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Authors: James A. Michener
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platform with the Vice President in public debate I told my wife, “Kennedy’s gonna be sorry he did that! This Nixon’s a born debater. I’m afraid hell cut our man to pieces.” Judging merely from the two acceptance speeches, I had every right to be apprehensive.
My wife, now solidly in the Kennedy camp, argued, “I think Kennedy’ll be able to take care of himself.” Like all Stevensonians, she had supported her plumed warrior right down to the last six inches of the lists, and when hefell unseated, tears came into her eyes and she did not want to talk. But unlike many of them she then vigorously supported Senator Kennedy and was responsible for gaining him many votes, for she was a tireless and a persuasive campaigner.
My native village contains two women who ought to be copyrighted by George Gallup, because by questioning them he could save a lot of money. They invariably express the average view on everything. I have known them for many years—they were good neighbors of my mother’s—and I have rarely known them to express a wrong opinion. If a new play opens in Philadelphia, they go to see it, and next morning the conversation goes something like this.
ME : I hear you went to the theater last night. How was it?
MISS OMWAKE : Interesting play.
ME : How will it do on Broadway?
MRS. DALE : It’s bound to flop.
ME : Why? Poor script?
MISS OMWAKE : That leading lady.
ME : Can’t she act?
MRS. DALE : She acts very well.
ME : She’s not sympathetic?
MRS. DALE : In the second act she wears a purple dress. And what do you suppose she wears for a scarf?
MISS OMWAKE : A yellow scarf!
MRS. DALE : The play won’t last a week in New York.
Invariably, the play flops. By some alchemy of mind, these two women isolate the irrelevant truths that illuminatethe fundamental ones. They didn’t like one automobile because the handles looked like egg cups, and that model was a dismal failure. They don’t trust a man because his dog walks sideways, as if it was afraid of being kicked, and sooner or later the man embezzles $50,000. I have never been able to figure out how they know, but they know. They have mysterious pipelines to some deep reservoir of the American spirit, and they report with accuracy the taste of the times.
In 1956 they gave me an exhibition of their political insight when they recited a series of reasons why President Eisenhower was bound to be reëlected: “He never swears in the White House, the way President Truman did. His son was in uniform in Korea, not singing on a public stage the way some people we could name did when their father was in the White House. Besides he has as his Secretary of State a fine Christian gentleman like John Foster Dulles, a real religious man and not a crooked lawyer like Dean Acheson. Mrs. Eisenhower stays home the way she should instead of gallivanting around like Mrs. Roosevelt. And he goes to church on Sunday because you can see the photographs of him on Monday morning in the papers. And he went to Korea, just as he said he would. But most of all, James, if he has served us so faithfully after having suffered a heart attack, the least we can do is vote for him again.” For these reasons they were sure he was going to be reëlected, and they even told me by what margin in the electoral college.
Although I had started out reasonably certain that John Kennedy was going to be our next President, thetwo conventions had shaken me a bit, so I consulted my oracles, and what they told me gave me a positive jolt.
MRS. DALE : Nixon is going to win because President Eisenhower personally selected him, and if he’s good enough for the President, he ought to be good enough for the people.
MISS OMWAKE : Senator Kennedy can never win because his wife is not appealing to the average American housewife.
MRS. DALE : But Mrs. Nixon is. She looks like any American woman you would meet anywhere. Our nation would be proud to have a woman like Mrs. Nixon in the White
My wife, now solidly in the Kennedy camp, argued, “I think Kennedy’ll be able to take care of himself.” Like all Stevensonians, she had supported her plumed warrior right down to the last six inches of the lists, and when hefell unseated, tears came into her eyes and she did not want to talk. But unlike many of them she then vigorously supported Senator Kennedy and was responsible for gaining him many votes, for she was a tireless and a persuasive campaigner.
My native village contains two women who ought to be copyrighted by George Gallup, because by questioning them he could save a lot of money. They invariably express the average view on everything. I have known them for many years—they were good neighbors of my mother’s—and I have rarely known them to express a wrong opinion. If a new play opens in Philadelphia, they go to see it, and next morning the conversation goes something like this.
ME : I hear you went to the theater last night. How was it?
MISS OMWAKE : Interesting play.
ME : How will it do on Broadway?
MRS. DALE : It’s bound to flop.
ME : Why? Poor script?
MISS OMWAKE : That leading lady.
ME : Can’t she act?
MRS. DALE : She acts very well.
ME : She’s not sympathetic?
MRS. DALE : In the second act she wears a purple dress. And what do you suppose she wears for a scarf?
MISS OMWAKE : A yellow scarf!
MRS. DALE : The play won’t last a week in New York.
Invariably, the play flops. By some alchemy of mind, these two women isolate the irrelevant truths that illuminatethe fundamental ones. They didn’t like one automobile because the handles looked like egg cups, and that model was a dismal failure. They don’t trust a man because his dog walks sideways, as if it was afraid of being kicked, and sooner or later the man embezzles $50,000. I have never been able to figure out how they know, but they know. They have mysterious pipelines to some deep reservoir of the American spirit, and they report with accuracy the taste of the times.
In 1956 they gave me an exhibition of their political insight when they recited a series of reasons why President Eisenhower was bound to be reëlected: “He never swears in the White House, the way President Truman did. His son was in uniform in Korea, not singing on a public stage the way some people we could name did when their father was in the White House. Besides he has as his Secretary of State a fine Christian gentleman like John Foster Dulles, a real religious man and not a crooked lawyer like Dean Acheson. Mrs. Eisenhower stays home the way she should instead of gallivanting around like Mrs. Roosevelt. And he goes to church on Sunday because you can see the photographs of him on Monday morning in the papers. And he went to Korea, just as he said he would. But most of all, James, if he has served us so faithfully after having suffered a heart attack, the least we can do is vote for him again.” For these reasons they were sure he was going to be reëlected, and they even told me by what margin in the electoral college.
Although I had started out reasonably certain that John Kennedy was going to be our next President, thetwo conventions had shaken me a bit, so I consulted my oracles, and what they told me gave me a positive jolt.
MRS. DALE : Nixon is going to win because President Eisenhower personally selected him, and if he’s good enough for the President, he ought to be good enough for the people.
MISS OMWAKE : Senator Kennedy can never win because his wife is not appealing to the average American housewife.
MRS. DALE : But Mrs. Nixon is. She looks like any American woman you would meet anywhere. Our nation would be proud to have a woman like Mrs. Nixon in the White
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