George Romney presidential campaign, 1968
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| George Romney presidential campaign, 1968 | |
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| Campaign | United States presidential election, 1968 |
| Candidate | George Romney |
| Affiliation | Republican Party |
| Headquarters | Detroit, Michigan |
| Slogan | For a Better America! |
The George Romney presidential campaign, 1968 began with the official announcement of candidacy on November 18, 1967 at the Veteran’s Memorial Building in Detroit, Michigan. 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. [1] If elected he would have been the first Mormon president.
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[edit] Political positions
[edit] 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.
[edit] International issues
Romney supported the Marshall Plan 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. [2]
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.
[edit] Campaign development
As Romney hinted at his intentions to be a candidate for president in the 1968 election, polls early in 1967 showed him the leader among rank and file Republicans, especially among the "moderates." He had a clear top-tier status and by March of 1967 Romney had found himself only nine points behind the presumptive front-runner former Vice President Richard M. Nixon. [3]
However before his campaign had officially began, Governor Romney made a statement that 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 connotations of brainwashing following the experiences of the American prisoners of war (highlighted by the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate) made Romney's comments devastating to his status as the GOP front-runner. Republican Congressman Robert Stafford of Vermont sounded a common concern: "If you're running for the presidency," he asserted, "you are supposed to have too much on the ball to be brainwashed." [4]
Romney announced on 18 November 1967, that he had "decided to fight for and win the Republican nomination and election to the Presidency of the United States."
[edit] Polling
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. Notice how the poll numbers drop after the "brainwashing" comment was made on August 31, 1967. [5]
| Date | Percentage | Points behind |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
He announced his withdrawal as a presidential candidate on February 28, 1968. At his party's national convention in Miami Beach, Romney finished a weak sixth with only fifty votes on the first ballot (44 of Michigan's 48, plus six from Utah).
[edit] 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 Romney decided to run for president himself in 2008.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
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