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Blow followed blow. With their own man not entered in California, Lodge forces threw their support to Rocky; it made minimal difference that Richard Nixon, William Scranton and George Romney later wired their assurances that they were having no part of a Stop Goldwater movement. Dwight Eisenhower came out with his "profile" of the ideal G.O.P. nominee; the hurt was hardly lessened when Ike later denied that he had meant it to be used against Barry. A Good Housekeeping writer said he had been told by Goldwater's wife Peggy that Barry had suffered nervous breakdowns, due to business pressures, twice in the late 1930s. Columnist Drew Pearson picked up the item and with his characteristic kind of punch, raised the question of whether Goldwater was mentally stable enough to be President. Goldwater's longtime physician denied that Barry had ever suffered any such breakdown. Goldwater himself simply pointed to his record as a World War II pilot and his present rank as a major general in the Air Force Reserve. But the doubt had been planted.
All these troubles, and more, sent the Goldwater entourage into a deep slough of despondency. This was what the newsmen accompanying Goldwater saw, and this was what they reported in their predictions of defeat. Theirs was a limited vantage point. What they missed was the fact that while Rockefeller carried his organization around with him, Goldwater's, as masterminded by Los Angeles Attorney Bernard Brennan, was much larger, infinitely more zealous, and was hard at work in almost every precinct in the state.
"Operation Q." That Goldwater organization was a phenomenon. It included a share of the cranks and zanies that Goldwater critics tend to think of as his only supporters. But these were in the minority. In fact, Barry's ranks were peopled by men and women, young and old, in all walks of life, who held in common only one thing: an enormous and uncomplicated faith in Goldwater, and the willingness to work for him as few candidates have been worked for before.
The Goldwater volunteers had been going virtually fulltime since March, when they launched "Operation Q," the effort to secure enough qualifying signatures to get Barry's name on the ballot. So determined were the workers that they greatly surpassed the necessary 14,000 signatures on their petitions, came up with more than 50,000 names before noon on the first day of their drive.
From that time on, they labored fervidly in the precincts, rounding up new recruits. Near campaign's end, one of these was none other than Mrs. Han nah Nixon, Richard's mother. When Goldwater leaders discovered that she was hustling votes on their behalf, an aide suggested that she be invited to present Mrs. Barry Goldwater with flowers on, say, election eve before the TV cameras. But somehow, 3,000 miles away, Hannah's favorite son learned about the idea, and Mrs. Nixon was soon aboard a plane, headed for a vacation in New York.