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McGovern soothed them, promising to appoint a staff member to study all the challenges and eliminate the "frivolous" ones. Then for two hours, as the Governors sipped drinks, McGovern went over his positions: He opposed legalizing marijuana; he would leave abortion for the states to decide.
On amnesty: "I'm not as liberal as Calvin Coolidge, who provided amnesty for World War I deserters. I'm opposed to amnesty for deserters." Pressed by Nevada's Mike O'Callaghan on what he would do if the North Vietnamese refused to release American prisoners even after U.S. withdrawal, McGovern said, "Under such circumstances, we'd have to take action," although he did not say what action.
Wild-Eyed. McGovern said that he was fully prepared to compromise on his domestic programs. For example, he said, he was now convinced that Wilbur Mills' tax reform proposal—canceling most major tax loopholes and then reintroducing each one for separate congressional consideration—was superior to his own. After six Governors shot questions on his welfare program, McGovern raised his hands and said: "Look, Congress will always provide the balance against any programs that I recommend." One Governor later remarked: "He seemed to be saying, 'Don't worry. If you think I'm a wild-eyed nut, Congress will keep me in line.'"
As the meeting broke up at 1 a.m., some participants who had come in with "Hello, Senator" left with "Goodbye, George." Communication had been started, but as one liberal Governor observed: "The big question is whether the Senator can really moderate his positions to the point where he can challenge Nixon for the center. He must do this to win, but I suspect he may be trapped by the fanaticism of his youthful supporters."
Later in the week, McGovern blurred his welfare proposals to the point that they were almost indistinguishable from the President's. "We start from the same assumption," McGovern said, "the need to develop some kind of program to provide income supplements for working people." Campaigning in New York, he told reporters that his figure of a $1,000 income supplement for all Americans was not a hard-and-fast proposal but only "one possibility." He continued to believe that his alternative defense budget would stand up, "give or take a little " but he only planned to ask the convention to accept the idea of reducing arms expenditures in order to increase domestic investment.
In another conciliatory expedition, McGovern plans a tour through the South, even though the region would probably be near-solid Nixon territory. His own followers sometimes forget that McGovern, a Democrat from a conservative, Republican stronghold, long since learned to survive by the politician's arts. It is such political instincts that are now easing him back toward the party's middle—a delicate maneuver in which McGovern is playing for the highest prize at the risk of his credibility and the constituency that has brought the prize so close.