Thank you very much, Barry. After that introduction,
there really isn't anything I can add, because the sale, I hope, has already
been made.
But certainly I want you to know that Pat
and I deeply appreciate the opportunity to attend this breakfast prior
to the meeting that I understand will still be held outside in a little
California dew this morning.
I understand, too, that those who are here
will probably have the opportunity to leave to hear the speech which is
going to be delivered there. So I will not belabor you with some of the
issues that I want to discuss, and will be discussing a little later.
But because this is a special occasion, because
this is a group of the people who have made such a great contribution to
our party here in Arizona, I wanted to say some things to you that I do
not plan to discuss in the meeting outside where I will primarily dwell
on some of the issues of the campaign.
First of all, I want to give you an idea about
the reason I always like to appear before groups of this type whenever
the time permits. I say when the time permits because I find that when
you re a presidential candidate, you never have time to do all the meetings
that you want. For example, in the hotel today there are two or three conventions
going on - the oral surgery and the veterinarians and three or four others
- and we're lucky we ever got here, I can assure you. But people often
say to me, "Mr. Nixon, with all the requests you have, why do you talk
to people who are already for you?" And certainly everybody in this room
is going to vote the Republican ticket.
All of you are the people who make the party
go, as Barry said, and he told me as we came in - he described you very
eloquently; I won't repeat what he said, but he did it with very great
eloquence and affection, and certainly I know this is the heart of the
Republican Party here.
Well, I'll tell you why, at every opportunity
I have, I like to come before a group of the key partyworkers,be they precinct
workers or chairmen or officials, those who are carrying the load in a
campaign, it's because in political Campaigning and political affairs and
in the efforts to get the votes that we don't have we sometimes overlook
those who have to assure the ones that we do have.
We also often forget that as far as a presidential
election is concerned, and its aftermath, that it's going to be tremendously
important not only to win this election at the national level, which we're
hoping to do, but also to elect as many Congressmen and Senators as we
can, and also to build the Republican Party after this election and build
it into a party which we know we can do if we work, and that's why I want
all of you to know that I pledge to you that I shall talk to the Republican
Party all over the Nation, whenever the opportunity presents itself.
I like to talk to groups like this because
we have to strengthen our party. We have to strengthen it every place.
Now, here in Arizona you did a very remarkable
thing in 1958. I traveled the country in 1958. It was not a very pleasant
job, I can assure you, because when the campaign goes against you and when
you go into State after State where the party organization is on its back,
when you go into State after State where you know you're going to lose,
and yet you have to stand up there and go down the line for the candidates
and the organization and the like, it certainly is not the most easy job
that I have undertaken, and particularly when I was not a candidate myself.
I think, however, there was a responsibility, and there is always a responsibility,
on the nationally elected officials of the party to attempt to help out
the party whenever we can, and that's true of bad times as well as good
times. But let's get to Arizona.
In 1958 you did a remarkable thing. You were
one of those very few States that ran against the trend. You ran against
it so effectively that you surprised the whole Nation, and the reason you
did it was be cause of you people. You did it. No question about it; you
people. Oh, your candidates helped a little but they couldn't have done
it without you. And certainly there is no State in the Nation that has
a better organization from a Republican standpoint; there's no State in
which we have a better hard-hitting group of candidates than we have right
here in this State, and I'm proud to be here - I'm proud to be here again
with Paul Fannin and John Rhodes. I support every one of the candidates
here - a comment I will make as well throughout the Nation. I'm glad, too,
that Barry isn't running here in Arizona this year because we need him.
We need him in other States, and I want to say what I said at the airport
last night. There isn't any man in our party who is making more speeches,
who is fighting harder for our cause than Barry Goldwater of Arizona and
we thank you for it.
Maybe it's too bad you aren't running, you're
so popular, Barry. But getting to the other point. You know people sometimes
have come to me in the course of this campaign. They say "Mr. Nixon" or
"Dick" or whatever they may be calling me at the moment, and they say "Why
is it in every State you go into" - and this is true - "and in every meeting
in which you participate, you always mention the local candidates?"
And I do. Governor, Congressmen, Senators,
if they're running, assemblymen, State legislators, State senators, if
they're running. "Why is it that you do that?" Particularly they say "Why
do you do that where in many of these States everything indicates they
are going to run behind you? Don't you realize we're trying to win this
national election, and isn't it going to hurt to mention these fellows
and these women in some cases who may not have the strength that you have?"
And I want to tell you why. Because I believe
in party responsibility; because I believe that it is not only necessary
to elect a Republican President. It's also necessary to build this party
from top to bottom, and we cannot do it unless we all stand together right
up and down the line. And so that's why I do that.
Frankly, if the time ever comes when I'm not
proud of my party and proud of the candidates I'm running with, then, of
course, the thing for me to do is to get out of the party.
So I can only say, since I don't intend that
I'm going to continue to support every Republican candidate in this State
and also in the Nation, and do it proudly because we simply have to develop
a spirit. A spirit which you already have in this State. A spirit which
also can be developed in other States as well, a spirit that will rebuild
our strength, and it is coming back.
Now, the last thing I would say is "This campaign
has brought out the biggest crowds of any I have ever participated in."
I think it's probably the record. Crowds from the standpoint of any campaign,
including the ones in 1952 and 1956, are enthusiastic. People believe
there is a cause worth fighting for and working for, and voting for, and
we can win this election. I would like to point this out, however. I have
never seen an election campaign in which the odds were closer. People say,
"How is it in California?" and I would say you could call it 50-50, 51-49,
either way. Nobody would know.
That same thing would apply to virtually every
State in this Union. In a close election what will be decisive - and this
brings me back to why I am here and why I welcome the opportunity to talk
to a group like this - in a close election what is always decisive is the
work that is done in the last 3 weeks.
What is always decisive is the work that is
done in getting that extra vote per precinct, which may make the difference.
Barry Goldwater and I know what that problem is. We were both up in North
Dakota. I went up there and campaigned pretty hard with Pat, and we had
tremendous crowds and great enthusiasm. Everybody said, "Well this
is it. We're going to win." But the workers didn't get out as they should
in a few key cities. Barry campaigned it all over, too; everybody was there.
Nelson Rockefeller was there. We threw everything into that in the way
of speakers. Everything was in that campaign in the way of radio and television
and billboards and everything. No lack of money. No lack of advertising.
No lack of speakers from the outside. Yet we lost. You know how much we
lost by - one-half vote per precinct. One-half vote per precinct would
have meant that for the next 6 years instead of having a Senator who will
vote down the line with the far left of the Democrats in the Senate, we
would have had a fine Republican Governor, John Davis, as Senator. That
is what could have happened. And so I say to all you, and I say this as
a message to all the precinct workers and those who lead them throughout
this country. Remember the speeches of a candidate are important, of course.
They have to inspire, if they can, and the speeches made by others, like
Barry Goldwater, are important, and all of these things that are purchased
by money, the public relations activities for example, the television and
the radio and the billboards and the handouts and the direct mail, et cetera.
All of these things are important, but in the clinch, in a close election,
the most important person in the campaign is not the candidate for President
or the candidate for Governor or the candidate for the House or the candidate
for the Senate. The most important person in the world is an individual
who came up to me at the airport last night among the VIPS and he said
"I'm just a precinct worker." He or she is the most important person. You
tell them that, because in a close election they'll win it; so let's be
sure, as we go into this stretch, we step up our campaign, that we step
it up and also that we don't do it just with the hip hip hooray of a meeting,
but that we recognize it's going to be won right down there, won or lost
in the battleground. They know it. They're going to pour in, without any
question, hundreds of thousands of paid workers, in many instances. I say
hundreds of thousands. That may be an exaggeration. There certainly will
be thousands of paid workers in some of the key industrial States. They
will be poured into this campaign. We've got to combat them with volunteers,
because that's all we have, but a good volunteer worker can always beat
a paid worker, if he works, and so I say let's outwork them and outfight
them in these last 3 weeks and we'll win Arizona and the Nation. Thank
you.