European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 03, 1969, Darmstadt, Hesse Hubert Down but not out by Saul Pett a staff writer Only 100 Yards and 500,000 votes away from the White House Hubert Horatio Humphrey was reviewing the Campaign and the election of 1968, he came so close he said his Finger nails could almost touch he said this with no visible twitch. Another week one More week he believes could have won the presidency for him with the momentum he was showing at the end. No twitch. Hubert Humphrey once thought he would be too old to run again for presi Dent in 1972, when he will be 61. He does t think so now. Don t count me out he says. A disastrously divided party is the chief reason Humphrey cites for his de feat in 1968 that and not enough Timeto heal the wounds begun before and during the Chicago convention that nominated him. He says Hubert Humphrey was the no. 1 casualty of the chicag convention riots. His views of the convention and the riots Are basically unchanged although at one Point he said on reflection height have been a Little More critical of the Chicago police with added in formation. On reflection he still thinks the John son administration foreign and domes tic will prove historically Humphrey expressed his views Dur ing a Long interview in Washington. His mood characteristically was largely buoyant and bouncy and optimistic. Also characteristically there was a suggestion of tears several times in his round Blue eyes when he talked of the Campaign As a courtship in which he came so close to winning the girl Burthen did t. He said the lame Duck period of More than by 2 months Between administrations is too Long. Especially if you re the vice president who has just lost close one for the big Job. Q. What s it like being a lame Duck vice president. A. It s bad enough to be a lame Duck anything but when you mix that with the fact that you were the candidate of your party and that you came close but not close enough there Are Many emotions. The main emotion you have at first Isth sadness that you did t do better. That lingers for a while. That and a kind of petulance and controlled anger about the things that you should have done that you did t do or what could have happened that did t happen what other people did and what they did q. What was that first week like for you after the election. Can you give me a Little insight into what the inner mangoes through when it s that close a. Well great disappointment. Re member that in my instance i be been in Public life now 24 years of elected office. This was the ,.the great Opportunity the grand prize and a Man would be less than honest with himself if he did t say that when he s reaching for that prize and comes so close that his fingernails could almost touch it that you feel the. The sense of Dis appointment the deep had some great dreams about the country about what we thought we Page 12 might be Able to do As the president what i might be Able to do working with a number of other people in this country. I Jpn l think All those dreams Are lost by a Long shot they May be delayed. Maybe somebody else will pick them up and fulfil them but a Campaign such As i went through is like an intensive courtship you fall in love with your country All Over again and you make a proposal. You come so closet getting the yes but you Don t. So it s like still being in love with the girl but she s not yours. Q. Why do you think you lost a. Well there s. Many things would say. I think the timing of our convention the late convention was a liability. I Don t think that was premeditated that Way but i think it was because the convention was set for an incumbent president. The fact of the matter is twas the latest convention that any non incumbent candidate had Ever had. The convention that nominated me was held the latest in the history of democratic party conventions. There was a difference of five week Between the Republican convention and the democratic convention. That five weeks was used very productively and profitably by the republicans. I did not have those five weeks to heal wounds to Contact people to bind up the wounds to solidify the political Structure. Then we had the very Long prolonged trouble in our party. That dissension was disastrous. Fortunately we we Reable to repair much of it but it came late very late. I think it s fair to say that we were coming on very fast. Q. Do you think with another we kor two a. Well that s All. Conjecture. Think so. I think so. I Don t know. My own subjective judgment is that we would have gone on to win. Q. In another week or so a. Yes. Surely not More than a the election was nov. 5, q. Apart from that do you think what your opponent offered affected the re sult was the country Ripe for. A. I Don t think there was any prob Lem about the country being ready for us. I be examined this very interesting thing is that the Republican candidate did not gain a percentage Point from the Day that the Campaign really got started in septem Ber until it ended. I think thai my message was getting acceptance not As widespread As we would have liked but enough i believe we had some great dreams about what we. Might be Able to to have come through. Actually the ideological differences As expressed in the Campaign were matters of degree with the possible exception of arms control. I thought we were More explicit on that. I was much More Frank. Not Frank but much More determined on the subject. But. Well you just. We we did t have Money in the beginning. Now the fact is we gained a Good Deal of Money we were Able to get a Good Deal before it was Over but it came late. We actually did not have any Tele vision or any radio until the last three weeks of the Campaign. I m not critical of the Media but think there was a tendency to believe what had been written and said so much that you could to quite catch up with the change of events. Right up to thelast week be fore the election the Lead ing periodicals were saying that i would suffer the most disastrous defeat of any Democrat in the history of the were saying that i had from 39 to 50 votes leaning towards me one went As far As 90 electoral votes. Well look what happened you know when you re telling that right up until the 29$ .4ay of aft is or the 28th Day Otoc Tober a quote ,., there s no Way really to excite people into supporting you. So a lot of things. Well i Call it a Ili Ili Iliili Lull ii ii. A Campaign ,. Is like an intensive courtship you fall in love with your country All Over again and you make g proposal., you come 90 close to getting the yes but you Don t ,. Late Start and a fast ending with a awful Long hiatus in Between a very very costly one. Q. You spoke of a disastrously Divide party and. A. A late convention and then the incidents that surrounded the convention occupied the attention of the Public and of the Media that no doubt left me As a casualty the no. 1 casualty of the Chi Cago riot was the candidate of the democratic party. Q. What could you have done differently that would have affected the out come a. I Don t think much. I think that events affected my political life More than any decisions that i made. First of All the president s decision not to never contemplated running for presi Dent in 1968. I was hopeful that i might be on the ticket As a candidate for vice president. I had no other plans. Then of course the contest that put up in the party. That was one of the unpredictability is that i thin affected the Overall outcome. And the two assassinations. A then of course the convention itself. A the convention , what could i do i Don t think there was much else i could do. I thin the republicans ran a very Well organized i still say that we gave the coun try the kind of a Campaign that the country had come to expect. People be Gan to feel a participation in our politics. And we d made Many plans in the eventuality that we could win. In the last 10 Days i got to thinking we we were prepared for it. I mean i had the Talent search on. We had group of people looking for competent people so i think we did about As much As we coup a do within the time that we had to do it. I suppose we could have put a Little More time in this state or that state but we had to make choices. Have enough Money for allies we did t have enough time. Of on added reflection what Are thoughts about the convention in All and in the streets there were two Chicago. More accomplished in the convention it a terms of modernizing the demo party making More Basic is in the party Structure than any nation in a Hundred years it was an open convention. There debates and the time was divided the debate was heated. That was part of the convention that i. The part of Chicago that was eat importance. It was lost How in All of the fuss and All of the Der and All of the Challenge an the violence. Many people said you should have out with a sharper denunciation of mayor Daley and the Chicago , i said what i believed at the tial. I did t know All the facts. I Iii t know All the facts. I had t the riot except a very out of the Corner window for abut i m not going to try to relive now look Back on it and get e information about it i suppose have been a Little More critical he action of the police. But 1 still say that the provocateurs that were e were determined to cause trouble it what i think is most tragic is to the that trouble that took place i Street with the convention itself Ause tha convention was the demo the convention what took place in Street was a Battle Between the to and provocateurs with a number Ery decent people who called themes demonstrators caught in Between this frequently happens very in Allyse. A. How much did Lyndon Johnson Huft you in the Campaign. I Don t think Lyndon Johnson Hurt there were attacks on the administration of which i was a part. Now Thashi ild have taken the administration in rams and fought for them harder. It the Nanjing or i i look Back on it if anything i Ink these Are great programs. Foreign and Domestic. Yes sir. Now on the Vietnam Issue re was no Way that you could say thing about Vietnam that was t go to get you into trouble some Way Mother so i did what i thought was t. I did t worry about whether the i pus ident liked it whether Mcca Thylil id it or whether the academic com nity liked it or who liked made up my mind in this Campaign help me i said i May not win this Tion but i m going to be True to Myand i refused to Compromise on fundamental issues. How about other things the administration or its image irs like the credibility Gap did that sold Seth i with Hull Well that s All a part of the at my phere in which a candidate who tie from the administration had torte. But that was t Hubert hum by. As i said i was vice president president. Row i was the vice president in this ministration. The attacks on this and list ration naturally affected my Poca Oliph Noti Admi lit ital life. There in t any doubt about that. And i was an advocate of this administration and am. In fact now hat i m leaving i look Back and con Sider that we were that the Johnson administration was truly a historic great administration. I say it now with out gaining a vote or losing one. And i think that the breakthrough that this administration made the Johnson Humphrey administration will be of historical significance what we have done to try to improve the human condition our willingness to come to grips with the fundamental problems of this econ omy. An environment physical Politi Cal social environment is something that will live for years to come. I think historians will look Back and give us pretty Good rating. Q. Cow Gene Mccarthy s announce support of you earlier in the game have made a difference a. A lot of people think so. Q. What do you think ,. A. I m not sure. I think every Little thing of the most rewarding develop ments in the Campaign was our student coalition. They came to me in around the first week in october and they Weka great. It just grew and grew and As. ,. The no. 1 casualty of the Chicago convention riot was the candidate of the democratic party a Lually in Many communities the Only Active political support we had was from the Young the labor movement was a great help to me. The labor movement an the youth were the Backbone of my Effort. You know i carried communities that you would t believe. I carried Scarsdale . I carried Princeton,. No Democrat has Ever done that since Woodrow Wilson. I got a bigger vote in Boston than John Kennedy. I got 78 per cent of the vote in Detroit,85-88 per cent in Washington . I got 99 per cent of the negro vote across this country i carried every major City that i Ever went into. Wherever i went personally into a City we carried it. You know really we took our Licking in the South and the Border states and the Rural areas but right across this country you just name it the communities that we went into. Personally went into we carried including new Orleans including Jacksonville. Wherever i went. Now that to me is quite significant and i think i had some effect As an individual that shows that one Man can make a , when you re All through with it a few More votes in new Jer sey a few More in Illinois and this elec Tion would have been in the House of representatives. A handful More 5,000 More in Missouri and we d of won or just California and Missouri and we d of won or California and new Jersey and we d of won. Just a handful. Now while there s500,000 votes difference if you break it Down to 2 or 3 key states less than150,000 vote change would have changed the whole . I imagine a Man in your position has a hard time shaking these . Actually i Haven t really spent too much time on it. My wife and i really have tried to exercise a Good Deal of self discipline about m not a very bitter person. I guess i should maybe be a Little bit More be been told that. But life is so Short. Why should i spend my Energy being bitter q. You once said that if you were vice president for eight years that would Rule you out of running for presi Dent in 1972. A. I Don t really have any political plans. But i would be less than honest with you if i did t Tell you that i intend to keep myself politically alive. Q. Are you still ruling out 72?a. I Don t Rule out a thing. I m the youngest 57 that you Ever met. I feel Good. And i intend to stay Active. And we re going to rebuild this political party modernize it and strengthen have Good leadership for it and i m going to be in there , i m going Back to teach and to get Back to sense this great generation of Young people. There s a tremendous intellectual physical vitality with thes Young people. I be been Down Here in Washington for 20 years where i veal ways had to be either an advocate of policy or defending one. And i la Tell you that if you re constantly on the Field of Battle it s very hard to be reflective very difficult to really have the time that it takes to evaluate have to seize an alternative and take it. That s the Only stick you be Gotto fight with you know. I mean it s the Only argument that s available immediately. I really Don t know what s going to happen to me politically i just want. I just want everybody to know that i Mon the roster. That s All. I Haven t gone in and checked in my suit and put my shoes on the Hook. I Haven t done that at All. Don t count me be been out on the course before. I know a Little bit about it. I m i Don t intend to just go on off to retirement. No sir of is wrong wrong wrong by George j. Marder up staff writer a pipe Nightmare of almost Al having to beg for donations so that he could run for president haunts Hubert h. Humphrey. It s wrong he says. It is wrong wrong wrong the memory of it hurts per haps More than the bitter taste of defeat. No matter How he tries he cannot hide traces of the wounds he suffered Over Lack of Money during his presidential Campaign. The outgoing vice president was talking about How television was so important to the Campaign and How expensive it was to buy time. He was clearly still bitter Over How he had to scrape for Money and suggested that the Public opinion polls which showed him far be Hind Richard m. Nixon Early in the Campaign dried up possible sources Here s the Way he put it there Are some serious questions by Way of Public policy that we ought to be look ing into. Just on s the Impact of National polls what s the Impact of that on political contributions equal time Access to television is an empty concept of the time must be bought. And with out question there must be a better Way a better system to guarantee equal Access of candidates and parties to the Tele vision viewers of America. I Don t know what the answer is to it All. But we must find it and we must have the courage to come up with it. Elections ought not to be decided on the basis of who has the most Money there is no surer Way to corrupt american life and Ameri can politics than to have the great decision of his nation Auto who will be its Leader and its sense of direction deter mined by the size of a Check Book or a Bank s wrong it is wrong wrong wrong to have to go around seeking Large contrib jul tons from the few Rich in order to conduct a Campaign which you say is for the Many. Can to it. It s wrong i said to Larry Lawrence. O Brien his Campaign Man Ager one time i said. If nobody else feels we can win except myself and my wife and i there in t any Money if i have to go out and just get an old bus which i be done before. I m going to go across this country and give people our message. Because there were to Many Days we could t meet the payroll at All. And there were Days that even your Best Friend had to come to you and say it could t be done. And too Many people believed Thi stars and stripes monday feb a 3, the stars and stripes Page 13
