All the top Goldwater plotters from 1964 were in the Nixon camp, even William F. Buckley, even Goldwater himself-all, that is, except F. Clifton White. All the Republican candidates had approached White to work for them. Nixon did it twice, the second time offering him the party chairmanship. "No thank you," White replied, as Nixon pitched his tumbler of Scotch forward in shock at his Fifth Avenue town house. Clif White loved Ronald Reagan, and Clif White had a plan. He had broken the Republican Establishment once. He was convinced he could do it again.

He would use Nixon's greatest strength against him. To win at a nominating convention, a candidate needed a majority majority of delegate votes. Failing that, a second roll call was taken-then a third, and so on. Nixon had won first-ballot commitments from Republicans of every stripe by reminding them of the pain of the 1964 blowout. But with a range of commitments that broad, none could be very deep. A gra.s.sroots insurgency to persuade some small number of conservatives, Southerners especially, to vote their consciences for Reagan, just enough to deny Nixon his 50 percent plus one on the first ballot, could blow the whole thing open. Nelson Rockefeller, waving around Nixon-can't-win polls he had commissioned using his bottomless financial resources, would be attempting the same thing. Up to the taking of that first convention ballot, their interests were identical-stop Nixon. On the second ballot, White was convinced, Rocky would be overwhelmed. And Reagan would be the Republican nominee. of delegate votes. Failing that, a second roll call was taken-then a third, and so on. Nixon had won first-ballot commitments from Republicans of every stripe by reminding them of the pain of the 1964 blowout. But with a range of commitments that broad, none could be very deep. A gra.s.sroots insurgency to persuade some small number of conservatives, Southerners especially, to vote their consciences for Reagan, just enough to deny Nixon his 50 percent plus one on the first ballot, could blow the whole thing open. Nelson Rockefeller, waving around Nixon-can't-win polls he had commissioned using his bottomless financial resources, would be attempting the same thing. Up to the taking of that first convention ballot, their interests were identical-stop Nixon. On the second ballot, White was convinced, Rocky would be overwhelmed. And Reagan would be the Republican nominee.

White explained it to Reagan at a meeting with a co-plotter in Reagan's inner circle, Tom Reed, his Sacramento appointments secretary. (This being a conservative-Republican sort of gra.s.sroots insurgency, the meeting was held at a new Greenwich, Connecticut, country club founded by Tom Reed's father, a mining magnate and $100,000 Reagan donor, where they all were charter members.) Reagan was noncommittal. He always was: G.o.d would arrange things for the best.

Reagan did agree to stay out of his supporters' way while they gave G.o.d a hand. The governor would claim ignorance of White's travels under an a.s.sumed name among the delegates, continuing to do what he always did: make barnstorming speeches in support of conservatism. Only he would now do it on the schedule Tom Reed proposed: heavy on appearances in states with wobbly Nixon delegates; light on ones with upcoming primaries where his presence might raise suspicions that he was running. In those, they scheduled a half-hour biographical film to show on TV before the primaries and secretly prayed for strong Rockefeller showings, which, combined with votes for Reagan, would make Nixon look like a loser.

By the middle of May, the Reagan bandwagon started to look to Nixon like a recurring nightmare: as in 1960, what was supposed to be his coronation was shaping up as a fight. So he went back on the road, back to the slow, soiling humiliation of firming up wobbly supporters. To Arizona to secure Barry Goldwater. To Texas to ply the conservative senator John Tower. Then, on May 31, to Atlanta, where Southern Republican chairs were meeting in the city where Dr. King had been interred six weeks earlier.

Strom Thurmond had installed his top political aide, Harry Dent, as chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, and Dent had organized his fellow Southern chairmen in a scheme to vote as a bloc at the convention. But first they would play hard to get, making the top contenders come down South and beg for their hand. According to legend, Rockefeller-despised by them anyway as a civil rights liberal-disqualified himself by committing the mortal sin of pouring sugar on his grits. Reagan, the sentimental favorite, ruled himself out by refusing to say whether he was officially running. Now, on May 31, it was Nixon's turn to supplicate. He arrived armed with his argument that he was the only candidate who could win. His campaign manager, John Mitch.e.l.l, spun the press silly: "The people here all like Ronald Reagan, but they love d.i.c.k Nixon." It wasn't so. Strom Thurmond was supposed to be for Nixon. But every time he was asked about Ronald Reagan, he said, "I love that man. He's the best we've got."

After taking the political temperature of the room, Richard Nixon was sorely nervous. He got on the phone to D.C. and begged Strom Thurmond to come down to straighten things out. Thurmond agreed. He arrived on June 1. One historian called the secret conclave that followed "probably the single most important event in the election of 1968." Another compared it to the 1877 meeting in which the end of Reconstruction was brokered in exchange for Rutherford B. Hayes's presidency. Each side had something to offer. Each side had something to threaten. Lyndon Johnson had a name for these kinds of meetings. He called it "getting down to the nut cuttin'."

A unanimous Supreme Court decision had been handed down on May 27. It concerned New Kent County, Virginia, a rural district with two schools, evenly scattered black and white populations-and twenty-one separate bus routes to keep those schools racially pure. The county also had a phony "freedom of choice" plan that not a single black family had signed up for. Greenv. New Kent County Greenv. New Kent County rang with eloquent finality: "this deliberate perpetuation of the unconst.i.tutional dual system can only have compounded the harm of such a system. Such delays are no longer tolerable." School districts would now have to "fashion steps which promise realistically to convert promptly to a system without a 'white' school and a 'Negro' school, but just schools." The NAACP Legal Defense Fund immediately asked federal district courts to revisit all desegregation plans for compliance with rang with eloquent finality: "this deliberate perpetuation of the unconst.i.tutional dual system can only have compounded the harm of such a system. Such delays are no longer tolerable." School districts would now have to "fashion steps which promise realistically to convert promptly to a system without a 'white' school and a 'Negro' school, but just schools." The NAACP Legal Defense Fund immediately asked federal district courts to revisit all desegregation plans for compliance with New Kent County. New Kent County. And how to keep on fighting federally mandated integration was now the abiding obsession of every ambitious Southern politician. That was the context for the meetings in Atlanta. And how to keep on fighting federally mandated integration was now the abiding obsession of every ambitious Southern politician. That was the context for the meetings in Atlanta.

Senator Thurmond had just released a new book, The Faith We Have Not Kept, The Faith We Have Not Kept, which blamed "crime in the streets, a free rein for Communism, riots, agitation, collectivism, and the breakdown of moral codes" on the "Supreme Court's a.s.sault on the Const.i.tution," and argued that the cause of "the War Between the States" was the "social revolutionaries" who "refused to stop at the Const.i.tutional barrier" of which blamed "crime in the streets, a free rein for Communism, riots, agitation, collectivism, and the breakdown of moral codes" on the "Supreme Court's a.s.sault on the Const.i.tution," and argued that the cause of "the War Between the States" was the "social revolutionaries" who "refused to stop at the Const.i.tutional barrier" of Dred Scott v. Sandford. Dred Scott v. Sandford. That would be the 1857 decision in which Chief Justice Taney declared that free blacks had no rights that the white man was bound to respect; one of those "social revolutionaries" was the founder of Strom Thurmond's political party: Abraham Lincoln. That would be the 1857 decision in which Chief Justice Taney declared that free blacks had no rights that the white man was bound to respect; one of those "social revolutionaries" was the founder of Strom Thurmond's political party: Abraham Lincoln.

Thus the choice Nixon faced in Atlanta was stark: What kind of Republican Party would he propose to lead? One that was committed to the spirit of Lincoln? Or one committed to the spirit of Strom?

Thurmond unsheathed his sharpest blade: he thought thought he could preserve Nixon's first-ballot victory, he said. But it would be easier if he could come to his people with some promises.... he could preserve Nixon's first-ballot victory, he said. But it would be easier if he could come to his people with some promises....

Delicately, Nixon carved out his own position. Brown v. Board of Education Brown v. Board of Education was a done deal, settled law, he said. But a "strict construction" of the Const.i.tution unfortunately limited the federal government's ability to enforce it; and of course, he would only appoint "strict constructionists" to the bench. What was more, he would consult with the good senator on a vice-presidential candidate "acceptable to all sections of the party." He hoped that would prove to Southern Republicans' satisfaction, because it would be a shame if the party slated another conservative presidential candidate in 1968 only to chalk up another n.o.ble loss and end up with four more years of liberal tyranny. It would be a shame, too, if Southern Republicans would have to face the consequences of turning their backs on the Republican nominee should it turn out to be Nelson Rockefeller (whom, perhaps he added, Martin Luther King had thought would make a better president than Hubert Humphrey). was a done deal, settled law, he said. But a "strict construction" of the Const.i.tution unfortunately limited the federal government's ability to enforce it; and of course, he would only appoint "strict constructionists" to the bench. What was more, he would consult with the good senator on a vice-presidential candidate "acceptable to all sections of the party." He hoped that would prove to Southern Republicans' satisfaction, because it would be a shame if the party slated another conservative presidential candidate in 1968 only to chalk up another n.o.ble loss and end up with four more years of liberal tyranny. It would be a shame, too, if Southern Republicans would have to face the consequences of turning their backs on the Republican nominee should it turn out to be Nelson Rockefeller (whom, perhaps he added, Martin Luther King had thought would make a better president than Hubert Humphrey).

Perhaps Nixon added something else (the records of nut-cutting sessions tend not to be fully preserved): what a shame it would be if he ascended to the Oval Office and had to shut out Southern Republicans for not having supported him. And sometime in 1968, Nixon also cemented the alliance by promising to protect South Carolina from cheaper textile imports from j.a.pan.

Nixon and Thurmond strode out of their meeting and into the hotel ballroom where the state chairs were a.s.sembled. They were smiling, arm in arm-Thurmond's signal that Nixon had capitulated. Three weeks later, after some nut cutting of his own back home, Thurmond announced publicly that Richard Nixon "offers America the best hope of recovering from domestic lawlessness; a b.l.o.o.d.y, no-win war in Southeast Asia; runaway spending and rising costs of living; strategic military inferiority; loss of influence in world affairs; and a power-grasping Supreme Court"; and that the South Carolina delegation would not be giving any votes to Ronald Reagan.

Having quietly secured Strom Thurmond's loyalty, Nixon could now raise his voice against George Wallace without fear of the consequences of offending the South. "From what I've read," he said in an airport interview in New York, "Wallace's support is in the direction of the racist element. I have been in politics twenty-two years and I have never had a racist in my organization." And having quietly secured Nixon's loyalty, Strom Thurmond embarked on his next political project: scuttling Lyndon Johnson's new nominee for chief justice of the Supreme Court.

LBJ had made one last play to secure his ideological legacy no matter who was the next president. Earl Warren, seventy-seven years old, broke precedent three weeks after securing the New Kent County New Kent County decision by offering his retirement to a lame-duck president. On June 27, Lyndon chose a crony as his successor-a.s.sociate Justice Abraham Fortas, a prosperous regulatory lawyer from Memphis who'd been his friend since they were both young New Dealers. Observed decision by offering his retirement to a lame-duck president. On June 27, Lyndon chose a crony as his successor-a.s.sociate Justice Abraham Fortas, a prosperous regulatory lawyer from Memphis who'd been his friend since they were both young New Dealers. Observed Time, Time, "No one outside knows accurately how many times Abe Fortas has come through the back door of the White House, but any figure would probably be too low." And since Johnson was promoting from within the court, that opened up a second vacancy-for which he nominated another crony, former Texas congressman Homer Thornberry. "No one outside knows accurately how many times Abe Fortas has come through the back door of the White House, but any figure would probably be too low." And since Johnson was promoting from within the court, that opened up a second vacancy-for which he nominated another crony, former Texas congressman Homer Thornberry.

Thurmond made destroying Fortas his crusade-not merely, as he put it in a June 28 floor speech, because of "his long reputation as a fixer and his involvement with many questionable figures," but because his jurisprudence "extend[ed] the power of the federal government and invaded the rights of states." The seventeen conservative Republicans who signed a pet.i.tion against Fortas were joined in their opposition, sotto voce, by Southern Democrats. It all was in the objective interest of Richard Nixon: if Abe Fortas was defeated, and Nixon was elected president, he he would make the appointment to set the direction of the Court for a generation. would make the appointment to set the direction of the Court for a generation.

The hearings were unprecedented. Never had a sitting justice sat to answer questions before the Judiciary Committee, lest he have to answer questions about pending decisions. The Republican grilling was led by the new Michigan senator, Robert Griffin, who pressed him on his advisory role to the president; Fortas was evasive. Strom got his turn on July 18, the third day of the proceedings. He began with a list of prepared questions about his positions on the liberal decisions of Earl Warren's Supreme Court.

Fortas's first response: "As a person, as a lawyer, as a judge, I should enjoy the opportunity-I always do-of discussing a problem of this sort. But as a justice of the Supreme Court, I am under the const.i.tutional limitation that has been referred to during these past two days and must respectfully ask to be excused from answering."

Fortas would repeat some version of that over fifty times. And in Fortas's dilemma Thurmond spied an opportunity: that he could say just about anything, and Fortas would be powerless to fight back.

Thurmond brought up a case from before Fortas's tenure, Mallory v. United States Mallory v. United States (1957): "A criminal, a convict, a guilty man, who committed a serious rape on a (1957): "A criminal, a convict, a guilty man, who committed a serious rape on a lady lady in this city...[s]imply because the Court said they held him a little too long before arraignment. Do you believe in that sort of justice?" in this city...[s]imply because the Court said they held him a little too long before arraignment. Do you believe in that sort of justice?"

"With the greatest regret, I cannot respond to that, because of the const.i.tutional-"

Thurmond, interrupting: "I want that word to ring in your ears! Mallory! Mallory! Mallory!... Mallory! Mallory! Mallory!... A man who A man who raped raped a woman, a woman, admitted admitted his guilt, and the Surpreme Court turned him loose on a technicality.... Is not that type of decision his guilt, and the Surpreme Court turned him loose on a technicality.... Is not that type of decision calculated calculated to encourage more people to commit rapes and serious crimes? Can you as a justice of the Supreme Court condone such a decision as that? I ask you to answer that question!" to encourage more people to commit rapes and serious crimes? Can you as a justice of the Supreme Court condone such a decision as that? I ask you to answer that question!"

Fortas could not. He sat silently for a full minute: just like a liberal, silent in the face of evil.

On the eighth day, Thurmond moved in for the kill. A Cincinnati attorney named James J. Clancy testified on behalf of his Catholic lay group, Citizens for Decent Literature. Noting that enforcing obscenity laws "has proven essential to the development of good family living," Clancy wondered why Justice Fortas had cast the "deciding" fifth vote reversing lower-court obscenity rulings forty-nine of fifty-two times-and had thus directly caused "a release of the greatest deluge of hard-core p.o.r.nography ever witnessed by any nation-and this at a time when statistics indicate a p.r.o.nounced breakdown in public morals and general movement toward s.e.xual degeneracy throughout our nation." Then he got down to cases: one rapist, for example, had been arrested after watching stag films; another was arrested with "a girlie magazine in his pocket."

Clancy did not explain how complex the legal issues under review in those fifty-two rulings were, and that there were plenty of sound technical legal reasons to reverse lower courts' acceptance of bans regardless of the materials' contents. Instead, Clancy hammered the specious claim that if the lower court had made the determination that something was obscene, and the Supreme Court had reversed the lower court, that must mean the Supremes did not not find the material in question "obscene." He read off t.i.tles: paperbacks such as find the material in question "obscene." He read off t.i.tles: paperbacks such as s.e.x Life of a Cop, l.u.s.t School, Sin Whisper, Orgy House, Sinners Seance, Bayoo Sinner, Pa.s.sion Priestess, Flesh Avenger. s.e.x Life of a Cop, l.u.s.t School, Sin Whisper, Orgy House, Sinners Seance, Bayoo Sinner, Pa.s.sion Priestess, Flesh Avenger. He quoted a judge's descriptions in a case considering short movies designed to be displayed with coin-operated projectors in bars, so furtive they didn't even have proper names; in the one labeled O-7, for instance, "the model wears a garter belt and sheer transparent panties through which the pubic hair and external parts of genitalia are clearly visible.... At one time the model pulls her panties down so that the pubic hair is exposed to view...the focus of the camera is emphasized on the pubic and rectal region, and the model continuously uses her tongue and mouth to simulate a desire for, or enjoyment of, acts of a s.e.xual nature." And Justice Fortas didn't find this He quoted a judge's descriptions in a case considering short movies designed to be displayed with coin-operated projectors in bars, so furtive they didn't even have proper names; in the one labeled O-7, for instance, "the model wears a garter belt and sheer transparent panties through which the pubic hair and external parts of genitalia are clearly visible.... At one time the model pulls her panties down so that the pubic hair is exposed to view...the focus of the camera is emphasized on the pubic and rectal region, and the model continuously uses her tongue and mouth to simulate a desire for, or enjoyment of, acts of a s.e.xual nature." And Justice Fortas didn't find this obscene obscene?

Like a traveling salesman, Clancy brought with him a sample case: a thirty-five-minute doc.u.mentary reel; a complete and uncut print of the masterpiece O-7. Clancy concluded his statement by requesting "the opportunity to show both the doc.u.mentary and the film to the full committee and to the press, recognizing that the film is not the type of subject matter which should be shown to the general public. We would ask the committee for permission to do this, possibly in a different room. Thank you very much."

The senior senator from South Carolina thought that a swell idea. He arranged a screening for the press that very afternoon, himself feeding the coin-operated projector.

The next morning, as Chairman Ervin tediously plied Deputy Attorney General Warren Christopher on arcane points of separation of powers, Senator Thurmond ostentatiously paged through a magazine called Nudie-Fax. Nudie-Fax. When it came his turn to question Christopher, he repeated the information in Clancy's testimony in every particular, judge's descriptions and all. When it came his turn to question Christopher, he repeated the information in Clancy's testimony in every particular, judge's descriptions and all.

The press, prepared, scribbled madly: "From what Judge Hauk described about the film, O-7, you think that would be a very wholesome film for the public to see?"

"Senator, I would not comment without having seen the film...."

"I want to ask what you think. You probably have a family, don't you?"

"Yes, sir."

"You would not want your wife or daughter to see a film that was described as O-7 or O-12, would you?"

"Well, I have not seen the film, Senator. The description does not make it sound like family entertainment."

The senator asked his cornered prey to repeat himself.

"The description does not make it sound like family entertainment."

Thurmond: "Yet Justice Fortas...held it was not obscene."

"Speaking overall, Senator Thurmond," Christopher allowed, "our view would be that Justice Fortas has taken a moderate and reasonable position in the field of obscenity."

Thurmond had what he wanted on the record: the Johnson Justice Department apparently endorsing p.o.r.nography. His work done, and in time for the morning-paper deadlines, he launched into his final peroration. He had a clerk hand down to the administration official the p.o.r.nography his staff had been able to procure within view of the Capitol (including one in which the content "is only males"): "Mr. Christopher, how much longer are the parents, the Christian people"-Fortas, it happened, was Jewish-"the wholesome people, the right-thinking people going to put up with this kind of thing?...the Supreme Court has made it commonplace.... And to believe this material does not find its way into the hands of young people is wishful thinking."

The surprise issue was a strategic G.o.dsend. Fortas's opponents, among them Judiciary chairman Sam Ervin, had been casting about for excuses to stretch the hearings out until after the August recess to give them time to find more d.a.m.ning information, hoping for enough votes to win a filibuster. Thurmond's politics were razor-sharp. Blocking a president's Supreme Court nominee was an unpopular decision and was hard to defend. Explaining the technical issues behind the "lame-duck" charge to const.i.tuents was daunting. But protecting kids from p.o.r.n-that was easy. It gave Southern Democrats cover for defying their president. It gave Republicans cover to not appear partisan.

Thurmond arranged a movie screening for his colleagues, who in private forgot their horror, laughing, shouting crudities at the images projected on the wall-until they screened a print, seized during a 1967 raid on the University of Michigan campus, of the underground polys.e.xual art film Flaming Creatures, Flaming Creatures, which received less glowing reviews: "I was so sick, I couldn't even get aroused," one senator said-acknowledging publicly for the first time that which received less glowing reviews: "I was so sick, I couldn't even get aroused," one senator said-acknowledging publicly for the first time that shocked, shocked shocked, shocked senators sometimes got aroused, too. senators sometimes got aroused, too.

Given their learned South Carolina colleague's legendary s.e.xual appet.i.tes, it must have been hard not to laugh. Cartoonists reviewing the spectacle had a field day. Let the sophisticates sneer. These were now known as the "Fortas films"-as in, as Senator Russell Long said, "I have seen one Fortas film-I have seen enough." Frank Lausche said he wouldn't "vote for a man who would approve the films" if it were his own brother. Columnist James J. Kilpatrick said they should be shown on the Senate floor, if that was what it took to grasp the "pattern that runs through the fabric of const.i.tutional law as tailored by Mr. Justice Fortas.... Boil the issue down to this lip-licking s.l.u.t, writhing carnally on a sofa, while a close-up camera dwells lasciviously on her genitals. Free speech? Free press? Is this what the Const.i.tution means?"

s.e.x sells, Strom Thurmond knew that. From Southern segregationists insisting dogs had been rendered rabid by the Selma marchers' "s.e.x smell" to Ronald Reagan's "orgies so vile" to the claims of a sea of panties left behind at the Pentagon in October of 1967, circulating s.e.xual imagery was a right-wing stock-in-trade-even more so than for the libidinal politicians of Haight-Ashbury. The latest t.i.tillating national outrage issued from newly pacified Morningside Heights: a Columbia student was living off-campus and in sin with a Barnard student, named Linda LeClair. Wrote William F. Buckley, "In an age in which the Playboy Playboy philosophy is taken seriously, as a windy testimonial to the sovereign right of all human appet.i.tes, it isn't surprising that the LeClairs of this world should multiply like rabbits, whose morals they imitate." philosophy is taken seriously, as a windy testimonial to the sovereign right of all human appet.i.tes, it isn't surprising that the LeClairs of this world should multiply like rabbits, whose morals they imitate."

Spectacles: that, as the presidential campaign season got ready to launch, was American politics now.

The trial of Dr. Spock had wound down in Boston. Half the defendants had been eager to use the courtroom to "put the war on trial." The others wanted simply to mount the best defense possible. They united behind the latter course; the latter course failed. "Where law and order stops, obviously anarchy begins," the judge p.r.o.nounced, before giving three of the five, including Spock, two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

It only redoubled the conviction of the activists working day and night planning their stand against the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Amerika was becoming a prison. The only sane thing to do was to work for a jailbreak.

Two separate groups were organizing independently and at cross-purposes. The first insisted they were neither a "group" nor "organizing" at all. Its leaders, who also insisted they weren't "leaders," two gentlemen of such extraordinary will and vision they might have been famous in any era, had brainstormed their Chicago plan on New Year's Eve, puffing weed and musing as they always did on how to overthrow reality itself. Which, this era being what it was, was what Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin ended up becoming famous for.

Rubin was from Cincinnati. His dad was a union activist. His favorite uncle was a former vaudeville performer. Rubin started his career in his father's footsteps, as an organizer, with the earnestness native to that profession. Later, he moved to Berkeley and decided politics was most radical when it resembled vaudeville. It was Jerry who came up with the idea to follow armament shipments in a government-gray pickup truck displaying a flashing yellow sign reading DANGER, NAPALM BOMBS AHEAD DANGER, NAPALM BOMBS AHEAD; Jerry's idea to throw WANTED FOR WAR CRIMES WANTED FOR WAR CRIMES flyers in General Maxwell Taylor's face during a San Francisco visit; Jerry who testified in full Revolutionary War regalia when called before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Drugs completed the transformation: "I began to see that we had to create a movement that was an end in itself-not an external goal or revolution, but living revolution every day." One morning at the New York Stock Exchange, with his new best friend Abbie Hoffman-the leading levitator at the Pentagon-they dropped money from the gallery onto the trading floor below. The resulting greedy melee made the evening newscasts. flyers in General Maxwell Taylor's face during a San Francisco visit; Jerry who testified in full Revolutionary War regalia when called before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Drugs completed the transformation: "I began to see that we had to create a movement that was an end in itself-not an external goal or revolution, but living revolution every day." One morning at the New York Stock Exchange, with his new best friend Abbie Hoffman-the leading levitator at the Pentagon-they dropped money from the gallery onto the trading floor below. The resulting greedy melee made the evening newscasts.

Which was precisely their point, precisely their theory. The "straight" left said the media was the problem-New Left journalist Robert Scheer wrote that the rot at the heart of Sirhan Sirhan came from his having "spent his whole life watching television." Abbie and Jerry's view was rather the opposite. "Those who grew up before the 1950s live today in a mental world of n.a.z.ism, concentration camps, economic depression, and communist dreams Stalinized," Rubin wrote in his book Do It! Do It! "A pre-1950s child who can still dream is very rare. Kids who grew up in the post 1950s live in a world of supermarkets, color TV commercials, guerrilla war, international media, psychedelics, rock and roll.... For us nothing is impossible. We can do anything." The world as people understood it to exist was a myth propagated through media. Abbie and Jerry believed all you would need to make the world anew was to propagate a more seductive myth. Abbie tried to explain how things worked to a reporter: " "A pre-1950s child who can still dream is very rare. Kids who grew up in the post 1950s live in a world of supermarkets, color TV commercials, guerrilla war, international media, psychedelics, rock and roll.... For us nothing is impossible. We can do anything." The world as people understood it to exist was a myth propagated through media. Abbie and Jerry believed all you would need to make the world anew was to propagate a more seductive myth. Abbie tried to explain how things worked to a reporter: "You need three hundred pages, you know, beginning with a capital letter, ending with a period. Young kids don't need that, they don't even want it." The reporter responded with bafflement. Richard Nixon might have understood better. That's why he hired Roger Ailes-who was four years younger than Abbie. "I fight through the jungles of TV" was Abbie's watchword. It could have been Roger Ailes's, too. need three hundred pages, you know, beginning with a capital letter, ending with a period. Young kids don't need that, they don't even want it." The reporter responded with bafflement. Richard Nixon might have understood better. That's why he hired Roger Ailes-who was four years younger than Abbie. "I fight through the jungles of TV" was Abbie's watchword. It could have been Roger Ailes's, too.

They planned rock concerts, a be-in, a happening, happening, Haight-Ashbury in the streets of Chicago. They called their unorganizable organizing body the Youth International Party-a put-on like everything else: its acronym was YIPPIE! They held a press conference the day after RFK entered the presidential race: "We will create our own reality. And we will not accept the false theater of the Death Convention...everything we do is going to be sent out to living rooms from India to the Soviet Union to every small town in America." They borrowed language from the Kerner Report: "It's a real opportunity to make clear the two Americas.... At the same time we're Haight-Ashbury in the streets of Chicago. They called their unorganizable organizing body the Youth International Party-a put-on like everything else: its acronym was YIPPIE! They held a press conference the day after RFK entered the presidential race: "We will create our own reality. And we will not accept the false theater of the Death Convention...everything we do is going to be sent out to living rooms from India to the Soviet Union to every small town in America." They borrowed language from the Kerner Report: "It's a real opportunity to make clear the two Americas.... At the same time we're confronting confronting them, we're offering our...alternative way of life." them, we're offering our...alternative way of life."

Their bravura was inspiring. Their arrogance could render them little better than punks. In New York, the Lindsay administration enlisted Abbie as a community liaison to keep the peace in the East Village. Part of the deal was that the cops weren't allowed to arrest him. So he marched into the local precinct one day and made himself increasingly obnoxious. The captain who was his police handler, refusing the bait, retreated to his office. Abbie followed him inside and smashed the precinct's prized possession, the trophy case containing the precinct's service citations, sending the cop into the hoped-for rage.

You are slaves, and we are free: "love" could be a hateful thing. "love" could be a hateful thing.

They hosted a "Yip-in" at Grand Central Station in March. Several thousand kids showed up, milling, smoking, grooving, chanting "Burn, baby, burn!" and scrawling f.u.c.k YOU f.u.c.k YOU on the walls. Commuters tried to wiggle through to their trains. Police officials had to physically restrain their men. Kids unrolled an on the walls. Commuters tried to wiggle through to their trains. Police officials had to physically restrain their men. Kids unrolled an UP AGAINST THE WALL, MOTHERf.u.c.kER UP AGAINST THE WALL, MOTHERf.u.c.kER banner from the top of the information booth. Someone snapped the hands off the famous clock. Cops couldn't be restrained anymore. A New York Civil Liberties Union official called it "the most extraordinary display of unprovoked police brutality I've ever seen outside of Mississippi." But cops didn't feel unprovoked. "Here's a bunch of animals who call themselves the next leaders of the country.... I almost had to vomit.... It's like dealing with any queer pervert, mother raper, or any of those other bedbugs we've got crawling around the Village. As a normal human being, you feel like knocking every one of their teeth out. It's a normal reaction." banner from the top of the information booth. Someone snapped the hands off the famous clock. Cops couldn't be restrained anymore. A New York Civil Liberties Union official called it "the most extraordinary display of unprovoked police brutality I've ever seen outside of Mississippi." But cops didn't feel unprovoked. "Here's a bunch of animals who call themselves the next leaders of the country.... I almost had to vomit.... It's like dealing with any queer pervert, mother raper, or any of those other bedbugs we've got crawling around the Village. As a normal human being, you feel like knocking every one of their teeth out. It's a normal reaction."

The Yippie calls to action for the Democratic National Convention were put-ons, provocations, playful threats: "We will burn Chicago to the ground! We will f.u.c.k on the beaches! We demand the Politics of Ecstasy! Acid for all! Abandon the Creeping Meatball! YIPPIE! Chicago-August 2530."

The other faction planning for Chicago, the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (the Mobe), more resembled military tacticians. One architect, Tom Hayden, had helped take a building at Columbia, then called for "two, three, many Columbias." But he also was the movement's inside man, its slickest operator, who had met with Averell Harriman and traveled to Hanoi to negotiate for the release of prisoners of war and wept publicly in St. Patrick's Cathedral over the coffin of RFK. His partner Rennie Davis, the New Left's most dogged organizer, reminded one New York Times New York Times reporter of "a Kansas 4-H leader" (indeed, the first time the Kansan had traveled to Chicago was to show a prize chicken at a 4-H fair). Their adviser, David Dellinger, was a pacifist who had gone to jail rather than submit to a seminarian draft deferment during World War II. He was a WASP who wore tweed and had graduated from Yale with Walt Rostow and Stewart Alsop. Abbie thought they were the Establishment's doppelgangers. "They understand each other," Abbie said. "They all wear suits and ties, they sit down, they talk rationally, they use the same kinds of words." reporter of "a Kansas 4-H leader" (indeed, the first time the Kansan had traveled to Chicago was to show a prize chicken at a 4-H fair). Their adviser, David Dellinger, was a pacifist who had gone to jail rather than submit to a seminarian draft deferment during World War II. He was a WASP who wore tweed and had graduated from Yale with Walt Rostow and Stewart Alsop. Abbie thought they were the Establishment's doppelgangers. "They understand each other," Abbie said. "They all wear suits and ties, they sit down, they talk rationally, they use the same kinds of words."

But the Mobe was no less interested than their Yippie brethren in spectacle. Davis brought an American fragmentation bomb from North Vietnam with him everywhere he went, a visual aid to demonstrate how America was "liberating" Vietnam. In 1967, living in Newark as a community organizer, Hayden wrote, "Riots must be viewed both as a new stage in the development of Negro protest against racism and as a logical outgrowth of the failure of the whole society to support racial equality. A riot represents people making history." The Mobe was going to Chicago to manufacture revolutionaries. The idea was to draw in hordes of people who had never demonstrated before. Rennie Davis told a reporter that he'd like to see every newspaper in the country displaying photos of the International Amphitheatre surrounded by soldiers, tanks, and barbed wire, guarding the nominee being forced down the people's throats. "It'll show the Democrats can't hold a convention without calling in the army."

The Timesman pointed out this was a dangerous game: "Wouldn't it be even more effective if the soldiers shot a little girl? Or two girls? Or twenty? Wouldn't that radicalize the McCarthy kids a lot quicker?"

Davis seemed to misunderstand. "Perhaps," he responded. "But we're not after bloodshed. A symbolic confrontation will make the point."

As if the Mobe had any control over what kind of confrontation there would be. As if Tom Hayden, when speaking in private to other activists, wasn't talking about working toward a confrontation between "a police state and a people's movement."

A third faction had considered making the trip-the "McCarthy kids," to demonstrate in the streets for an antiwar resolution on the convention floor, to pressure the cigar-chompers in the back rooms to let delegates vote their consciences. But most McCarthy kids had long ago made other plans. Their Coalition for an Open Convention dissolved, fearing violent melees inevitable. Which meant those finally coming to Chicago would be the most militant-many who welcomed confrontation.

The City of Chicago had its own definition of the word open. open. It had to do with her definition of other words. "No one is going to take over the city," Mayor Daley announced. "We'll permit them to act as American citizens and no other way." A It had to do with her definition of other words. "No one is going to take over the city," Mayor Daley announced. "We'll permit them to act as American citizens and no other way." A citizen citizen was someone who was orderly, obedient, who followed the rules. Anyone else, in this argot, was an was someone who was orderly, obedient, who followed the rules. Anyone else, in this argot, was an outsider outsider-whether McCarthy activists fighting the machine's nominee Humphrey, or hippies who grew up in Chicago. Daley told a Justice Department representative who urged a close working relationship with demonstration planners that he had his city under control. "Any trouble, it would come from outsiders." Outsiders Outsiders were what threatened the convention's were what threatened the convention's openness. openness. Explained the city's a.s.sistant corporation counsel, Richard Elrod, "Our division is willing to do everything possible to make sure that the city is peaceful this summer, that the city is open for all." Those not with the city's program were by definition openness's despoilers. Explained the city's a.s.sistant corporation counsel, Richard Elrod, "Our division is willing to do everything possible to make sure that the city is peaceful this summer, that the city is open for all." Those not with the city's program were by definition openness's despoilers.

The city had sheafs of intelligence on these outsiders. A city bureaucrat traveled to Haight-Ashbury to reconnoiter, reporting back that the outsiders stank, had VD, committed crimes, and took lots of drugs. The Red Squad had listening devices in SDS national headquarters on Sixty-third Street: the members talked of Mao-and Che-inspired revolution. These were the same forces deranging the third world, who had taken over Havana, overthrown the Cuban government on New Year's Eve, 1958.

Movement negotiators thought they knew what the game was: the same dance had happened before the Pentagon demonstration. They'd get their permits, only at the last minute, after the city was able to depress their turnout. Chicago peaceniks knew better, especially ones with working-cla.s.s ties-whose brothers, cousins, school chums, were Chicago policemen. They knew how the cops were talking after their impotence during the April riots, their delight at Mayor Daley's words "shoot to kill." Which Tom Hayden might not altogether have minded. He was spinning fantasies of McCarthy kids emerging from their confrontation with "the new n.a.z.is" as "partic.i.p.ants in the creation of a new society in the streets."

On April 11, the city council pa.s.sed a disorderly conduct ordinance making illegal "any unreasonable or offensive act, utterance, gesture, or display which...creates a clear and present danger of a breach of peace." Two weeks later, cops flexed their muscles at City Center Plaza. Those with press pa.s.ses were systematically manhandled. They were seen by most cops as the root of the problem. The press, Quinn Tamm of the International a.s.sociation of Chiefs of Police wrote in the June Police Chief Police Chief magazine, "overpublic[ized] militants, a.s.siduously stoking the fires of unrest." Mayor Daley agreed. He didn't antic.i.p.ate any trouble convention week-"unless certain commentators and columnists cause trouble." magazine, "overpublic[ized] militants, a.s.siduously stoking the fires of unrest." Mayor Daley agreed. He didn't antic.i.p.ate any trouble convention week-"unless certain commentators and columnists cause trouble."

Yippies made yet more surreal intimations: a march of bare-breasted maidens down Michigan Avenue, "long distance conga lines," dosing the water supply with LSD. Mobe leaders made their intimations in private, as spies among them took down every word: "Make sure that if blood flows, it flows all over the city," Tom Hayden said, meaning-if the police clubs started swinging, protesters should fan out so as many Chicagoans as possible could see what was happening. What the police spies heard was-attack police.

Officials dutifully fielded an estimate of how much acid it would take to affect the water supply: five tons, of a substance sold on the streets in micrograms. They laid plans to guard the pumping stations anyway. Then they learned that a rich Chicago dowager, Lucy Montgomery, had provided money to bail out Black Power advocates after the King riots. Montgomery was also a financial angel to the Mobilization. Putting two and two together, a bizarre idee fixe took shape: the white radicals were the foot soldiers for Negro insurrectionists, with the McCarthy delegates as the conspiracy's inside team, sabotaging Hubert Humphrey as their allies made mayhem in the streets.

The Daley Machine projected its own internal cohesion onto its enemies. That helped city planners countenance ever more ruthless countermeasures. The police rank and file made a similar projection: these outsiders coming in to take over their streets were the same people the same people they had not been able to deal with in the King riots, from whom they had feared for their lives. they had not been able to deal with in the King riots, from whom they had feared for their lives.

The Chicago police's greatest fears were confirmed in Cleveland. The same night the senators watched Strom Thurmond's dirty movies, a new kind of riot erupted: a planned one. "They shot at us from every direction imaginable," a police detective said of the ambush by members of a group called the Black Nationalists of New Libya. Three cops and four militants died. One militant, Fred "Ahmed" Evans, said he was sorry his carbine had jammed so he couldn't take out more cops. This man's prediction that a lunar eclipse would touch off World War III and a national Negro uprising had riveted Senate Internal Security Subcommittee hearings the previous year. He had now finally demonstrated, said a delighted Eldridge Cleaver, "that psychologically blacks are not only prepared to die but kill."

A terror over law and order engulfed the nation's cities. Bus drivers in the nation's capital started demanding paper scrip in lieu of cash because so many were getting robbed. In New York, firemen who suspected false alarms were being pulled to lure them into attacks were arming themselves with blackjacks ("It's bewildering," a man from a Bronx engine company complained to the New York Times. New York Times. "They're rebelling against the Establishment.... We're part of the Establishment all the sudden?"). An explosive placed inside a police call box in Queens forced suspension of the use of call boxes citywide. "They're rebelling against the Establishment.... We're part of the Establishment all the sudden?"). An explosive placed inside a police call box in Queens forced suspension of the use of call boxes citywide.

In Chicago, the Red Squad began spying on every black leader. They reported the Black Panthers were planning "the creation of incidents in the Negro area and involvement of white policemen to initiate complaints of police brutality," and were working with Tom Hayden to employ prost.i.tutes to solicit delegates. The U.S. Army sent seventy-five hundred men from Fort Hood in Texas to undergo riot exercises in Chicago. Forty-three black soldiers refused to go and were arrested-the "Fort Hood 43." George Wallace climbed to 20 percent in some polls. He claimed ballot status in thirty-six states. "Outside of the visible return of Jesus Christ," a Chattanooga minister proclaimed, "the only salvation of the country is the election of George Wallace."

The National Governors' Conference forwent tropical c.o.c.ktails to meet in Cincinnati, adopting a resolution declaring "crime in the streets of America as a problem which demands the utmost concern and attention of all Americans" (they refused to endorse a gun control bill requested by the nation's police chiefs). Nixon delegate-hunter Richard Kleindienst met Reagan delegate-hunter F. Clifton White, and a fistfight almost broke out (John Mitch.e.l.l took Kleindienst by the lapels: "d.i.c.k, how can I make you attorney general of the United States if you let that one inconsequential figure get under your skin?"). Lester Maddox b.u.mped against something hard in the hotel lobby and alerted security, who seized a gunman. Reports were that his intended target was Ronald Reagan, whose Sacramento mansion had, two weeks earlier, been stalked by youth armed with Molotov c.o.c.ktails who were driven off by a warning shot fired by a Secret Service agent.

As the two parties prepared to convene to decide who their candidates would be to govern over the madness, all the candidates were guarded by Secret Service agents now.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

From Miami to the Siege of Chicago.

THE P PARTY OF L LINCOLN HELD THEIR CONVENTION ON AN ISLAND SEPARATED from the Florida mainland by two narrow causeways. The self-insulation worked. The night of the presidential nomination, a riot broke out in the all-black neighborhood of Liberty City. The forces of Miami's get-tough police chief, Walter Headley-who had said in April of Daley's shoot-to-kill order, "That could have been me talking," and "When the looting starts, the shooting starts"-killed four rioters. The national press remained sufficiently distracted by the funny hats and windy speeches to hardly notice. Another big story in Miami also remained mostly hidden from view: the slow, soiling humiliation of Richard Milhous Nixon, working day and night to secure a victory he was already supposed to have won. from the Florida mainland by two narrow causeways. The self-insulation worked. The night of the presidential nomination, a riot broke out in the all-black neighborhood of Liberty City. The forces of Miami's get-tough police chief, Walter Headley-who had said in April of Daley's shoot-to-kill order, "That could have been me talking," and "When the looting starts, the shooting starts"-killed four rioters. The national press remained sufficiently distracted by the funny hats and windy speeches to hardly notice. Another big story in Miami also remained mostly hidden from view: the slow, soiling humiliation of Richard Milhous Nixon, working day and night to secure a victory he was already supposed to have won.

The cover of Newsweek Newsweek was a sea of posters for the surprise Republican nominee of 1940, Wendell Willkie, and the words "Can It Happen Again?" The platform hearings at the rococo Fontainebleau Hotel were undramatic, by the design of the Nixon strategists-until Ronald Reagan showed up Wednesday, July 31, after concluding an eight-state tour. was a sea of posters for the surprise Republican nominee of 1940, Wendell Willkie, and the words "Can It Happen Again?" The platform hearings at the rococo Fontainebleau Hotel were undramatic, by the design of the Nixon strategists-until Ronald Reagan showed up Wednesday, July 31, after concluding an eight-state tour.

"We must reject the idea that every time the law is broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker," he testified.

"It is time to move against these destructive dissidents; it is time to say, 'Obey the rules or get out.'...

"It is time to tell friend and foe alike that we are in Vietnam because it is in our national interest to be there!"

Committee members broke into their only cheering in four days. (John Lindsay testified-"The root cause of most crime and civil disorder is the poverty that grips over thirty million of our citizens"-to silence.) Reagan rode off into the sunset, insisting he was still only a favorite son. The thought that this might not last, or that Rockefeller might be the new Willkie, was the waking nightmare in the compound at Montauk, Long Island, where Richard Nixon was working on his acceptance speech, making contact with the outside world only to request more yellow legal pads.

Monday morning, August 5. The news from beyond the Republican island: Malcolm Brown of the New York Times New York Times interviewed the young French-born theorist of Marxist urban warfare Regis Debray in prison in Bolivia: "Canonized by the New Left...his parents, wealthy Paris lawyers from respected families, have arranged for a restaurant two blocks away to provide him with food and wine twice a day." The morning's interviewed the young French-born theorist of Marxist urban warfare Regis Debray in prison in Bolivia: "Canonized by the New Left...his parents, wealthy Paris lawyers from respected families, have arranged for a restaurant two blocks away to provide him with food and wine twice a day." The morning's Times Times also claimed it was in possession of intelligence that Richard Nixon would balance his ticket with a liberal vice-presidential candidate, perhaps Rockefeller or Lindsay. And every last conservative who had offered his support to Richard Nixon wondered to whom he had sold his soul. also claimed it was in possession of intelligence that Richard Nixon would balance his ticket with a liberal vice-presidential candidate, perhaps Rockefeller or Lindsay. And every last conservative who had offered his support to Richard Nixon wondered to whom he had sold his soul.

The conservatives were guided by the heavy hand of folklore, the legend that past conventions had been sabotaged by what Phyllis Schlafly called "a few secret kingmakers in New York." "The double cross is on"-the phrase echoed across the white-sand beaches, the turquoise swimming pools, the pink-marble foyers, the catered caucus breakfasts. You couldn't turn around without seeing a copy of the new fawning biography of Ronald Reagan by Young Americans for Freedom's Lee Edwards, distributed free to every delegate and alternate.

The gavel crashed down for the opening session. An invocation from the archbishop of Miami: "Our hearts are heavy...a heavy cloud of fear hangs over many of our citizens."

An "inspirational reading" followed: "It took me a long time to decide to stand up here at a political convention because I am about as political as a Bengal tiger," drawled John Wayne, the sometime John Birch Society member who had appeared in commercials for Ronald Reagan-though "I read some of the reviews that some of my left-wing friends wrote about my last efforts and there is some doubt about that." (Applause.) Wayne went on to explain how he would be teaching his baby daughter "some of the values that an ar-TIC-ulate ar-TIC-ulate few now are saying are old-fashioned." few now are saying are old-fashioned."

(Nixon's Kevin Phillips, a native New Yorker, later explained to a reporter, "Wayne might sound bad to people in New York, but he sounds great to the schmucks we're trying to reach through John Wayne. The people down there among the Yahoo Belt.") When Nelson Rockefeller arrived, he claimed he had almost twice as many firm delegates as Reagan. The standing ovation John Wayne had just received put that notion rather in doubt.

Over and over again, delegates Ronald Reagan had visited on his recent Southern tour told him they might switch their votes to him if he were a declared candidate. At 4 pd. Reagan returned to Miami Beach and stepped up to the press conference microphones and announced that this was what he now was.

Harry Dent, Strom Thurmond's man, said he'd never seen anything like what happened next. Reagan enthusiasts appeared out of nowhere. Reagan was queried for his reaction: "Gosh, I was surprised. It all came out of the blue." Evans and Novak reported that Rockefeller's most important backer, Ohio governor James Rhodes, said it was a "whole new ball game." Rhodes was a notorious political opportunist who'd switched from anyone-but-Goldwater to Goldwater at the height of the civil rights backlash in 1964.

Nixon's people tried to remain calm, recalling to themselves how reporters always manufactured evidence of conflict to justify their pay. The favorite sons they'd secured in New Orleans in early '67 announced for Nixon right on schedule: first Senator Tower, then Governor Agnew of Maryland, the former Rockefeller man, Governor Dewey Bartlett of Oklahoma, and Governor Louie Nunn of Kentucky.

Nixon arrived at Miami International Airport. His egress from the campaign jet had been planned for live pickup on the network newscasts. But no one planned on favorable tailwinds, which blew him onto the tarmac early. Nixon waited patiently in his seat. Then he strode down the airplane steps and...apologized for being late: he had just returned from the citizenship ceremony, he said, of his beloved valet, Manolo Sanchez, and his wife, refugees from Castro's Cuba.

Woodenly he said, "This marks the end of the journey, and, we think, the beginning of another that is going to lead us to a new leadership for this nation." The huge crowd, carefully advanced, cheered deliriously. Nixon forced himself to maintain a smile as intelligence was whispered into his ear by Senator Thurmond that people were mobbing him wherever he went expressing regret they ever trusted "Tricky d.i.c.k."

Nixon motorcaded to the brand-new Hilton Plaza. Security stood watch at every overpa.s.s; helicopters buzzed overhead. Another "spontaneous" crowd was at the entrance. A van door opened, releasing a flock of balloons; Nixon's face lit up as if he'd never seen such a spectacle in his life. Some expected a rifle shot to ring out any minute: if you planned an a.s.sa.s.sination, this would be the time.

At the evening session, things were deadly dull. General Eisenhower addressed the crowd by telephone ("One more thing: I am not a candidate"). Senator Brooke was presented a gavel hewn of Florida wood for his installation as master of ceremonies (a black face on TV looked good). The action was in the parking lot, where Ronald Reagan received a steady stream of Southern delegates in his trailer. The old trouper poured on the charm. Clif White explained how Reagan would win. It had to do with the Southern delegations' "unit rules," which held that if a majority of the delegation voted for a candidate, the candidate won the delegation unanimously. White claimed commitments from the chairs of the Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi delegations to cast the deciding vote for Reagan if he could get to one vote shy of a majority in each. Reagan asked each delegate to be the one to put him in that position. It was not going too well: lots of "We really really want to go with you, Gov, but-" They'd all received telegrams from Strom: "Richard Nixon's position is sound on law and order, Vietnam, the Supreme Court, military superiority, fiscal sanity, and decentralization of power. He is best for unity and victory in 1968. Our country needs him, and he needs our support in Miami. See you at the convention." They had also received Strom's phone calls-which, since they left no written record, were franker: "A vote for Reagan is a vote for Rockefeller." That played straight to conservative paranoia: that if the convention was thrown to the chaos of multiple ballots, the Eastern Establishment kingmakers were capable of anything. want to go with you, Gov, but-" They'd all received telegrams from Strom: "Richard Nixon's position is sound on law and order, Vietnam, the Supreme Court, military superiority, fiscal sanity, and decentralization of power. He is best for unity and victory in 1968. Our country needs him, and he needs our support in Miami. See you at the convention." They had also received Strom's phone calls-which, since they left no written record, were franker: "A vote for Reagan is a vote for Rockefeller." That played straight to conservative paranoia: that if the convention was thrown to the chaos of multiple ballots, the Eastern Establishment kingmakers were capable of anything.

The Reagan trailer emptied as the evening's main attraction was introduced: "Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a great American, a great Republican, the next senator from Arizona, my friend and colleague, the Honorable Barry Goldwater!"

The Convention Center leapt to its feet: "We want Barry! We want Barry! We want Barry!" "We want Barry! We want Barry! We want Barry!"

The anchormen in the broadcast booths were flabbergasted. They thought this party had come to its senses. They'd been talking up a Harris poll showing Rocky doing better against Humphrey than Nixon, that in a world gone mad the steady managerial competence of Nelson Rockefeller was looking better to people every day, how dignified and brave he'd been in 1964 standing up to the right-wing crazies who tried to shout him down on the convention floor.

But on this floor, it was 1964 all over again.