V-Day in Omaha

Omaha is a good place to have a quiet convention. The Strategic Air Command goes efficiently about its business of delaying the decisive chapters of World War III; Father Flanagan’s reminder is ever present that boys need not always be boys; the summer air is sometimes heavy with the stench of slaughtered cattle. Omaha is not a frivolous town. The Young Republican National Federation met there last week and it was not a frivolous convention. There was none of the headline-catching pandemonium of San Francisco, 1963, none of the ideological binges of Miami, 1965. Instead, the YRs showed off the political maturity they have acquired over the last two years. They showed themselves to be, the vast majority of them, responsible conservatives, in the apt phrase of Washington Post reporter David Broder. The immediate business of the 1967 convention was the election of a YR national chairman to serve over the next two years.

Three candidates presented themselves: Jack McDonald, a lanky, evangelistic Tennesseean with certifiably conservative credentials; James Betts, a towering, bearishly friendly Ohioan of vague ideological antecedents; and Ray Cooper of Arkansas, formerly an aide to Orval Faubus, now administrative assistant to Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller. McDonald ran on his record as YR Treasurer, in which capacity he had contributed significantly to GOP fundraising and computer programs, and —more broadly—as a leader of the conservative wing of the party. Betts and Cooper, though energetic individuals both, spent less time promoting their own candidacies than attacking McDonald’s. Their principal contention was that McDonald was manipulated by “the syndicate,’ a shadowy group of fair-weather conservatives they professed to see clustered about GOP pro F. Clifton White. (Less frequently, Cooper would attack Betts, whom he regarded as the candidate of the “gangbusters,” a shadowy group of liberals clustered abcut Sen. Hugh Scott.) The “conspiracy” charge had been used against conservative candidates before, and to very little effect. But McDonald, a highly independent Scotsman, hastened to rebut it. He told the press a) that he had never had a private conversation with Mr. White; b) that what Betts and Cooper were calling the “syndicate’ was the campaign organization he had worked four long years to put together; and 3) that he was running on his record, which was manifestly more impressive than his opponents’. The conservatives clearly outperformed the liberals. They were better-informed, better-equipped, better-organized. McDonald solidified the gains made during his six-month campaign; Betts and Cooper began their campaigns at the convention. McDonald won on the first ballot with 425 votes to 184 for Betts and thirteen for Cooper. McDonald’s five running mates, forceful and articulate conservatives all, were swept in also, four of them without opposition. The Young Republican National Federation, with an active membership of close to 400,000, will be squarely in the conservative camp in 1968. What made the victory especially satisfying to conservatives was that it was achieved without rancor. While most of the provisions of the Alcorn Report were voted down, symbolic gestures of conciliation were made to the senior party. In point of fact only three senior party figures rallied to Hugh Scott’s old cry to sit on the Young Republicans: Minnesota Lt. Gov. James Goetz, in an intemperate and apparently unprovoked luncheon address; New Jersey state chairman Webster Todd, who was rebuffed in his attempt to ram his own slate of delegates through the credentials committee; and Rhode Island state chairman Howard Russell, who “abolished” the Rhode Island YR Federation after it became clear that Rhode Island’s sympathies were with McDonald. Over against Goetz, Todd and Russell were arrayed Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan and Nevada Gov. Paul Laxalt, all of whom threw large bouquets to the YRs. When one adds to this latter group Richard Nixon, who has not backed away from the lavishly pro-YR position he took at the Miami convention in 1965, and Ray Bliss, whose distaste for intraparty warfare is well-known, it is difficult to envision the circumstances under which Scott’s crush-YR movement would prosper.

About the Author

Neal B. Freeman

Neal B. Freeman, businessman and journalist, was a director of National Review Inc. for 38 years.

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Omaha is a good place to have a quiet convention. The Strategic Air Command goes efficiently about its business of delaying the decisive chapters of World War III; Father Flanagan’s reminder is ever present that boys need not always be boys; the summer air is sometimes heavy with the stench of slaughtered cattle. Omaha is not a frivolous town. The Young Republican National Federation met there last week and it was not a frivolous convention. There was none of the headline-catching pandemonium of San Francisco, 1963, none of the ideological binges of Miami, 1965. Instead, the YRs showed off the political maturity they have acquired over the last two years. They showed themselves to be, the vast majority of them, responsible conservatives, in the apt phrase of Washington Post reporter David Broder. The immediate business of the 1967 convention was the election of a YR national chairman to serve over the next two years.

Three candidates presented themselves: Jack McDonald, a lanky, evangelistic Tennesseean with certifiably conservative credentials; James Betts, a towering, bearishly friendly Ohioan of vague ideological antecedents; and Ray Cooper of Arkansas, formerly an aide to Orval Faubus, now administrative assistant to Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller. McDonald ran on his record as YR Treasurer, in which capacity he had contributed significantly to GOP fundraising and computer programs, and —more broadly—as a leader of the conservative wing of the party. Betts and Cooper, though energetic individuals both, spent less time promoting their own candidacies than attacking McDonald’s. Their principal contention was that McDonald was manipulated by “the syndicate,’ a shadowy group of fair-weather conservatives they professed to see clustered about GOP pro F. Clifton White. (Less frequently, Cooper would attack Betts, whom he regarded as the candidate of the “gangbusters,” a shadowy group of liberals clustered abcut Sen. Hugh Scott.) The “conspiracy” charge had been used against conservative candidates before, and to very little effect. But McDonald, a highly independent Scotsman, hastened to rebut it. He told the press a) that he had never had a private conversation with Mr. White; b) that what Betts and Cooper were calling the “syndicate’ was the campaign organization he had worked four long years to put together; and 3) that he was running on his record, which was manifestly more impressive than his opponents’. The conservatives clearly outperformed the liberals. They were better-informed, better-equipped, better-organized. McDonald solidified the gains made during his six-month campaign; Betts and Cooper began their campaigns at the convention. McDonald won on the first ballot with 425 votes to 184 for Betts and thirteen for Cooper. McDonald’s five running mates, forceful and articulate conservatives all, were swept in also, four of them without opposition. The Young Republican National Federation, with an active membership of close to 400,000, will be squarely in the conservative camp in 1968. What made the victory especially satisfying to conservatives was that it was achieved without rancor. While most of the provisions of the Alcorn Report were voted down, symbolic gestures of conciliation were made to the senior party. In point of fact only three senior party figures rallied to Hugh Scott’s old cry to sit on the Young Republicans: Minnesota Lt. Gov. James Goetz, in an intemperate and apparently unprovoked luncheon address; New Jersey state chairman Webster Todd, who was rebuffed in his attempt to ram his own slate of delegates through the credentials committee; and Rhode Island state chairman Howard Russell, who “abolished” the Rhode Island YR Federation after it became clear that Rhode Island’s sympathies were with McDonald. Over against Goetz, Todd and Russell were arrayed Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan and Nevada Gov. Paul Laxalt, all of whom threw large bouquets to the YRs. When one adds to this latter group Richard Nixon, who has not backed away from the lavishly pro-YR position he took at the Miami convention in 1965, and Ray Bliss, whose distaste for intraparty warfare is well-known, it is difficult to envision the circumstances under which Scott’s crush-YR movement would prosper.