 | The Cavalier daily. Tuesday, September 24, 1968 |  |
Major Parties Suffer Disillusionment With Nominees
Nixon Leads In Three Way Race, Wallace Gains In Harris Poll
Richard M. Nixon leads Hubert H. Humphrey, 39 to 31
percent, in a Louis Harris survey published yesterday
which also showed George C. Wallace gaining on both
major candidates.
The public opinion poll, published by The Washington
Post, said 21 per cent of the voters now favor Mr. Wallace,
an increase from 17 per cent in just three weeks.
The former governor is hurting the
Republican nominee more than his democratic opponent,
Mr. Harris reported. In a two-way race, he said, Mr. Nixon
would lead Mr. Humphrey by 14 points instead of eight,
or 50 to 36 per cent.
The Harris survey was conducted September 11-13
among a cross section of 1,322 voters interviewed
previously on the of the Democratic National
Convention, August 25. In that poll, Mr. Nixon led Mr.
Humphrey 40 to 34 per cent.
The largest Gallup poll conducted September 3-7 gave
Mr. Nixon a 12 point lead over Mr. Humphrey, 43 to 31
per cent, with Mr. Wallace taking 19 per cent of the vote.
Mr. Harris said Mr. Wallace's strength was picking up
among independents, the wealthy, the young and white
Protestants, and in small towns and rural areas.
'The discontent of the American electorate with the
available choices in 1968 is reflected in the phenomenon
of both major party candidates polling less than 40 per
cent of the total vote only six weeks before election day.'
Mr. Harris said.
He noted that 43 per cent of Gov. Nelson A.
Rockefeller's former supporters are not ready to vote for
Mr. Nixon, and that 42 per cent of Sen. Eugene J.
McCarthy's backers say they are not inclined to vote for
Mr. Humphrey.
Humphrey
Hubert H. Humphrey pledged today that as President
he would seek more federal aid for low-income families,
including increased medical assistance and Social Security
benefits.
Campaigning in Ohio, The Vice-President also
continued attacking his Republican opponent for the
White House, Richard M. Nixon, calling evasive and unfit
to be President.
In a lengthy position paper, Mr. Humphrey proposed a
family assistance program that included plans for
extending medical care to all children in low-income
families during their first year of life, and guaranteeing
increased Social Security benefits for children of
deceased, disabled or retired beneficiaries up to the age of
23 if they regularly attend school.
Mr. Humphrey, attacking Mr. Nixon, said, 'We cannot
afford an President and the American people will
not have one.'
In Toledo, Mr. Humphrey addressed himself directly to
Mr. Nixon during a rally. 'You say you are for law and
order, but you would undermine the people's confidence
in the highest court in the land,' said Mr. Humphrey.
'You say you are for our children, but you want to cut
back the so-called give-away programs that would give our
children what they need.'
It was Mr. Humphrey's second day in Ohio, where on
Sunday he hinted again that as President he would order
an early reduction of American forces in Vietnam.
He said he would favor a gradual withdrawal of U.S.
troops 'sometime in the near future' as long as American
and Allied forces were not placed in jeopardy. If elected,
he promised to seek a cutback early next year.
But Mr. Humphrey reserved a large share of criticism to
'the news you get about a handful of discontents and a
of malcontents' on college campuses and at
demonstrations such as draft card burnings before local
draft boards.
'They represent a handful in this country and they've
been given a disproportionate attention-and it is nothing
short of outrageous that this should happen,' he said.
He also added that it was the obligation of politicians
and the news media to 'portray the true story of
America.'
'The true story of America,' he said, 'is not the Black
Panthers, it is not the militant hippie and yippie.
'The true story of America is the millions of mothers
and fathers and sons and daughters who are working their
hearts out to have a family, to have a home, to go to
school, and to take a vacation, and to be decent,
tax-paying, productive citizens-and those are the ones I
appeal to for my help.'
Nixon
Richard M. Nixon promised Thursday that if he is
elected President, he will scrap government by consensus
and bring dissenters back into the political mainstream.
'The lamps of enlightenment are lit by the spark of
controversy; their flame can be snuffed out by the
blanket of consensus,' the Republican nominee said in a
Thursday night nationwide radio broadcast.
Mr. Nixon attended a GOP dinner in New York
Thursday night, on a series of 23 $1,000-a-plate dinners
expected to gross more than $5 million and linked by
closed circuit television.
When Mr. Nixon left the Americana Hotel he was
greeted by about 50 pickets who denounced him for his
opposition to the California grape boycott.
Mr. Nixon had entered the hotel earlier through a side
entrance and had missed the demonstrators, but they had
shifted their position and were on hand to see him and his
wife, Pat, when the candidate departed.
'Nixon is a pig, Nixon is a pig,' they chanted at him.
The demonstration, which stemmed from efforts to
organize migrant farm workers in the California grape
vineyards, was peaceful.
While Mr. Nixon was speaking in New York to about
1,200 well- contributors, his running mate, Gov.
Spiro T. Agnew of Maryland, was speaking at a San
Francisco dinner.
Other dinners were being held at Los Angeles, Chicago,
San Francisco, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia,
Houston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Cleveland, Cincinnati, San
Diego, Calif., Nashville, Tenn., Wilmington, Del.,
Portland, Ore., Baltimore, Dallas, Tulsa, Okla., Miami,
Fla., Detroit, Denver, Milwaukee, and Newport, R.I.
Along with Mr. Nixon and Mr. Agnew's appearances on
closed circuit television, other speakers assigned to each
of the dinners included: Govs. Nelson A. Rockefeller of
New York, Ronald Reagan of California, George Romney
of Michigan, House GOP Leader Gerald R. Ford and other
governors and members of the Congress.
In his radio broadcast, Mr. Nixon said, 'In a Nixon
administration, America's citizens will not have to break a
violence.'
Wallace
Third party presidential candidate George C. Wallace
said Monday his choice for a running mate, 'a real surprise
for everyone,' will be announced early next week.
The former Alabama Governor, in Atlanta to film
televised campaign commercials at a local station, said the
decision on whose name will appear as vice-president for
his American Independent Party is 'just about settled.'
Mr. Wallase said the man would be a very prominent,
well- known personality, He declined to say whether the
nominee would be a southerner.
Gov. Wallace also predicted his might put
some of the national pollsters out of business, even though
one now shows him with support from 21 per cent of the
voters across the nation.
"We've got more than that," said Gov. Wallace.
Mr. Wallace told a crowd of 1,000 who attended a
$25-a-plate dinner in his behalf that their effort has
already changed the course of political events all over the
country, so it has not been in vain.
"It is very close to success," he added.
Gov. Wallace had to speak twice because the hall where
the dinner was held was too small to hold all the people
who wanted to hear him. He spoke once downstairs to
about 400 persons, then went upstairs to where another
600 were waiting.
He especially criticized the Republicans for the
appointment of Earl Warren as chief justice.
'They appointed Earl Warren with the prearranged idea
to take away the public schools,' he said. 'Just remember,
the Republicans took them away from you and the
Democrats helped take them away from you.'
Senate Democratic Leader Mike Mansfield Monday
expressed concern over the support Gov. Wallace was
receiving in the presidential election campaign.
"Are you disturbed by the Wallace showing?" a
reporter asked Sen. Mansfield.
"Yes," he replied.
"How do you think Wallace is affecting the campaign?"
"He's hurting Nixon in the south and hurting
Humphrey in the north and west."
"Who is he hurting the most?"
"That's debatable. My guess is Mr. Nixon," he said.
Photos from Time
| The Cavalier daily. Tuesday, September 24, 1968 | |