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Scranton had a pretty good idea of who that moderate ought to be—and on June 4, two days after California, he set a few things in motion. He called Pennsylvania's Republican Senator Hugh Scott, who is up for reelection this year and is scared to death about the prospect of running on a ticket headed by Goldwater. Scranton asked Scott to ask Milton Eisenhower to ask Dwight Eisenhower to ask Scranton down to Gettysburg for a visit. That's a lot of asking, but for a while, all seemed to go well.
Falling Apart. Ike and Scranton did get together, and the general urged the Governor to make himself "more available" for the presidential nomination. Scranton of course agreed, made plans to fly to Cleveland and announce his active candidacy on a Sunday Face the Nation television appearance. He would, he felt sure, have Ike's public endorsement.
But right about then, everything started falling apart. Arriving in Cleveland, Scranton was told that Ike had been trying to reach him by long-distance telephone. He called Gettysburg, sat in stunned silence while Ike told him he did not Want to become involved in an anti-Goldwater "cabal" and furthermore did not think Scranton should either. Said Eisenhower to Scranton: "I was wondering if I was getting old or kind of senile in thinking I hadn't agreed to support you or any other individual."
The Decisive Plea. What had happened to make Eisenhower change his mind? Well, for one thing, Ike and Mamie, planning to go to Cleveland for an Eisenhower speech to the Governors, were to stay at the suburban estate of George Humphrey, Eisenhower's first Treasury Secretary who is now one of Goldwater's most influential backers.
Humphrey, understandably upset by press accounts of the Eisenhower-Scranton meeting, called Ike and said: "I do hope you'll not be a party to making the divisions in our party any deeper."
Humphrey's plea was decisive with Ike, hence the call to Scranton in Cleveland. After that call, a shaken Bill Scranton attended a breakfast meeting of all 16 Republican Governors. Most of them, apprehensive about the chances of their state candidates on a ticket headed by Goldwater, were grumbling about the prospect of Barry's nomination. Especially unhappy was Michigan's George Romney, who got into a tiff with Arizona's Governor Paul Fannin, one of the few all-out Goldwater supporters present. At one point, Oregon's Mark Hatfield, a Rockefeller supporter, broke into the bickering, snapped at Romney: "Where have you been for the last six months?" Continued Hatfield, now including Bill Scranton in his gaze: "Rockefeller has been working his head off day and night for the past six months, while both of you have remained gloriously silent. Any stop-Gold-water movement now by you eleventh-hour warriors is an exercise in futility."