Word: agnew
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...speculation during the Democratic Convention. Said he: "You know, in some tribes they pick the purest man in the tribe and then have him pick the chief." The Swiftian modesty of proposing the Vice President as kingmaker is resonant with possibilities: What if the choice were left to Spiro Agnew? Or, for that matter, to Thomas Eagleton...
...first incumbent President since Herbert Hoover to be turned out of office. But now, for the first time in his scar-studded career, he bestrides the American political arena like a colossus. By every sign, omen and pollster's tally sheet, Nixon and his running mate Spiro Agnew have it made. The President may be forgiven a touch of vertigo these days...
...should also pose the sharpest choice on basic issues of any modern U.S. election. No matter; in the euphoria of the convention, the Republicans are acting as if the voting were already over. Four years ahead of time, conservatives are maneuvering to put their ideological favorite, Spiro Agnew, at the top of the ticket when Nixon steps down...
...contrast to the discordant Democrats. "The convention will be short, compact and precise," declared Republican National Committee Chairman Robert Dole. "We want a convention that will be watched-and not just by insomniacs." Everything is under control, observes the wry Dole, including a "spontaneous floor demonstration for Nixon and Agnew." Dissent is muted, polite, served up in small doses. There is no Bella Abzug storming around denouncing the nominee; instead Jill Ruckelshaus, wife of the director of the Environmental Protection Agency, makes a discreet, ladylike case for more lenient abortion laws...
Behind the battles over arithmetic were maneuvers aimed at controlling the convention in 1976. Some conservatives accused the liberals of trying to push Agnew out of contention for the presidency by reducing his power base in the South and West, where his photograph figures more prominently in Republican offices than the President's. It is true that two of the leaders fighting for larger delegations, Charles Percy and William Brock, are known to harbor presidential ambitions. But Oregon's Bob Packwood denied that it was a "dump-Agnew movement. It will become one only over my dead body...