George Romney presidential campaign, 1968
Encyclopedia
George Romney
ran for the 1968 Republican Party nomination
in the 1968 United States presidential election
.
Romney was the Governor of Michigan
and a renowned automaker
who focused his campaign on the issues of fiscal responsibility, welfare reform
and the Vietnam War
. If elected he would have been the first Mormon
president.
. While the Constitution does provide that a president must be a natural born citizen, the first Congress of the United States in 1790 passed legislation stating: "The children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond the sea, or outside the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural-born citizens of the United States." Romney and his family fled Mexico in 1912 prior to the Mexican revolution
. However, the Naturalization Act of 1795 repealed the Act of 1790 and removed the language explicitly stating that the children of US citizens are natural-born citizens. As such, it is inconclusive whether Romney was eligible for the office of President.
. Romney said that he had "decided to fight for and win the Republican nomination and election to the Presidency of the United States."
's top political aides from his 1964 Presidential campaign. These people included:
In 1967, Leonard W. Hall
became Romney's informal campaign manager.
Romney supported programs for helping students afford college. As governor of Michigan he started a scholarship program which helped 15,000 students pay for college in the state. As a solution for welfare reform, Romney stressed personal responsibility and volunteerism, stressing the need for citizenship.
following World War II
believing in the concept that aides for foreign nations should be "...in the form of private investment, rather than governmental handouts". At the time of the election he believed that America's international commitments were overreaching their bounds and called for America's leaders to be "frank, open and straightforward with the people..." on international issues.
Initially, Romney supported the war in Vietnam, however after a 1965 visit he began to question the mission feeling that he had been "brainwashed" by the military officials. In August 1967 he articulated his opposition to the war.
disaster recur, and neither fellow governors Nelson Rockefeller
nor Bill Scranton wanted to run again; the governors quickly settled on Romney as their favorite for the Republican presidential nomination in the 1968 U.S. presidential election
. Former Congressman and Republican National Committee
chair Leonard W. Hall
became Romney's informal campaign manager. A Gallup Poll after the November elections showed Romney as favored among Republicans over former Vice President Richard Nixon
for the Republican nomination, 39 percent to 31 percent, and a Harris Poll showed Romney besting President Johnson among all voters by 54 percent to 46 percent.
Romney announced an exploratory phase in February 1967, beginning with a visit to Alaska and the Rocky Mountain states. Romney's greatest weakness was his lack of foreign policy expertise and his need for a clear position on the Vietnam War
. The press coverage of the trip focused on Vietnam and reporters were frustrated by Romney's initial reluctance to speak about it. (Nixon was also taking no public stance on Vietnam and would also later take press heat for not doing so.) The qualities that helped give Romney success as an automotive industry executive worked against him as a presidential candidate; he had difficulty being articulate on any issue, often speaking at length and too forthrightly on a topic and then later correcting himself while maintaining he was not. Reporter Jack Germond
joked that he was going to add a single key on his typewriter that would print, "Romney later explained...." Life
magazine wrote that Romney "manages to turn self-expression into a positive ordeal" and that he was no different in private: "nobody can sound more like the public George Romney than the real George Romney let loose to ramble, inevitably away from the point and toward some distant moral precept." The perception grew that Romney was gaffe-prone and an oaf; the campaign, beset by internal rivalries, soon went through the first of several reorganizations. By then, Nixon had already overtaken Romney in Gallup's Republican preference poll, a lead he would hold throughout the rest of the campaign. Nevertheless, Romney had a clear top-tier status and by March 1967 found himself only nine points behind Nixon. The techniques that had brought Romney victories in Michigan, such as operating outside established partisan formulas and keeping a distance from Republican Party organizational elements, proved ineffective in a party nominating contest. Romney's national poll ratings continued to erode, and by May he had lost his edge over Johnson. The Detroit riots of July 1967 did not change his standing among Republicans, but did give him a bounce in national polls against the increasingly unpopular president. A couple of months later, Romney staged a three-week, 17-city tour of the nation's ghettos, seeking to engage militants and others in dialogue.
Romney's membership in the LDS Church was scarcely mentioned at all during the campaign, with what indirect attention there was focusing on the contrast between Romney's pro-civil rights stance and his church’s policy at the time of not allowing blacks to participate fully. Some historians and Mormons suspected then and later that had Romney's campaign lasted longer and been more successful, his religion might have become a more prominent issue. Romney's campaign did often focus on his core beliefs; a Romney billboard in New Hampshire read "The Way To Stop Crime Is To Stop Moral Decay". Dartmouth College
students gave a bemused reaction to his morals message, displaying signs such as "God Is Alive and Thinks He's George Romney" and "Up With Dirty Minds, Down With Romney". A spate of books were published about Romney, more than for any other candidate, and included a friendly campaign biography, an attack from a former staffer, and a collection of Romney's speeches.
However before his campaign had officially began, Governor Romney made a statement that practically ruined his chances of getting the nomination. In a taped interview with Lou Gordon of WKBD-TV in Detroit on August 31 1967, Romney stated, "When I came back from Viet Nam [in November 1965], I'd just had the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get." He then shifted to opposing the war: "I no longer believe that it was necessary for us to get involved in South Vietnam to stop Communist aggression in Southeast Asia," he declared. Decrying the "tragic" conflict, he urged "a sound peace in South Vietnam at an early time." Thus Romney disavowed the war and reversed himself from his earlier stated belief that the war was "morally right and necessary."
The "brainwashing" reference had been an offhand, unplanned remark that came at the end of a long, behind-schedule day of campaigning. By September 7 it had found its way into prominence at The New York Times
. Eight other governors who had been on the same 1965 trip as Romney said no such activity had taken place, with one of them, Philip H. Hoff
of Vermont, saying Romney's remarks were "outrageous, kind of stinking ... Either he's a most naïve man or he lacks judgment." The connotations of brainwashing, following the experiences of American prisoners of war (highlighted by the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate
), made Romney's comments devastating, especially as it reinforced the negative image of Romney's abilities that had already developed. The topic of brainwashing quickly became newspaper editorial and television talk show fodder, with Romney bearing the brunt of the topical humor. Senator Eugene McCarthy
, running against Johnson for the Democratic nomination, said that in Romney's case, "a light rinse would have been sufficient." Republican Congressman Robert T. Stafford of Vermont
sounded a common concern: "If you're running for the presidency, you are supposed to have too much on the ball to be brainwashed." After the remark was aired, Romney's poll ratings quickly nosedived, going from 11 percent behind Nixon to 26 percent behind.
Romney nonetheless persevered, and formally announced on November 18, 1967, at Detroit's Veterans Memorial Building
, that he had "decided to fight for and win the Republican nomination and election to the Presidency of the United States." He spent the following months campaigning tirelessly, focusing on the New Hampshire primary
, the first of the season, and doing all the on-the-ground activities known to that state: greeting workers at factory gates before dawn, having neighborhood meetings in private homes, stopping at bowling alleys. He returned to Vietnam in December 1967 and made speeches and proposals on the subject, one of which presaged Nixon's eventual policy of Vietnamization
. For a while he got an improved response from voters. However, he still suffered from generally negative press coverage.
Two weeks before the March 12 primary, an internal poll showed Romney losing to Nixon by a six-to-one margin in New Hampshire. Rockefeller, seeing the poll result as well, publicly maintained his support for Romney but said he would be available for a draft; the statement made national headlines and embittered Romney (who would later claim it was Rockefeller's entry, and not the "brainwashing" remark, that doomed him). Seeing his cause was hopeless, Romney announced his withdrawal as a presidential candidate on February 28, 1968. The announcement came as a shock to political observers, who thought that Romney would at least stay in through the New Hampshire and Wisconsin primaries. While it was often assumed that Romney would endorse Rockefeller for the nomination, he did not support anyone. Romney wrote to his son Mitt
, away in France on missionary work: "Your mother and I are not personally distressed. As a matter of fact, we are relieved. We went into this not because we aspired to the office, but simply because we felt that under the circumstances we would not feel right if we did not offer our service. As I have said on many occasions, I aspired, and though I achieved not, I am satisfied."
Nixon went on to gain the nomination. At the 1968 Republican National Convention
in Miami Beach, Romney refused to release his delegates to Nixon. Romney finished a weak fifth, with only 50 votes on the roll call (44 of Michigan's 48, plus six from Utah). When party moderates and others expressed dismay at Nixon's choice of Spiro Agnew
as his vice-presidential running mate, Romney's name was placed into nomination and pushed by several delegations. Romney said he did not initiate the move, but nor did he make an effort to oppose it. In any case, he lost to Agnew 1,119–186. Romney worked for Nixon's eventually successful campaign in the fall, which did earn him Nixon's gratitude.
Presidential historian Theodore H. White
wrote that during his campaign Romney gave "the impression of an honest and decent man simply not cut out to be President of the United States." Governor Jim Rhodes
of Ohio more memorably said, "Watching George Romney run for the presidency was like watching a duck try to make love to a football."
The table below shows what percentage George Romney received in the Gallup Poll results for the Republican Party nomination during the 1968 presidential election. Also shown is how far behind he was from front-runner Richard Nixon. The poll numbers dropped after the "brainwashing" comment was made on August 31, 1967.
, ran for president himself in 2008
, and, like his father, dropped out before the Republican convention.
George W. Romney
George Wilcken Romney was an American businessman and Republican Party politician. He was chairman and CEO of American Motors Corporation from 1954 to 1962, the 43rd Governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969, and the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1969 to 1973...
ran for the 1968 Republican Party nomination
Republican Party (United States) presidential primaries, 1968
The 1968 Republican presidential primaries were the selection process by which voters of the Republican Party chose its nominee for President of the United States in the 1968 U.S. presidential election...
in the 1968 United States presidential election
United States presidential election, 1968
The United States presidential election of 1968 was the 46th quadrennial United States presidential election. Coming four years after Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson won in a historic landslide, it saw Johnson forced out of the race and Republican Richard Nixon elected...
.
Romney was the Governor of Michigan
Governor of Michigan
The Governor of Michigan is the chief executive of the U.S. State of Michigan. The current Governor is Rick Snyder, a member of the Republican Party.-Gubernatorial elections and term of office:...
and a renowned automaker
Automaker
The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells motor vehicles, and is one of the world's most important economic sectors by revenue....
who focused his campaign on the issues of fiscal responsibility, welfare reform
Welfare reform
Welfare reform refers to the process of reforming the framework of social security and welfare provisions, but what is considered reform is a matter of opinion. The term was used in the United States to support the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act...
and the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. If elected he would have been the first Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
president.
Eligibility
While Romney was born in Mexico, he was still considered to be a viable and legal candidate to run for president. His Mormon grandfather and his three wives fled to Mexico in 1886, but none of them ever relinquished their citizenshipCitizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
. While the Constitution does provide that a president must be a natural born citizen, the first Congress of the United States in 1790 passed legislation stating: "The children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond the sea, or outside the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural-born citizens of the United States." Romney and his family fled Mexico in 1912 prior to the Mexican revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
. However, the Naturalization Act of 1795 repealed the Act of 1790 and removed the language explicitly stating that the children of US citizens are natural-born citizens. As such, it is inconclusive whether Romney was eligible for the office of President.
Announcement
Romney's campaign began with the official announcement of candidacy on November 18, 1967, at the Veteran's Memorial Building in Detroit, MichiganMichigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. Romney said that he had "decided to fight for and win the Republican nomination and election to the Presidency of the United States."
Campaign staff
Romney was lent all of Nelson RockefellerNelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
's top political aides from his 1964 Presidential campaign. These people included:
- Hugh MorrowHugh MorrowHugh "Hughie" Morrow is an English former footballer and manager.-Managerial Statistics:-References:...
, for speech writing - George GilderGeorge GilderGeorge F. Gilder is an American writer, techno-utopian intellectual, Republican Party activist, and co-founder of the Discovery Institute...
, founder of the Ripon SocietyRipon SocietyThe Ripon Society is an American centrist Republican think tank based in Washington, D.C. They produce The Ripon Forum, the Nation's longest running Republican thought and opinion journal.... - Henry KissingerHenry KissingerHeinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
, who tutored Romney on foreign policy (in an attempt to bring his views closer to his and Nelson Rockefeller's).
In 1967, Leonard W. Hall
Leonard W. Hall
Leonard Wood Hall was a United States Representative from New York. Born in Oyster Bay, Nassau County, he attended the public schools and graduated from the law department of Georgetown University in 1920...
became Romney's informal campaign manager.
Economic policy
Romney favored fiscal responsibility without raising taxes. In his campaign, Romney focused on his time as Governor of Michigan where he had inherited a debt of $100 million and turned it around to restore Michigan's reputation for fiscal responsibility. He favored a reform of the tax code.Romney supported programs for helping students afford college. As governor of Michigan he started a scholarship program which helped 15,000 students pay for college in the state. As a solution for welfare reform, Romney stressed personal responsibility and volunteerism, stressing the need for citizenship.
International issues
Romney supported the Marshall PlanMarshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...
following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
believing in the concept that aides for foreign nations should be "...in the form of private investment, rather than governmental handouts". At the time of the election he believed that America's international commitments were overreaching their bounds and called for America's leaders to be "frank, open and straightforward with the people..." on international issues.
Initially, Romney supported the war in Vietnam, however after a 1965 visit he began to question the mission feeling that he had been "brainwashed" by the military officials. In August 1967 he articulated his opposition to the war.
Campaign development
The wide margin of victory in Romney's November 1966 gubernatorial re-election in Michigan cast him to the forefront of national Republicans. In addition to his political record, the tall, handsome, graying Romney looked like a president. Republican governors were determined not to let the 1964 Barry GoldwaterBarry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
disaster recur, and neither fellow governors Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
nor Bill Scranton wanted to run again; the governors quickly settled on Romney as their favorite for the Republican presidential nomination in the 1968 U.S. presidential election
Republican Party (United States) presidential primaries, 1968
The 1968 Republican presidential primaries were the selection process by which voters of the Republican Party chose its nominee for President of the United States in the 1968 U.S. presidential election...
. Former Congressman and Republican National Committee
Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee is an American political committee that provides national leadership for the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. It is...
chair Leonard W. Hall
Leonard W. Hall
Leonard Wood Hall was a United States Representative from New York. Born in Oyster Bay, Nassau County, he attended the public schools and graduated from the law department of Georgetown University in 1920...
became Romney's informal campaign manager. A Gallup Poll after the November elections showed Romney as favored among Republicans over former Vice President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
for the Republican nomination, 39 percent to 31 percent, and a Harris Poll showed Romney besting President Johnson among all voters by 54 percent to 46 percent.
Romney announced an exploratory phase in February 1967, beginning with a visit to Alaska and the Rocky Mountain states. Romney's greatest weakness was his lack of foreign policy expertise and his need for a clear position on the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. The press coverage of the trip focused on Vietnam and reporters were frustrated by Romney's initial reluctance to speak about it. (Nixon was also taking no public stance on Vietnam and would also later take press heat for not doing so.) The qualities that helped give Romney success as an automotive industry executive worked against him as a presidential candidate; he had difficulty being articulate on any issue, often speaking at length and too forthrightly on a topic and then later correcting himself while maintaining he was not. Reporter Jack Germond
Jack Germond
Jack Worthen Germond is an American journalist, author, and pundit. -Life and career:Germond was born in Boston, Massachusetts, an only child and raised in a striving middle-class household in Boston and Trenton, New Jersey. When he was 13, his family moved to Mississippi, and then to Baton Rouge,...
joked that he was going to add a single key on his typewriter that would print, "Romney later explained...." Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
magazine wrote that Romney "manages to turn self-expression into a positive ordeal" and that he was no different in private: "nobody can sound more like the public George Romney than the real George Romney let loose to ramble, inevitably away from the point and toward some distant moral precept." The perception grew that Romney was gaffe-prone and an oaf; the campaign, beset by internal rivalries, soon went through the first of several reorganizations. By then, Nixon had already overtaken Romney in Gallup's Republican preference poll, a lead he would hold throughout the rest of the campaign. Nevertheless, Romney had a clear top-tier status and by March 1967 found himself only nine points behind Nixon. The techniques that had brought Romney victories in Michigan, such as operating outside established partisan formulas and keeping a distance from Republican Party organizational elements, proved ineffective in a party nominating contest. Romney's national poll ratings continued to erode, and by May he had lost his edge over Johnson. The Detroit riots of July 1967 did not change his standing among Republicans, but did give him a bounce in national polls against the increasingly unpopular president. A couple of months later, Romney staged a three-week, 17-city tour of the nation's ghettos, seeking to engage militants and others in dialogue.
Romney's membership in the LDS Church was scarcely mentioned at all during the campaign, with what indirect attention there was focusing on the contrast between Romney's pro-civil rights stance and his church’s policy at the time of not allowing blacks to participate fully. Some historians and Mormons suspected then and later that had Romney's campaign lasted longer and been more successful, his religion might have become a more prominent issue. Romney's campaign did often focus on his core beliefs; a Romney billboard in New Hampshire read "The Way To Stop Crime Is To Stop Moral Decay". Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
students gave a bemused reaction to his morals message, displaying signs such as "God Is Alive and Thinks He's George Romney" and "Up With Dirty Minds, Down With Romney". A spate of books were published about Romney, more than for any other candidate, and included a friendly campaign biography, an attack from a former staffer, and a collection of Romney's speeches.
However before his campaign had officially began, Governor Romney made a statement that practically ruined his chances of getting the nomination. In a taped interview with Lou Gordon of WKBD-TV in Detroit on August 31 1967, Romney stated, "When I came back from Viet Nam [in November 1965], I'd just had the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get." He then shifted to opposing the war: "I no longer believe that it was necessary for us to get involved in South Vietnam to stop Communist aggression in Southeast Asia," he declared. Decrying the "tragic" conflict, he urged "a sound peace in South Vietnam at an early time." Thus Romney disavowed the war and reversed himself from his earlier stated belief that the war was "morally right and necessary."
The "brainwashing" reference had been an offhand, unplanned remark that came at the end of a long, behind-schedule day of campaigning. By September 7 it had found its way into prominence at The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. Eight other governors who had been on the same 1965 trip as Romney said no such activity had taken place, with one of them, Philip H. Hoff
Philip H. Hoff
Philip Henderson Hoff is an American politician from the U.S. state of Vermont where he served as the 73rd Governor of Vermont from 1963 to 1969. At the time of his election, he was the first Democrat elected Governor of Vermont in 108 years.-Life and career:Hoff was born in Turners Falls,...
of Vermont, saying Romney's remarks were "outrageous, kind of stinking ... Either he's a most naïve man or he lacks judgment." The connotations of brainwashing, following the experiences of American prisoners of war (highlighted by the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate
The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)
The Manchurian Candidate is a 1962 American Cold War political thriller film starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury, and featuring Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish and John McGiver...
), made Romney's comments devastating, especially as it reinforced the negative image of Romney's abilities that had already developed. The topic of brainwashing quickly became newspaper editorial and television talk show fodder, with Romney bearing the brunt of the topical humor. Senator Eugene McCarthy
Eugene McCarthy
Eugene Joseph "Gene" McCarthy was an American politician, poet, and a long-time member of the United States Congress from Minnesota. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the U.S. Senate from 1959 to 1971.In the 1968 presidential election, McCarthy was the first...
, running against Johnson for the Democratic nomination, said that in Romney's case, "a light rinse would have been sufficient." Republican Congressman Robert T. Stafford of Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
sounded a common concern: "If you're running for the presidency, you are supposed to have too much on the ball to be brainwashed." After the remark was aired, Romney's poll ratings quickly nosedived, going from 11 percent behind Nixon to 26 percent behind.
Romney nonetheless persevered, and formally announced on November 18, 1967, at Detroit's Veterans Memorial Building
UAW-Ford National Programs Center
The UAW-Ford National Programs Center is a tall building in Hart Plaza, Downtown Detroit, Michigan. The high-rise building was constructed in 1948 as the Veterans Memorial Building. It stands at in height, with 10 above-ground floors...
, that he had "decided to fight for and win the Republican nomination and election to the Presidency of the United States." He spent the following months campaigning tirelessly, focusing on the New Hampshire primary
New Hampshire primary
The New Hampshire primary is the first in a series of nationwide political party primary elections held in the United States every four years , as part of the process of choosing the Democratic and Republican nominees for the presidential elections to be held the subsequent November.Although only a...
, the first of the season, and doing all the on-the-ground activities known to that state: greeting workers at factory gates before dawn, having neighborhood meetings in private homes, stopping at bowling alleys. He returned to Vietnam in December 1967 and made speeches and proposals on the subject, one of which presaged Nixon's eventual policy of Vietnamization
Vietnamization
Vietnamization was a policy of the Richard M. Nixon administration during the Vietnam War, as a result of the Viet Cong's Tet Offensive, to "expand, equip, and train South Vietnam's forces and assign to them an ever-increasing combat role, at the same time steadily reducing the number of U.S....
. For a while he got an improved response from voters. However, he still suffered from generally negative press coverage.
Two weeks before the March 12 primary, an internal poll showed Romney losing to Nixon by a six-to-one margin in New Hampshire. Rockefeller, seeing the poll result as well, publicly maintained his support for Romney but said he would be available for a draft; the statement made national headlines and embittered Romney (who would later claim it was Rockefeller's entry, and not the "brainwashing" remark, that doomed him). Seeing his cause was hopeless, Romney announced his withdrawal as a presidential candidate on February 28, 1968. The announcement came as a shock to political observers, who thought that Romney would at least stay in through the New Hampshire and Wisconsin primaries. While it was often assumed that Romney would endorse Rockefeller for the nomination, he did not support anyone. Romney wrote to his son Mitt
Mitt Romney
Willard Mitt Romney is an American businessman and politician. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and is a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination.The son of George W...
, away in France on missionary work: "Your mother and I are not personally distressed. As a matter of fact, we are relieved. We went into this not because we aspired to the office, but simply because we felt that under the circumstances we would not feel right if we did not offer our service. As I have said on many occasions, I aspired, and though I achieved not, I am satisfied."
Nixon went on to gain the nomination. At the 1968 Republican National Convention
1968 Republican National Convention
The 1968 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States was held in at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Dade County, Florida, from August 5 to August 8, 1968....
in Miami Beach, Romney refused to release his delegates to Nixon. Romney finished a weak fifth, with only 50 votes on the roll call (44 of Michigan's 48, plus six from Utah). When party moderates and others expressed dismay at Nixon's choice of Spiro Agnew
Spiro Agnew
Spiro Theodore Agnew was the 39th Vice President of the United States , serving under President Richard Nixon, and the 55th Governor of Maryland...
as his vice-presidential running mate, Romney's name was placed into nomination and pushed by several delegations. Romney said he did not initiate the move, but nor did he make an effort to oppose it. In any case, he lost to Agnew 1,119–186. Romney worked for Nixon's eventually successful campaign in the fall, which did earn him Nixon's gratitude.
Presidential historian Theodore H. White
Theodore H. White
Theodore Harold White was an American political journalist, historian, and novelist, known for his wartime reporting from China and accounts of the 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1980 presidential elections.-Life and career:...
wrote that during his campaign Romney gave "the impression of an honest and decent man simply not cut out to be President of the United States." Governor Jim Rhodes
Jim Rhodes
James Allen Rhodes was an American Republican politician from Ohio, and one of only five US state governors to serve four four-year terms in office. As governor in 1970, he decided to send National Guard troops onto the Kent State University campus, resulting in the shooting of students on May 4...
of Ohio more memorably said, "Watching George Romney run for the presidency was like watching a duck try to make love to a football."
Polling
| Date | Percentage | Points behind |
|---|---|---|
| November 1966 | 39% | –8 (ahead) |
| January 1967 | 28% | 11 |
| February 1967 | 31% | 10 |
| March 1967 | 30% | 9 |
| April 1967 | 28% | 15 |
| June 1967 | 25% | 14 |
| August 1967 | 24% | 11 |
| September 1967 | 14% | 26 |
| October 1967 | 13% | 29 |
| November 1967 | 14% | 28 |
| January 1968 | 12% | 30 |
| February 1968 | 7% | 44 |
Aftermath
Following Nixon's election, Romney was named to the cabinet as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, also known as HUD. He served in that office until the beginning of Nixon's second term in January 1973. During his four years at HUD, Romney slightly increased the amount of federally subsidized housing, but was prevented from expanding the concept to suburban areas. His son, Mitt RomneyMitt Romney
Willard Mitt Romney is an American businessman and politician. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and is a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination.The son of George W...
, ran for president himself in 2008
Mitt Romney presidential campaign, 2008
Mitt Romney was a Republican Party primary candidate in the 2008 United States presidential election. On January 3, 2007, two days before he stepped down as governor of Massachusetts, Romney filed to form a presidential exploratory committee with the Federal Election Commission...
, and, like his father, dropped out before the Republican convention.