Republicans: The Something's Wrong Theme

In his Washington office one afternoon last week G.O.P. National Chairman Dean Burch was talking about the issues on which the coming campaign would be fought.

"The thing on which this election could turn is the very broad issue of morality," said Burch. "We're trying to sell the idea that there's something wrong in this country. We've got riots in our cities. Our kids aren't turning out worth a darn—every other one's a delinquent. Congress shuts off inquiries of misconduct in high places. Out of this we try to sell the idea: 'Let's try another guy. More of the same isn't going to solve anything "

Meaningful Mood. The "other guy" was on the road last week for his first major stump speech since the nomination, and he seemed to be pursuing the something's-wrong theme with some success. Barry Goldwater's forum was a bunting-draped platform at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, where a shirt-sleeved crowd of 12,000 turned out for "Republican Day." For 32 minutes, Goldwater spoke under a broiling sun. But he was cooled repeatedly by applause and chants of "Yea, Barry!"

He renewed his claim that the U.S. is planning to reduce its deliverable nuclear capacity by 90% in the next decade (though the Pentagon quickly replied that its plans through 1972 call for "a bomber-deliverable megatonnage, which is highly classified but substantially greater than the Senator's statement implies"). He repeated his charge that "one good American life was lost" and another "delivered into Communist captivity" because President Johnson needlessly tipped off the enemy when he announced on television that U.S. planes were en route to targets during the Tonkin Gulf crisis. (The Administration argued that the President was deliberately warning Red China against intervening and that the first U.S. planes were already within enemy radar range.) Retorted Barry: "The Administration has shown little skill when negotiating with the Communists. Now it appears they have as little skill when fighting with the Communists."

The main thrust of Barry's speech, however, was to link Lyndon Johnson's Administration with the issues of law, order and morality. Alluding to Negro rioting, he drew wild applause by declaring: "I would not as President support or incite any American to seek redress of his grievances through lawlessness, violence, and hurt to his fellow men." There is, said Goldwater, "a feeling in America today which may be as meaningful in the long run as any other factor" in this election year. This mood was a reaction to "the doctrine of the fast buck and the code of the off-color novel," a protest against "easy morals and uneasy ethics."