Never Again

A little over two years after a small group of Republicans met secretly in a downtown Chicago motel to launch the Draft-Goldwater movement, the Republican National Committee met in Chicago to complete the final formalities of dropping Goldwater. A few die-hard right-wingers tried to delay the foreordained resignation of Goldwater's personally picked national chairman, Dean Burch, but Barry himself wanted no part of that. At the politics-encrusted Sheraton-Blackstone Hotel, Ohio's Ray Bliss was duly acclaimed as Burch's successor amidst a Greek chorus chanting party unity.

Because of Fear. Bliss vowed simply: "I am no miracle man--but I will work hard and do my best for you." In deciding to relinquish committee control, said Richard Nixon, Goldwater and Burch had "averted the greatest danger of a third-party movement this party has faced since 1912." Now, he added, "what we need is a second party."

There were lots of post-mortems about November. Kentucky Senator Thruston Morton, a former national chairman, drew cheers with a candid critique, most of it aimed straight at Goldwater. "We lost because of fear," he said, "the most common emotion to all mankind." The Democrats played on general fears of nuclear war and the loss of Government economic benefits. Moreover the Republicans had failed to "accentuate the positive," added Morton, had oversimplified complex problems such as Viet Nam, and had alienated the Negro vote. "There are those in our party, both North and South, who say 'Forget the Negro vote.' Well, the Negro vote in the South is going to be more important than the Negro vote in Detroit, in Cleveland, in Chicago, in St. Louis, San Francisco, Philadelphia or New York." The G.O.P., said Morton, must gain in the South, "but not on a racist basis."

The Proudest Thing. Barry Goldwater accepted the criticism. "Let's quit blaming everyone for this defeat I suffered," said Barry. "It was my fault. It wasn't the fault of Dean Burch, or of Dennie Kitchel, or of people in this section of the country or that section. I'm sorry I didn't do better. I'm sorry that a lot of good men went down with me." Still, he was unrepentant about some things and bitter about others: "If the speeches were bad, you can blame me--but I liked them." Most of the analyses of the election, he said, added up to the idea that "I wasn't dishonest enough in this campaign to win." Moreover, he was not fighting just another party but "the full muscle power of the Federal Government."

As for being a presidential candidate again, Goldwater said only: "I have never been so honored in my life. I will never be so honored again. I will carry this honor to my grave as the proudest thing I own."

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