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Thursday, July 25, 1968
Lin Davis
Sty? Star
The University of North Carolina Summer Weekly
WILLIAM A. RUSSO. Editor
WILLIAM MIGNIUOLO, Business Manager
REBEL GOOD. Managing Editor
An Abo.
Friends, an apology is in order.
Its due to that old nemisis of the Tar Heel and
that recipient of many summer sallies by the
students.
Namely to Graham Memorial-yes to old GM.
We have complained time and time again this
summer about the lack of social fare offered to the
Carolina summer students.
Like they say in the movies, no more baby, no
more.
You see, there was this dance last week, on
Thursday to be exact, before the weekend
migration to fields afar began.
There was even a reputable band playing.
All the ingrediants of a good dance were in
attendence-with one noticeable exception.
There weren't any students there. (That is, to be
sure, a mild exaggeration; there were at least ten of
the faithful on that lonely floor.)
As we said an apology is in order.
So . . .we're sorry GM.
We made the goof this time . . .we weren't
there.
We'll take the watermelon and ice cream lawn
parties as they come.
And we won't forget the billiards. That's every
Friday and Saturday night . . .Right?
Ihe New
The "Peasant Revolution"
may not stand for all the people.
But it is, by any standard, their
most viable representative.
When the "people's
representatives" gather in
Chicago in the next few weeks,
the future of 200 million
Americans will depend on the
votes of these 1,312 delegates.
There can be no excuse or
uncertainty on their parts as to
where the people stand.
It is certain that Richard
Nixon and Hubert Humphrey
are not what this election is all
about They may very well be
what the political parties are all
about. But the political parties
in today's diction are the
delegates. True, the political
parties used to be the people,
but not anymore.
In the United States, it takes
power to seize a political party's
nomination, much less win the
Presidency. And power is
something which both Nixon
and Humphrey seem to have.
But they don't have the most
important thing the people.
And who does represent the
people? The Peasant Revolution
echoes McCarthy, McCarthy,
McCarthy. But all this appears
much simpler than it really
is for McCarthy's
representation is not without
flaws, either.
It was McCarthy and
Kennedy together who so
effectively opposed the war in
Vietnam that President Johnson
was forced to alter his policy
and withdraw from the election
campaign. And if McCarthy was
first in that endeavor, it was
Kennedy who most effectively
dramatized the plight of the
poor and downtrodden for
which the candidates indicted
the Johnson administration.
Thus, one of McCarthy's
major obstacles has been the
shadow of Bobby Kennedy
which always seems
superimposed upon him and his
campaign.
The real trouble with
McCarthy is his lack of political
orthodoxy. His willingness and
determination to break with the
past not only past policies, but
past attitudes make his army
appear rather amateurish. This in
turn makes them openly suspect
to he Democrats who backed
Kennedy, for McCarthy seems
not only to ignore the
professional party organization,
but in many cases to threaten it.
His "coalition of conscience"
instead of a coalition of interest
groups is perhaps just not
practical American politics.
Robert Kennedy, on the
other hand, was quite adept "at
"straddling the fence." He could
challenge LBJ and arouse the
ghetto and expound on
programs and ideas that were
indeed radical while
simultaneously courting the
old-fashioned pros like Mayor
Daley and offering enough
personal appeal and party
regularity to touch off the
voting blocs at the base.
McCarthy perhaps does not
try hard enough W exercise the
abovementioned "straddling."
For he must talk to the delegates
in the only language they have
any respect forpower. At the
convention, with a power
momentum having been built
up, the fights on credentials and
roiracs
platform planks will have all the
more impact because the
McCarthy delegates will be
speaking for a large, voluble,
angry constituency that will be
able to convert its anger into
retaliation if Humphrey is
nominated.
Indeed, McCarthy might do
better at this point to learn from
the past rather than separate
himself from it. And, too,
Bob Hunter
Ronald Reagan 9s
Outside Chance
After watching the
maneuvering at the National
Governor's conference, this
observer is becoming more
convinced that the Republicans
will have a rerun of the 1964
convention at Miami Beach. The
big question will be if the rest of
the year will prove to be true to
the 1964 plot.
No longer are the national
newsmags and the national news
media proclaiming the
inevitability thesis. Something
has changed, it could be that
Hubert and Dick have just shut
up and stopped talking, but a
quiet anxiety seems to be the
prevailing National mood. Time
magazine, surprisingly enough,
has given an excellent essay this
week concerning what
Americans want in a president.
Basically the essay states they
want a messiah, an actor in a
morality play, or as Northrup
Frye might have it a hero king.
The only other attribute I could
add is that they earnestly desire
a New Hero King. Dick Nixon
and HHH just aren't right for
that role.
Now comes the question,
who is? The coming man to
watch at the convention in
Miami Beach is going to be
Ronald Reagan. Recent moves
by Republican governors almost
assure that Nixon will not get a
first ballot victory. The
Southern delegations, the basis
of Nixon support, are waning.
Take the example of North
Carolina where Jim Gardner is
considering running as a favorite
son. Indeed a Gardner move to
hold delegates for Reagan is
clearly in the cards even if Jim
won't admit it. All over the
south Republicans are going to
be killed by George Wallace
unless they steal his thunder by
nominating Reagan.
As to Reagan's novelty,
Reagan is going to play his
newness for all that it is worth.
He refrains from t.v. interviews,
won't definitively discuss the
race, and meekly has dropped
the pretense "I'm not a
candidate." The irony of Reagan
is that the more he is quiet the
more the press hounds him. He
is not-so-surprisingly going about
the South and West rounding up
delegates in a relaxing way. He
can count on all the old
Goldwater support in the party
which is clearly looking for a
new bag. He goes over well on
television and could generate a
perhaps both McCarthy and
former Kennedy supporters
would do wisely to give more
significance to the words of
Robert Kennedy last March 16
when he entered the presidential
race "the disastrous and divisive
policies of the Johnson
Administration at home and
abroad can be changed only by
changing the men who are now
making them."
clean-cut Lochinvar image.
Indeed he is anything but an old
professional.
The old pro in his group is
Clifton White, the strategist who
engineered the Goldwater coup
in 1964. This time White will do
it something like this: Reagan
will start with a few delegates in
the South and West. California
will enthusiastically nominate
her favorite son Ronald's first
great exposure (not counting the
late movies, will begin in
earnest). The mid-western
governors will begin to hold out
their delegations until a breaking
point is reached Rocky will hold
the Eastern establishment in
line, . refusing to cut Reagan
down while attacking Nixon.
Reagan will tie Rocky on about
the third ballot, Nixon will drop
to third on the fourth round and
finally disappear. The former
Nixon professionals . and
rank-and-file will go to Reagan
while the larger names, Percy,
Hatfield, etc. will withhold
endorsement. By about the eight
ballot Reagan, after a
compromise with Rocky, will
receive the nomination. A liberal
will be named to fill the
vice-presidential slot, perhaps
Percy of Illinois.
How different are things from
1964? Well to begin with Reagan
does not have the image that
Goldwater had and has kept up
his popularity (contrary to the
recall petition) in California. He
has kept the budget in line and
been a moderate success in
administrative decisions. He has
been noticably quieter than
Barry has about foreign policy.
He's good, clean, and middle
class. When he campaigns on
television he would kill
humphrey.
In fact, he fits what most
Americans think of when they
think of the presidential image.
The Republican convention
pick Ronald Reagan, as the two
dollar long shot, Nixon as a five
dollar win, and Rocky as a
ten-cent long shot. ;
"A gossip doesn't wait for
opportunity does her own
knocking!"