Mismatch

"The worst mismatch since the Liston-Patterson fight." cried an exultant Republican. Many California Democrats sadly assented. Lured reluctantly into a statewide TV debate with Republican Richard Nixon. California's Democratic Governor Pat Brown discovered last week that in a head-on clash he was a dub.

At air time. Brown launched a grim defense of his administration amid nervous pauses to consult notes. Xixon shunned notes and. in his own opener, took gleefully to the attack. The pressure frazzled Brown; he answered a question about welfare payments for unwed mothers by earnestly outlining the plight of "mothers deserted by their fathers."

Whenever a newsman's question was calculated to put Nixon on the defensive, he adroitly turned it into an attack on Brown. Thus, there came a question about a $205,000 loan made in 1956 to Nixon's mother by the Hughes Tool Co.. a giant defense contractor. The loan, which went to support the ailing grocery and restaurant business of Nixon's brother Donald, was made secretly through a Hughes attorney and secured by a filling-station lot owned by Nixon's mother in hometown Whittier. Donald went broke the following year, and the filling station property--on which a commercial lender had offered to put up only $92.000--was accepted by Hughes in full settlement of the debt.

Was it "morally and ethically proper'' for Nixon, who was then Vice President, to condone such an arrangement? Said Nixon: "I have made mistakes, but I am an honest man." Then he quickly cast Brown as the heavy, charged that though Kennedy in 1960 had refused to "make a political issue out of my brother's difficulties." Brown and his "hatchetmen" were conducting a whispering campaign about it. Now. challenged Nixon. "Governor Brown has a chance to stand up as a man and charge me with misconduct. Do it. sir." Caught off guard. Brown retreated in haste, virtually apologized to his opponent and assured him that any talk of the Hughes loan had been only "casual conversation."

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