Projo Politics Blog

By John E. Mulligan, Journal Washington Bureau

MINNEAPOLIS -- Republicans from around the country attended their welcoming gala last night at the Minndeapolis Convention Center in an atmosphere of uncertainty and some disappointment about how their national gathering will proceed in the shadow of the hurricane at the other end of the Mississippi River.

The nuts-and-bolts work of the Republican National Convention, such as ratification of the party platform, will go ahead today at the Xcel Energy Center across the river in St. Paul. But the big-name speeches -- including one by President Bush -- have been cancelled for tonight.

After the welcoming bash last night, the Rhode Islanders retired to their hotel, southwest of Minneapolis in Bloomington, near the Twin Cities airport. Several of the delegates gathered in the lobby, where the talk natually turned to old sea stories from campaigns past.

Some of the best came from the white-haired gent with the distinctive button on the lapel of his blue-blazer. It read: ``If I were 21, I'd vote for Barry.'' Barry was, of course, the late Arizona Sen. Barry M. Goldwater, the Republican nominee who lost in a landslide to President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and sowed the seeds of the modern conservative movement along the way.

The man with the ``Barry'' pin, J. William Middendorf, was present at the creation in San Francisco, site of the '64 GOP convention. Middendorf, laterr to be Navy secretary under President Gerald R. Ford, has written a book Glorious Disasteron the topic of Goldwater's adventures, recalled what he described as a lapse in judgment for helping to select a little-known New York congressman, Bill Miller, as Goldwater's running mate.

Those were different times. Middendorf recalled that the vetting process, such as it was, took place behind the locked doors of a smoke-filled bathroom in the Mark Hopkins Hotel -- the only place where he and other Goldwater insiders could get some privacy. They settled on recommending Miller at about 3 o'clock on the morning of Goldwater's acceptance speech.

Aside from his supporting role in launching the conservative movement that would one day yield the Reagan presidency, Middendorf looks back on one lasting personal achievement: ``I came out of that hotel room and I said, `I am never going to smoke another cigarette.'

``And I never did,'' said Middendorf, a onetime Harvard oarsman who will turn 84 this month and still keeps in shape by rowing.

 Tags  Barry Goldwater J. William Middendorf Republican conservative movement Republican Convention

---