University of Virginia Library

Long-Distance Plans

With two years to go until his
own re-election, Mr. Nixon saw that
a long-distance election plan would
have to be charted. His kick-off
point would be the State of the
Union Address. Before that, he
would have to begin his new style
of going to the people. This merely
called for stepping up his campus
visitations, meeting more people
and having plenty of the "Silent
Majority" to Thanksgiving and
Christmas dinners.

Since the beginning of this year
he has been mailing out copies of
his own and Vice-President Agnew's
speeches. These are toned down
from their inflammatory speeches
on the campaign trail. Members of
the administration are touring the
country visiting all the gatherings
that they can, trying to sell the
President's programs of health
insurance, revenue sharing and
guaranteed income. Spot
announcements plugging the
President's programs have been
made available to radio stations.

Mailings of direct importance
are being sent to certain select
groups. Notices on the
improvement of labor conditions
are being mailed at random to blue
collar workers. Any meager
improvement in race relations by
the Administration is heralded as a
modern breakthrough and mailings
are sent out to black voters.

The President and
Vice-President also plan to do
more traveling within the country.
Recently, Mr. Nixon was invited to
speak here at Virginia. He is
presently scheduled to talk to two
basically white upper middle class
groups while in the state.

A talk with students here might
be very beneficial. As long as be
continues to speak on campuses
like Tennessee and Nebraska where
dissenters are physically abused, he
will not get a broad view of student
opinion. I do not, however, expect
him to speak at Berkeley or
Columbia. Nor if he comes here do
I expect an answer to why we have
Americans fighting in Laos.