devout Mormon who didn’t smoke, drink, gamble, or use strong language, he had served as a missionary in Great Britain before moving on to a successful business career, first with the Aluminum Corporation of America and later as head of American Motors, a company he rescued from near-bankruptcy with his introduction of a new fuel-efficient car, the Rambler. “
“In 1962 Romney, a lifelong Republican, won the first of three terms as governor of Michigan. He soon became known as a voice of racial reconciliation and an advocate for moderation in a party that was drifting rightward.”
“By late 1967, however, he was having second thoughts. In a program taped on August 31 and broadcast on September 4, he told a Michigan television interviewer that he no longer believed that the U.S. could win in Vietnam. And then he made his big gaffe. He said top military officials and diplomats in Saigon had given him a “brainwashing” in the fall of 1965, misleading him into thinking that America was sure to defeat the Communists.”
“The public reaction was swift and merciless. Though Romney tried to qualify his statement, explaining that he had not been subject to a “Russian-style but [rather an] L.B.J.-style brainwashing,” the damage was done. His admission suggested both naiveté and weakness when the country was looking for strength and certitude. On November 18 he formally declared his candidacy, but his campaign got nowhere, and late the following February he withdrew from the race. “
http://www.americanheritage.com/people/articles/web/20070904-george-romney-brainwash-richard-nixon-vietnam-lbj.shtml
Thank you for the information.
I suggest you hold your fire and see how well Fred does, because we're going to need someone who can defeat Giuliani and then Hillary in the general.