Newspapers / Jones County Journal (Trenton, … / Jan. 23, 1969, edition 1 / Page 3
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The latest figWS? I have seen give George Wallace 9,900,000 t votes, some IS or M per cent of the total number cast. In itself, that is an impressive number but what it really means Is problematical. It is a png way from the minimum needed to win, 34 per cent — but, then again, it may not be. Wallace’s chance in 1972 may be far bet ter than might be supposed. Consider the facts: It is only in the voting booth that the citizen must make ' an absolute choice. Until he has marked his ballot, he mgy have been torn between several candidates. Such Pdon’t-know folks'are a common phenomenon. They are, really, the principal reas on a campaign is waged, to win over the undecided. In Wallace’s case, polls taken a month before the election showed almost twice as many people expressing a preference for the little Judge as actually voted for him on election day. Those voters, in one degree or another, retain a residual of sentiment for Wallace. And certainly there are millions ttt&ttjmtdr this; A national more who, while sharing many of Wallace’s expressed convic tions, never did quite think they would vote for him, and didn’t. Sjuch pnvWaljace leanings as theirs were never reflected in the polls. Couple these three factors, those who actually voted for Wallace, plus those who at one time thought they would but did not, plus- thorn pho only leaned his way, and, chances are, if they were all won over they Would constitute enough voting strength to make the dif ference, But what chance is there of that? That is what is problemat ical. If such people are “ffiaost ready”, as they say in otb£r cir cles, the percentage Wallace ac tually received in 1988- is mis leading. If they are a long way from “ready,” the vote he re ceived is. a true reflection of his strength! In any event, that is what Wallace needs to win, his maxi mum potential made into a re ality. .. t - ; But, how to do it? That is the question. How to inject the soupcon of courage or convic tion needed to win over the hesitant; how to make voters of sympathizers. To say that Wallace, himself, conducted a magnificlent cam paign is to -understate the case. It is probable, as a personality, his effort was the best of this century. It is indisputable* George Wallace’ did as well as George Wallace could have done: Yet, he faded:' What else;i then, is needed* for victoryt' i five, it is to entrust the future to a fickle fate. To try to in crease Wallace’s personal sta ture as a vote getter — already at its proved maximum — is im possible. Such an effort would lead, first, to distortion of the Other Editors Sey THE MONTGOMERY INDEPENDENT US's Forlorn Signoff Perhaps the long range of hi* tory will see Mm-differently, but for now Lypdofl Johnson leaves the White House as a textbook example of the folly of appease* ment. Here was a man who so desperately craved acceptance that he seemed to sell out him self and his convictions in a vain effort to achieve it. Even at the last moment, his desire for acceptance surpassing his pride, Johnson went before Con gress to sign out personally, call ing upon all the mawkish and maudlin devices to engender sympathy. The effort was not lost upon this listener. Johnson was, in deed, a creature in need of sym pathy. He had done everything possible, legislatively, to earn the affection of American pres sure groups. As his biographers will say, he did more on the sta tute books for the Negro, labor, poor people and other identi fiable blocs than any other Pres ident. Yet Johnson's career ends in alienation. Johnson’s overweening weak ness was to be all things to all men- This was borne, no doubt, of his Southern — or as he would put it, Western — heri tage. Having followed the ele gant Kennedy into office, John son never seemed to accept with confidence that he was Presi dent. He constantly had to prove that he could rise above his dis graceful Southern background, and this led him to **y to be more Boston than the Kennedy’s. The act fooled nobody, least of all those Johnson most want ed to enchant. Without regard to section or politics, people do not appreciate public men who turn on their heel to curry pub lic favor. They sense that a man with such a ravenous hunger for national acceptance will do anything to get it. There is an article in Harp er’s magazine this month, tell ing of an abortive attempt by Johnson to woo the so-called ar tists and intellectuals with a White House soiree. These ill bred thugs all but spit in the President’s face, so little did they respect him or his office. But that is the point. Johnson chipped away his old support without ever making out with the new. In fact, as we have written before, Johnson was a more ef fective President, in terms of the legislation he jammed through, than his predecessor. But John son didn’t walk right or talk right and becafne an object of scorn to those who had idolized John Kennedy. Johnson tried WHAT IS THE ANSWER? by Henry E. Garrett, Ph.D. Profawor Emeritus, Psychology, Columbia Unlvarsfty 'Past President, American Psychological Association Q: Dr. Garrett, look at this, from the Liberator magazine, and written by W? W. ferry, vice president of the left-wing Fund for the Republic: "...The Unit ed States is a White ManVooun try conducted by White customs aiid> laws for White purposes... Integration in the U. S. is a sen timental not a doctrinal idea. Ra cial integration in the U. S. is impossible. If we in Whitetown had ever really wanted integra tion we would have rushed to achieve it...Finally we shall have to learn how to run a separated society. Since we cannot have integration, we must have some thing." That almost sounds like you. Dr. Garrett. Do you agree with it. A: It about sizes it up. at. FUNERAL HOME Your Trust Is Sacred ishes Cared* For . . . Kinston, N. C. candidate, then, to his destruc tion. George Wallace, for all his qualities, is not political Atlas. The answer lies within the or ganization he has created. If, during these immediate years of grace, George Wallace can suc cessfully add to The American Independent Party the sinew and muscle needed to get the in cipient votes his own maximum personal effort failed to win, he will prove himself to be what many of us suspect he is: The greatest public figure in Ameri can life. That, it seems, is Wallace’s job for the time being. We will see how it goes. to hard, too crudely to win those who were forever hostile to him. Had he remained true to him self, perhaps it might have been projected enough strength and purpose to have avoided such unpleasantness as his meeting with the “intellectuals,” who thought so little of him as to thumb him to his face. So Lyndon Johnson goes back to Texas, even now imploring Americans to love him The In dependent feels no rancor toward him.— really pity, for him and the country he left be him. Johnson never learned that he couldn't buy or beg universal love, and in that he booted away the quality of respects There is left the memory of him on television, crying out to Congress when he was proposing civil rights legislation: “We shall overcome.” In view of what hap pened thereafter — to him and the country — that statement says enough about Johnson’s taste, wisdom and sense of cor rectness. Those of us who share his policies know best the price he paid in a futile effort to buy greatness. Renew Your Subscription Frosty Mom Meats Inc. 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Jones County Journal (Trenton, N.C.)
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Jan. 23, 1969, edition 1
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