The Bomb Squad

All campaigns have lit fuses hanging around. We just never know whats at the end of the fusebig bomb ... little bomb ... no bomb. Some candidates walk into a room and change the temperature. Others walk in, take the temperature of the room and then decide what to say or do. In Canada, it was said that Pierre Trudeau would walk into a room and the room would change. His Conservative rival, Joe Clark, would walk into a room and someone would send him out for coffee. Similarly, some candidates light fuses that may have bombs at the end. Others are one-person bomb squads who can defuse difficult situations. Its hard to decide whether Harry Truman lit bombs, defused them or both. When he ran for president, he was not thought well of, largely because he was not FDR. In 1948, the Dixiecrats on the right and Henry Wallaces Progressive Party on the left were eroding Democratic votes. The media, the money and the polls all expected Republican rival Thomas Dewey to win the election. Truman began his Give em Hell, Harry campaign at 2:00 a.m. at a raucous convention by pledging, I will win this election and make these Republicans like it. But he also ran a bitter campaign. Where FDR would have turned a witty phrase, Truman spoke of gluttons of privilege ... silent and cunning men ... puppets of big business ... bloodsuckers who have offices in Wall Street and of Republican congressmen who would cut the throats of the farmer and the laboring man. He provided a turningpoint in nasty campaigning. Richard Nixons various careers and comebacks put him in several categories as a speaker. His Checkers speech was a defining moment and turned some memorable phrases. If he hadnt known how to defuse a potential scandal, he would have had no vice-presidency and perhaps no presidency. That speech also marked the moment when political discourse turned from intellectual oratory to expedience and creating media sound bites and quotes that could salvage or win a campaign. Nixon was 39, a one-term senator who found himself on Eisenhowers ticket as candidate for vice-president and facing a news story accusing him of having a secret fund of $18,000 from rich supporters in his home state of California. But there was no evidence of influence-peddling, and other candidates in history had had their supporters contribute to a fund. Still, the story wouldnt go away, and
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some eastern newspapers started calling for Nixon to get off the ticket. Nixon was not entirely sure what to do but got a shot in the arm from his wife Pat, who urged him to fight to stay on. Former candidate Thomas Dewey suggested a national broadcast, and Eisenhower then advised his running-mate to tell all. Nixon prepared to speak to the largest political audience to that date. Dewey called an hour before air time and advised Nixon to resign from the ticket at the end of the broadcast, but Pat bucked him up in the dressing-room. Nixon turned few eloquent phrases but got the job done. He noted that the Democrats candidate for president, Adlai Stevenson, had a similar fund and their candidate for vice-president had his wife on the senate payroll. Ironically, given his later performance in the 1960 debate, Nixon was a great TV performer for the time, using eye contact with the camera and moving around the living-room set with skill. At the end he asked viewers to write the Republican National Committee with their verdict on whether he should stay on the ticket, and support was overwhelming. Few people remember the money issues involved or the laundry list of personal assets Nixon cited, but at the time some may have been impressed with the way he used an auditors report and a legal opinion about his fund. What people do mostly remember, though, is the quote that Pat doesnt have a mink coat. But she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat. But it was the little dog, Checkers, that gave the speech its shorthand name. In a melodramatic moment, Nixon confessed to receiving a gifta little cocker-spaniel dog in a crate ... sent all the way from Texas... And our little girlTricia, the 6-year-oldnamed it Checkers. And, you know, the kids love the dog, and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, were going to keep it. Nixon diffused this bomb but would face others in the 60s and 70s. Few bombs have been as big, or defused as skillfully, as the religion issue in the 1960 campaign. JFK used all the rhetorical techniques he could muster. In a speech to newspaper editors he said, I do not speak for the Catholic Church on issues of public policy, and no one in the church speaks for me. When influential protestant minister and author Dr. Norman Vincent Peale said religion should be an issue in the campaign, Kennedy needed to do more. The ironically named National Conference of Citizens for Religious Freedom, led by Dr. Peale, claimed Kennedy would be the captive of his church, which would influence his government. Kennedy spoke to the Houston Ministerial Association and clarified:

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no Catholic prelate would tell the President ... how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote. Today, a presidential candidate would have to proclaim his faith and how it influenced his public policy, rather than stating, I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Partys candidate for President, who happens also to be a Catholic. George McGovern not only blew up in 1972, he also made the bomb, lit the fuse and made sure there was a nice dry place for the fires to rage after the explosion. The image he helped to create of Democrats as weak on national security and big spenders has undermined the party to this day. Having to deliver his acceptance speech at 3:00 a.m. further detracted from the party image. If they couldnt run a convention, how could they run a country? He pledged a full withdrawal from Viet Nam in 90 days. He said it was time for America to come home and deal with domestic issues. To many at the time this sounded like abandoning the fight against Communism. Much the same was true of Walter Mondale in 1984. In his acceptance speech he said Mr. Reagan will raise your taxes, and so will I. Thats exactly what happened, but nobody wanted to hear that it would happen. Candor, humor and timing can defuse bombs: bombast, ego and wishful thinking all make them go off.

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