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the race, he could have been elected. He argued with me about that--that the peace people were in control of the votes and he couldn't have been nominated and he couldn't have been-- [telephone interruption]

And then he said: “Come on, let's not talk about that; let's talk about what I'm going to say. You got me into this and let's talk about it.”

Well, I didn't get him into the trip to Chicago. A long time before he had agreed to talk to the Association of Broadcasters, and it just happened that that was the Monday morning after the Sunday night in which he declared himself out.

Interestingly enough, that Sunday afternoon or that Saturday, before the talk he called me and said: “I'd like you to be here with me when I make my talk tomorrow night.”

I had helped him decide what time he was going to make the talk--not helped him decide-- but advised him when I thought it would work best in terms of his schedule and the commitments the broadcasters had to popular programming. Because to rip out--I think Red Skelton--would offend a lot of people, because they didn't care about the President. They were much more interested in the entertainment.

So he said to me on Saturday, “Come on down and spend the night with us Saturday night and be here Sunday when I give my talk.”

I argued with him as forcefully as I could, saying that I didn't think it was smart to have somebody who was active in the press even though I wasn't an active journalist that close