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In 1960, he traveled more than 65,000 miles, fulfilling a rash promise to visit all 50 states, speaking in no fewer than 188 cities—and wearing himself out in the process. This year he reduced his travel by a third, flying 44,000 miles, touching down in a mere 35 states, and speaking in 118 cities. His prop hops were marvels of precision and perfect timing, managed by an unfailingly efficient staff. Gone were the fatigue lines and the chalky pallor of 1960; his relaxed appearance was nurtured by regularly scheduled periods of regeneration in Florida. Gone, too, was the rasping voice rubbed raw by too many stump speeches; in its place was a buttery baritone that was rarely called upon to shout much more than the "sock-it-to-'em!" exhortation that Nixon socked to death before he was through. Meanwhile Humphrey was running himself ragged in his effort to catch up—covering more than 98,000 miles, visiting 36 states, speaking in 116 cities.
Holding Action
Nixon insisted that he took positions on 167 issues during the campaign—a fact that may come as a surprise even to those who followed the whole thing faithfully. In one form or another (widely unread White Papers, radio shows with limited audiences), he did. But the fact is that in most elections, two or three issues quickly capture the public imagination. In 1968, it was Viet Nam and above all law and order that dominated the campaign. Nixon fully exploited the latter. In his acceptance speech in Miami Beach, he promised to heed "the voice of the great majority of Americans, the forgotten Americans, the non-shouters, the non-demonstrators, that are not racists or sick, that are not guilty of the crime that plagues the land." Wallace exploited the issue more nakedly ("Y'all know about law and order," said one of his supporters. "It's spelled n-i-g-g-e-r-s"), but Nixon used it skillfully enough himself to reduce the Alabamian's inroads.
Nixon's campaign became a holding action, designed to preserve his lead by appealing to what former Census Bureau Director Richard Scammon calls "the unpoor, the unblack and the unyoung." Nixon rarely ventured into the black ghettos, thereby writing off one out of every ten Americans of voting age—though few of their votes would have gone to him in any case.
Nixon profited from a spate of Humphrey blunders. The Vice President deliberately delayed announcing his candidacy until it was too late to enter the primaries, but he thereby projected himself as the machine candidate chosen in the traditional smoke-filled rooms. Humphrey also displayed a "hot," overemotional personality in an age that demands cool. His disastrous disorganization strangled early campaign efforts in one key state after another; equally important, it alienated countless voters who saw it as the outward manifestation of a personal indiscipline. Worst of all, Humphrey became identified with the tumult of Chicago during the Democratic Convention.
Reviving Old Memories