Man Barry Goldwater was a jutjawed, handsome arizona senator, and a conservative who spoke with clarity and decisiveness. A deeply principled man who would stand up to the Eastern Liberal establishment, and especially who would take a tough line in the cold war. Goldwater but appease an aggressor, and eventually youll have to go to war with him. Man the thing about goldwaters rhetoric that scared people was that goldwater would kick off a nuclear war. You didnt want goldwaters finger next to that button. We have the guts to make our intentions clear so clear they dont need translation or interpretation. Man senator goldwater was not the extremist that he was painted. Some of the people behind him were, but he wasnt. Sabato in 1964, it was the grassroots in the Republican Party that changed the g. O. P. Forever. Almost the entire republican establishment either publicly or privately abhorred goldwater, didnt want him to be the nominee and then didnt really support him when he became the nominee. Man it awoke a sleeping giant. People who were tired of government telling them what to do, and living their lives, and all of a sudden, goldwater brought em out. You and i have a rendezvous with destiny. Johnson personally felt the government had to be active in peoples lives in order for you to get what you needed. Private industry, private sector, wasnt going to do all of it couldnt do all of it. Man if you look at the raft of laws that he passed in the subsequent year or two, its enormous. Its most of the fabric now of our social policy. When johnson went with the Civil Rights Act, remember, winning in the biggest landslide in the history of the country, he lost five southern states. Man certainly all the polarization were talking about now has a lot to do with that realignment of the country, with the south becoming republican. That 64 election really changed the country. Man it was a momentous election in a lot of ways. It transformed the way that politicians talked to their electorate through their advertising. Woman our children should have lots of vitamin a and calcium. But they shouldnt have any strontium90 or cesium137. The daisy commercial was born. They kicked up the notch of dirty politics. Lyndon johnson we must either love each other or we must die. Goldwater, jr. thats become a classic of how to define your opponent. Woman johnson had said, goldwaters already tying the rope around his neck. So let him keep doing it with all of his statements and what hes saying out there on the field, and all we have to do is give it a little tug. So the little tug were the ads that these characters concocted. Sabato you look back at all the election maps and you see what really caused a realignment . What caused people to think differently about their partisan identification . And, boy, it was 1964. The ads before 1964 werent just primitive they were dull. Man eisenhower answers america. The democrats have made mistakes, but arent their intentions good . Well, if the driver of your school bus runs into a truck, hits a lamppost, drives it into a ditch, you dont say, his intentions are good you get a new bus driver. What is the most important issue confronting the American People in this Election Campaign . The 1960s presents our country with great opportunities and great challenges. Mann they were dreadful. I think there was no room for an emotional appeal in a political ad that they had to be factbased, rational presentations. Probably the most exciting ones involved a jingle, because it was the jingle era on television. Ike for president ike for president ike for president ike for president you like ike, i like ike everybody likes ike for president hang out the banners, beat t the drums well take ike to washington sabato virtually every product was sold with a jingle. So i like ike with prancing elephants became the symbol for eisenhower in 1956. Kennedy, kennedy, Kennedy Kennedy, kennedy, Kennedy Kennedy for me kennedy, kennedy, Kennedy Kennedy sabato and john f. Kennedy had the kennedy, kennedy, kennedy, kennedy ad that would literally drive you insane if you listen to it too many times. Try something new sabato well, in 1964, we began the era of professional Television Advertising that really did have an impact. Mann doyle dane bernbach was an upandcoming Advertising Firm on madison avenue that was making a name for themselves with advertisements for upandcoming firms and products that included volkswagen. John f. Kennedy saw the spots and told his brotherinlaw steve smith, go find me that firm. I want to talk to them about maybe doing my advertising for my reelection in 1964. And thats how ddb came into the orbit of Lyndon Johnson and the dnc in 1964. Johnson and the people around him, his aides and his Advertising Firm, wanted to portray goldwater as a dangerous man who, if he got control of the nuclear arsenal, might threaten the peace of the world. Goldwater, jr. the mood of the country at the time was one of worry about the soviet union in particular. Peace was a big issue. Man bombs away. D. Goodwin that fear of Nuclear Holocaust had been part of all of us who grew up in the 50s and 60s. And by that time, we were used to it, after hiding under our desks for so many years. [ sawing noise ] man in a saturday evening post article dated august 31, 1963, Barry Goldwater said, sometimes i think this country would be better off if we could just saw off the eastern seaboard and let it float out to sea. Can a man who makes statements like this be expected to serve all the people justly and fairly . Vote for president johnson on november 3rd. The stakes are too high for you to stay home. Califano we had a i guess i would call it a rift between the socalled rockefeller republicans and the conservative republicans, rockefeller representing the liberal wing of the Republican Party, which, by and large, supported the Great Society programs, and by and large supported the civil rights legislation. Buchanan the rift between goldwater and rockefeller, it goes back, basically, to the battle between taft and dewey, and between taft and eisenhower, the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Against the Eastern Liberal establishment, the moneyed class, wall street. Goldwater, jr. the rockefellers, george romney, scranton they were kind of the titular heads of the party on the east coast, and the east coast pretty well ran the party. Wasnt east and west. It was east and midwest. It was the heartland republicans. By the time the Eisenhower Administration was over, by the 50s, the midwestern heartland republicans were looking to take the party back. Goldwater, jr. there were a lot of people that wanted him to run, and there was really nobody else that he could pass that off to. And the reason he ran was because he didnt want to let these people down, knowing he probably wasnt going to win. Gold it was goldwater who first said and knew he was not going to win the election because he said, the country will not take three president s in over a period of two years. It was too much of a shock. Man dont look now, young man, but somebody has his hand in your pocket. Its the hand of big government. Its taking away about four months pay from what your daddy earns every year. 1 out of every 3 in his paycheck, and its taking the security out of your grandmothers social security. You know, thats the great trouble with big inflationary government. It takes more and more of your earnings. It slowly but surely destroys individual initiative and responsibility. Government must draw its strength from the people. And as it drains away their strength, it must inevitably undermine the foundations of selfgovernment. I ask you to join me in helping restore the individual freedoms and initiatives this nation once knew, to make government more the servant and not the master of us all. In this free nation, we do not choose to be ruled, we elect to be governed. The big campaign was california. We had to take california. By that time, rockefeller was in the race. It was in that campaign that rockefeller used all the nasty stuff that was later used. Rockefellers campaign ran a tv ad that said, senator goldwater cannot start a world war president goldwater could. Sabato rockefeller ruined his chances with a very messy divorce and a remarriage to happy murphy. They had also clearly been having an affair. Happy had rockefellers son just days before the california primary. And this was at an age when publicly known adultery was not tolerated in politicians. Newscaster senator Barry Goldwater needs a thousand hands to receive congratulations after his victory in the california president ial primary. Buchanan and ive never been so excited as when Barry Goldwater won the california primary. I cant recall any election, including the election of richard nixon, of which i was more excited at that particular time, because i knew that meant he had the nomination. Newscaster however, governor rockefeller has promised a fight to the finish. Now, most of the sound and fury will fade until the republicans convene in san franciscos cow palace. Buchanan did i think he could beat Lyndon Johnson at that point . Basically, no. When they got to the convention at the cow palace in san francisco, the moderate liberal republicans scranton, rockefeller, romney were not reconciled to goldwaters nomination. Goldwater, jr. you had that eastern establishment out there who were all jockeying for enough delegates. The goldwater contingent outmaneuvered everybody. We were so well organized. Everyone had walkietalkies, and they were in communication with a headquarters in a trailer outside the cow palace. They had every delegate identified and pinpointed, knew where he was, what his vote was going to be. They had people walking through the cow palace making sure that nobody was out of line. It was well orchestrated and very well done, and we smothered em and took over. [ applause ] i would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. [ cheers and applause ] [ horn blowing ] thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. [ cheers and applause ] gold and when he said that, and people were stunned by the thing, one of the reporters turned around and said, my god, hes going to run as goldwater. Barry goldwater got up and tore that convention apart again, by that line that, extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And i remember i was at stone harbor watching it with my father, and he wanted to see what kind of candidate goldwater was. He got up and said, hes finished. And he was. R. Goodwin he was way to the right of where the country was. People didnt want to hear about extremism from him, or from any president ial candidate. Nelson rockefeller, after the convention that nominated Barry Goldwater, got up to give a speech, and usually you expect a warm embrace of the candidate that did not prevail, and to unify going to the election. Rockefeller it is essential this convention repudiates here and now any doctrine. [ crowd jeering ] chafee and he would get up to the microphone to talk, and the boos would shake the rafters. Any doctrinaire, militant minority, whether communist, ku klux klan, or birchers. Chafee and hed have to step back from the microphone and theyd subside, and then hed get up and hed start to open his mouth, and theyd start again. And he couldnt talk. It went on for over 15 minutes. Wholly alien to the sound and honest republican liberalism that has kept this party abreast of [ audience booing ] human need. Buchanan the forces that could nominate goldwater from the south and west were tearing the Republican Party away from the republican eastern establishment forever, and they could sense that. Let me get to the mic. You give it to em. Its your job now, look the governor hasnt had a chance to talk. Hes been up here 10 minutes, and he hasnt a chance to talk but about four minutes. Buchanan and i think they believed that when goldwater goes down, then that fever will pass, and we will get our party back. And they never got it back. Man back in july in san francisco, the republicans held a convention. Remember him . He was there. Governor rockefeller. Before the convention, he said, Barry Goldwaters positions can, and i quote, spell disaster for the party and for the country. Or him . Governor scranton. The day before the convention, he called goldwaterism a crazyquilt collection of absurd and dangerous positions. Or this man . Governor romney. In june, he said, goldwaters nomination would lead to suicidal destruction of the Republican Party. So even if youre a republican with serious doubts about Barry Goldwater, youre in good company. Buchanan Lyndon Johnson was a washington insider, a wheelerdealer, a riverboat gambler, a guy who cuts deals for programs the antithesis of Barry Goldwater, who would take a clearcut stand on principle. But no one doubted that he was an extremely effective politician, johnson, especially as a congressional politician and a leader on the hill. Sabato understanding that he had gotten the presidency in the worst possible way, he knew that the only way out was to establish himself with a victory so large that no one could say he was simply filling the office of what wouldve been Jack Kennedys second term. I think that he wanted a landslide because then he knew hed get his legislation passed. Roosevelt was his hero, and i think that johnson said to himself that, im going to be as good as roosevelt maybe even better. If he came in as a powerhouse, and with strength like that, it was going to be tough for the congress to turn him down on the difficult things he wanted to get passed. [ cheers and applause ] sabato we are used to conventions today that are completely scripted and utterly boring. My fellow americans, i accept your nomination. [ cheers and applause ] sabato what i think was significant about the Democratic Convention it also began the tradition of heavily scripted conventions. They carefully thought about what should happen each evening, what people at home would see. New jersey was picked, in part, because at the time, it voted republican quite often, and it was part of that northeast republican philosophy. And let none of us stop to rest until we have written into the law of the land all the suggestions that made up the John Fitzgerald kennedy program, and then let us continue to supplement that program with the kind of laws that he would have us write. [ cheers and applause ] sabato and the theme of the convention was, let us continue. And that said, about as clearly as possible, that johnson was john f. Kennedys successor, and that his election would permit people to continue the policies they now overwhelmingly back. Most americans want an education for every child to the limit of his ability, and so do i. Mann doyle dane bernbach, they had a surprising amount of control. They treated the Convention Hall as a television studio. Most americans want victory in our war against poverty, and so do i. [ cheers and applause ] mann they decorated the hall. From the banners to just about everything that happened during the convention bore some of ddbs fingerprints. They treated the Convention Like an advertising event. So, in many ways, they staged the convention, which was a new innovation, as well, to turn a convention over to an Advertising Firm. It still took another 20 or 30 years for the parties to really learn that they had to turn this into a fourday television commercial. These are the goals of this great, rich nation. These are the goals toward which i will lead if the American People choose to follow. [ cheers and applause ] senator, the news from South Vietnam and, indeed, from all of southeast asia, gets worse and worse with each passing day. Now, a lot of the supply lines seem to run on the laotian border, in any case through jungles and long trails. How could you interdict those . There have been several suggestions made. I dont think that we would use any of them. But defoliation of the forest by lowyield atomic weapons could well be done. When you remove the foliage, you remove the cover. Man on october 24, 1963, Barry Goldwater said of the nuclear bomb merely another weapon. Merely another weapon . Sabato johnsons strategy against goldwater can be summarized in one word extremism. That was how he wanted to define goldwater, and goldwater played a role himself at every turn. [ speaking russian ] and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible. [ speaking russian ] with liberty and justice for all. I want American Kids to grow up as americans. And they will if we have the guts to make our intentions clear. So clear, they dont need translation or interpretation just respect for a country prepared as no country in all history ever was. Sabato goldwaters slogan in your heart, you know hes right. His advisors tried to talk him out of that, because they realized the use of the word right reemphasized his conservative platform. Goldwater insisted upon it. And it took democrats approximately five minutes to come up with their parody in your guts, you know hes nuts. So Lyndon Johnson and the Democratic Party painted goldwater as some guy that would be reckless. And i think that was a big part of it. And so the whose hand do you want on the trigger . Was a commonplace thing in the campaign. That set up what johnson wanted to do, which was portray him