 Hello. Hello. Hi, my friend. Well, hello, my friend. How are you doing? I hope that woman's still living with you. Well, she is, but she's practically giving me up. Do you tell her she's the star of the ball? That dirty family. Nobody could vote against them. Wasn't that nice? They looked so good last night. I told her of our call, and the professor, she was so happy. Well, you and I have made a mistake or two in our life, but she never tripped anything. I even saw a feature owner this morning. About how she said she wasn't running for First Lady, that she was running for Hubert Humphrey, and that she did feel like she had picked up a few little things on how to be First Lady, and she'd just do her best, but she's really running for you. I thought it was the sweetest interview I want to vote twice. Oh, bless your heart. Thank you. I'll tell her. Hi, dear friend. We're coming down to Crunchy, where I got to talk to the others. I met with some of my friends last night. Much, I think all of those are, and I think what you've got to do is, every one of these guys is trying to influence you. Now, I'm not, but I do want to balance you. Please do that as long as I live, because I'll try to be as good as you've been to me. The one thing I do is look at what I got as Vice President and see where you're going to get it. Now, I just can't improve on that. That's not sentiment. That's not emotion. That's just true. You want lots of energy and go-go. You want lots of articulateness. You want a guy that, when the boss doesn't know where they can come in on, that he'll turn up his speech and laugh and thank him for coming. You want a guy that got to go down in the swamps. The boss can't go. That he'll love to do it and be happy, even though it just cuts his toenails off. Somebody's got to do that. Now, you've done it all along. You've got to say you have somebody that had not a coward. And when the going gets tough and everything gets rough and well within the year, you've got to have somebody that'll just get in a little bit closer and stay a little bit longer. You've got to have a wife like yours and you've got to have a family like yours. You've got to have somebody as near as that. Just the dimensions I know. Who pets that? I just really honestly don't know. I know a good many that don't pet it. You don't want another lodge campaign. You don't want another garner. You don't want another Wallace. And you just cannot tell. And what all is gold. All is not gold that glitters. And I think the one mistake you're going to make is the same mistake I made. I think you already made it. It's your shorter troops. You're shorter riders. You're shorter managers. You're short of young able folks. You're short of money primarily. It comes from your father and mother. You didn't inherit it. And as a consequence, you're going to have to take people who are not always as loyal as you've been to me. And pretty soon they'll turn things over to another group. And that's the mistake that I made. If I had one thing, I wouldn't change a word on Dominican or Vietnam or anything else. If I had one thing back, I'd appoint everybody like I appointed you vice president. If I had done that, start over new. I'd do it now. So that's what I want you to be careful about. And this thing loyalty, Hubert, there's not many of them that got it. I know that. And that the vice presidency is an impossible job. No human being ought to be required to inherit four years. And I don't care how much you give him. I gave you cities. I gave you civil rights. I gave you housing studies. I gave you youth. I gave you trips. I gave you Vietnam. I gave you every damn thing. But they just make a specialty of trying to divide you and whip you in. And they will do it. And they'll tell you every day all the mistakes the boss makes. Pretty soon some of his staff will be saying, well, the old man didn't screw things up. My boss would have done it. It's human. So that's the number one quality. Another thing you got to have, you can't carry this country. We're behind now. You just can't carry it. I don't know who can carry it. But if I were giving serious thought, I wouldn't go to ambassadors much. I think you'll antagonize the other group. I don't think you'll get much. And I don't think you'll have somebody who's got more ambition for himself. Yes, that's what I've written off. And then as for you, I'll have to say this about you. I guess you're always willing to be president. But I never saw any evidence of it until I told you that I couldn't be. Now that's what you want. That's what you've got to bear in mind. So I would give thought to some of those that you've got. I think Muskie is a man of exceptional ability and stature. Now that's about all I know about him. I don't know how much of a go-go guy he is. I don't know how manageable he's going to be, what's going to happen on all these things. But I think you have to keep him there on the list. And he is Catholic and that is good. He's main and that is bad. There's small state that doesn't offer much in that sectionalism. And what he will be doing every day, seven days a week, I don't know, he's been mighty low key. But I think he has to stay. Then let's go on right quick to three others. One name you haven't mentioned and you may not want to and nobody's ever mentioned it to me. The name I mentioned to you the other day doesn't go. Yeah, it just doesn't go. So forget that. I just wanted you to give some consideration. But I looked into it and it doesn't go. So much for that. I think that it's worthy of giving a little thought to think of Hale Boggs. I don't know of another Southern here that wouldn't irritate him. He is low young as wife is and he's able and he is and he knows the area and he's knowledgeable and he's a hell of a campaigner. But if you're not going to the South, he's Catholic too and he is Southern and he is liberal and so forth. But if you're not going there, I would really look over the West awfully good because I'm telling you the people got awfully fed up with the East. They're worse than Barry Goldwater and things and you can do it in Pennsylvania and New York if anybody can do it with what we're going to do with the Jews and what we're going to do with the Italians by being friendly. But you've got to get somebody that can appeal to these others. Now this would be a natural if it would work and nobody ever mentioned it to me but I never heard as many compliments on anybody as I did on a new one. He answers Vietnam with an empty sleeve. He answers your problem with Nixon with that empty sleeve. He has that brown face. He answers everything in civil rights and he draws the contrast out over open mouth. I've never known him to make a mistake. He's got cold, clear courage. He's as loyal as a dog as you must have observed. He never undercut you. He ought to appeal to the West. He ought to appeal to the world. It would be fresh and different. He's young and new. It's something that ought to be considered and I think that your secretary could call him like Marvin Watson does and say would you please go to Utah, South Carolina, San Francisco and I believe he could go to all of them and never lay an egg. Nobody ever mentioned it to me but I just saw him and Lady Bird said, watched him on television. He said that this is the best man I know of except Hubert. One of all the folks we've come out with. He's asked nothing, he's done nothing but he wouldn't be miserable in the place. Now another fellow will be and he'll be lazy and other things so I would consider Boggs and I'd consider him. I'd consider Muskie. The Terry Sandeford would be good. He's been loyal but I understand the Southern boys. Thank you to the liberal. I don't know what to say to him any more than I had to. They all love, they all love Annoy. I don't know why but they all, they just, I think one thing is that they just look at him and see that he, they can't fuss at him and say he doesn't love peace. God knows he wants peace more than anybody and it's quite a contrast with Agnew and Civil Rights thing and Nixon and I just don't think that any Jew or any Pole or any Italian or anybody else, in other words the South can't get mad at him because he's color and he would appeal to every other minority because he is one. And that's about all that I can think of that I like Harris very much. I'd be for Harris. Harris would help us as much as anybody in our state except Connelly. I love Connelly. I think he's able and attractive together with what they said they have problems and I would not urge anybody from my own state because you know that situation as well as I do but Harris would do more to help in this area than nearly anybody. If he gets too much of the current commission on him I won't help a damn bit but he deserves something and he's a go-go guy and he's helpful. If I had to make the decision and those would be the four and then I just guess I'd go west. I'm not going to go east unless it's the only one and if you feel more comfortable and down the road you think you are I think you have to be satisfied and I don't want you to feel like you got satisfied me. I think it's an advantage. I think it's an advantage. I think both of us are too old and the modern thing. I think you love people more than anybody in this country but me but I think they use it against us and I think that this cuts the guts out of them the nuts out of them. I don't think anybody could blame me. I don't know anything about his record. I don't know what he did. I don't know whether any pawn shop fellas gave him any contributions or what happened in Oklahoma. That's something you have to just take a little look at and when you get down to one or two I'll take a look at it right quick for you. I did on some of these others and it's not good. We had a clearance before I even talked to you but when you look a little bit different we found some associations. I think we ought to take a good look at friends and I think that's about two seconds on. Anybody here I can talk to about that? Yes I'll do it and I'll get back to you in 30 minutes just as soon as they can look at it. I know it doesn't appeal to you. Well I just don't believe so. I guess maybe it just takes me a little too far too fast. Well I think of the two I don't know I've never looked at his record I don't know what it is but I think of the two these are the strong