Miami and the Siege of Chicago Read Online Free PDF

relative accuracy, but was probably structuring his figures today. He gave the impression of an extraordinarily intelligent man, in appearance not unlike Jack E. Leonard doing a straight turn, as if all of Jack E. Leonard’s hyper-acute intelligence had gone into the formidable bastions of Squaresville. “My goodness,” said Hall at one point, “Rockefeller means the difference for thirty or forty Republican Congressmen between getting elected ... and being in trouble.” He was not about to say Nixon would certainly make them go down. “These Congressmen are human beings. They want to win.” But picture Jack E. Leonard talking like that. Some part of conviction was lacking. When Hall said “My goodness” he looked too much like the director of the most impressive funeral establishment in the nation, the kind of man who certainly couldn’t think much of you if, my goodness, you wouldn’t spring ten thousand smackeroonies for a casket.
    There had also been Bill Miller, the man who had run for Vice President on Barry Goldwater’s ticket in ’64. Now he was supporting Rockefeller. When asked if he and Gold-water were still friends, he said, “I’ve promised to go along with Governor Rockefeller, and he has said that if he is not nominated, he will support the convention’s choice. Gold-water has said he will work for anybody the convention nominates. So sooner or later, Barry and I will be together again.” Miller had the big head, big nose, and little hunched shoulders which are reminiscent of an ex-jockey. He had become popular with the Press during the last Presidential campaign. Becoming convinced somewhere en route that Barry’s cause was hopeless, he had spent his time on the Vice Presidential campaign plane drinking bourbon and playing cards; when the plane came to a stop, he would get out, give his airport speech to the airport rally—usually a small crowd at a small airport—get back in the plane again, his card hand still warm, and pick up the play. Now he was wending his way through trick questions, emphasizing his long continuing relations with Rockefeller, whom he had supported for election four times while Rockefeller indeed had supported him seven times, so no curiosity that he was back of Rocky now. Miller talked in a barking voice full of snap. Where it had once been disagreeable in a formal speech, it was not unattractive here. Maybe all that bourbon and bridge had mellowed him since ’64—he no longer looked like the nastiest yap in town.
    To the contrary, he now had all the political oils. He was for Rockefeller because Rockefeller solved problems through action. “You name a problem, and in New York we’ve got it.” So he went on to cite the Governor’s fine record in highways and air pollution and conservation. It was hard to know just what he was talking about. Every year the traffic in New York was worse, and the air less possible to breathe, the Hudson River more polluted. It gave a hint of the extra-terrestrial dimension where Rockefeller and his advisers must live. Plans, large projects, huge campaigns, government fundings, mass participation in government, successful prosecution of air pollution, comprehensive surveys of traffic control, people’s candidate, public opinion polls—the feather of doubt would whisper that Rockefeller was better suited for the Democrats than the Republicans. There were nuts and bolts and small tools necessary for unscrewing a Republican delegate from a first attachment to a second, and Rockefeller might have nothing smaller to employ than a bulldozer. But on to the Nixon camp.

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    The Orpheum Room in the Hilton Plaza where Herb Klein, Director of Press Relations for Nixon, held his conferences, looked like a public room for small gatherings which had been converted to a surgical theater. The approach was along a red corridor with red carpet, red ceiling, red