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Just when it appeared that Kennedy had votes to burn, the first Stevenson fire started. The alarm came from the Minnesota delegation. Following a moving speech by Adlai Stevenson, Hubert Humphrey flipped from Kennedy to Adlai; Junior Senator Eugene McCarthy was more than ever madly for Adlai; and Governor Orville Freeman, fresh from a vice-presidential tour of Kennedy's Apartment Q, had a raging Kennedy fever.
Shaky Knees. Next day, the Kennedys' one big miscalculation handed Johnson the big chance. As a routine matter, the Kennedy company had sent off a batch of wires to delegations, requesting an audience for Jack. Johnson replied with a telegram suggesting a joint caucus of the Texas and Massachusetts delegations and a debate on major issues. Kennedy declined to mix the two and assumed that the debate was off, but Lyndon and his boys, as well as a regiment of newsmen and TV contingents, crowded into the Biltmore's ballroom for what was now billed as something like the Lincoln-Douglas debates. While the crowd waited and Lyndon orated, Jack sat tight in his room. At last South Carolina's Governor Fritz Hollings phoned. "You're going down to that debate, aren't you?" he asked. No, said Jack. "You'd better do it," drawled Hollings. "I'm watching that man on TV and he'll ruin you if you don't." Jack went.
As he rose to address the Texans, Kennedy's trembling legs made his trousers flutter, and sweat beaded his upper lip. "I shall continue to vote for Senator Johnson as President, if he's nominated, or as majority leader," he said. Against Kennedy's conciliatory remarks, Lyndon launched into a barrage of sarcasm, and without mentioning Jack's name, bitterly attacked Kennedy's voting record and his Senate absenteeism. Then: "I think, Jack, we Protestants proved in West Virginia that we'll vote for a Catholic. What we want is some of the Catholic states to prove that they'll vote for a Protestant."
The Johnson-loaded room hooted and cheered with each sharp shaft, while Kennedy sat expressionless on the dais. When Johnson concluded, Jack popped up with a light back-pat from Brother Bobby. He somewhat neutralized the attack with a few sophisticated snap sentences. "We survived," he said, laughing apprehensively. Johnson had scored some points, but Kennedy had the votes.