The Original Rockefeller Republican

online.wsj.com ^ | 10/17/14 | Robert K. Landers

[cotton1706]

It was the most memorable scene from the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco: Nelson Rockefeller standing tall on the speakers’ platform, insistent on having his say—“This is still a free country, ladies and gentlemen”—as conservative yahoos below sent up a roar of hatred to this embodiment of the despised Eastern Establishment who dared denounce extremism. Operatives of the party’s impending presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater, aware of the damage the nationally televised scene was doing to his image, frantically tried to quiet the delegates, but to no avail.

On His Own Terms

By Richard Norton Smith Random House, 842 pages, $38 . So the scene made its fateful impression, not only of extremism on display but of its brave antagonist. Rockefeller, wrote Norman Mailer in Esquire later that year, “had an odd courage which was profound—he could take strength from defying a mob. Three hundred thousand years ago, a million years ago, some gorilla must have stood up to an enraged tribe and bellowed back and got away alive and human society was begun. So Rocky finally had his political moment which was precisely right for him.”

Richard Norton Smith builds a 20-page prologue around that telling moment in his splendid biography of Rockefeller. “On His Own Terms” is a clear-eyed, exhaustively researched account of a significant and fascinating American life.

In retrospect, Rockefeller’s moment in San Francisco told of more than his courage and a changing GOP. It also vividly suggested that, if he wanted to be president, he was in the wrong party.

[sarge83]

That picture of Rockefeller giving the conservatives at the convention the finger is exactly what the gope has continued to do and still 50 yrs. later we have conservative apologists begging the please shoot us the bird again, we are not sure you meant it gope!