Letter From a Whig
Slemp, C. Bascom
C.Bascom Slemp Letter from a Whig A New Batch of Boodlers! (WASHINGTON) - As you read this you should realize that you know something that I didn't know when I wrote it. You know what happened on...
...You know what happened on November 7th while I can only guess...
...They should either be in control of the Senate or angling for Senator Harry Byrd's support so that they can take control in January...
...They see a push for FAP like solutions to our domestic ills and more government involvement in the lives of individual Americans...
...If he did worse than this, however, and had no coattails, they will have to thank the stars that this year they had George McGovem to kick around...
...Nor do I know how many Republican senators were elected either on their own or by hanging on to the President's coattails and I have not the faintest idea whether the Republican party came close to taking over the House of Representatives...
...They see him as basically conservative and suspect that he will take a great personal interest in domestic affairs in the next four years, and they insist if he does we will witness a significant right-ward shift in U.S...
...Most observers, however, suspect the next four years will be remarkably like those that we have weathered...
...I do know that the Republicans should have won several Senate seats, and if they didn't I think we can conclude either that the President's coattails were even shorter than some observers predicted them to be or that someone, somewhere, messed up things pretty badly...
...There are those who feel that the second Nixon Administration will be even more liberal than the first...
...If the President got more than 57 percent of the vote or if the Republicans did substantially better than expected in other races, White House strategists can take credit for a major victory...
...domestic policy...
...Those who hold this opinion believe either that the President is not ideologically motivated or that his ideological proclivities don't always directly affect the day to day decisions that result in the development of public policy...
...If these things all happen on November 7, the President and his people accomplished the possible...
...They suspect that we will see many more decisions made on an ad hoc basis by White House staffers and anonymous bureaucratic operatives...
...The political landscape has been altered and altered significantly as a result of the November 7 election and the campaign (continued on page 19)n page 19...
...I should make no further mention of them save to warn our readers of their existence...
...Others don't think the President will follow this course at all...
...This doesn't necessarily mean that the policies adopted during the next four years will be those of the first four, but it does seem to me that they will be developed in similar ways...
...In addition, Republicans should have won Senate seats in Rhode Island, New Mexico, North Carolina, Kentucky, Texas, Idaho, and New Hampshire...
...Actually, regardless of the outcome, you can assume that with the election over everyone in Washington is wondering just what Richard Nixon intends to do with the presidency for four more years...
...But such are the handicaps under which we were forced to labor...
...suffice it to say that as I write this, I don't really know how many votes separated Richard Nixon and George McGovern on November 7, or even if the President got the "sweeping mandate" he has dreamed of so long...
...Now as you can no doubt imagine, this puts a political writer at a bit of a disadvantage...
...If all went well, Richard Nixon should have received at least 57 percent of the popular vote and two-thirds of the electoral vote...
...They should have at least picked up twenty-five House seats, not enough to give them control of the House, but certainly enough to brag about...
...Indeed as I sat down to write this column, I was forced to begin by cursing the inconsistent, shortsighted publishing types who, for reasons of their own, set pre-election deadlines for a post election issue, which must of necessity include commentary on the election...
...One thing, however, is certain...
...Some seem to feel he will be "looking for a place in history," while others see . him as a free man at last able to act on the basis of what he believes is right rather than on the suspicion of what might be most expedient...
Vol. 6 • December 1972 • No. 3
