Goldwater, Jfk Election Campaign In '64 Might Have Offered Public A Great Debate

Barry Goldwater was a classic Western conservative. He believed in limited government, yet supported federal water projects in his home state. He was never comfortable with Social Security, income tax and New Deal programs. In his book, "Conscience of a Conservative," he argued for a peerless military that would end any "Soviet menace."

The former Arizona senator was famous for respecting an individual's freedom of conscience - even when contradicting the agenda of his fellow Republicans.

Since his death, much of the conversation about Goldwater has recalled his 1964 presidential campaign against Lyndon B. Johnson. And why not? It was the election that launched the modern conservative movement as well as the career of Ronald Reagan.

A few years ago I interviewed many people about that 1964 campaign and stumbled across an interesting tidbit: It was the election that could have changed American politics.

In 1963, Goldwater and his friend, John F. Kennedy, shared a radical plan: The two men would campaign as a team. The Republican and the Democratic president would barnstorm the country and speak on the same platform. The ideas - conservative vs. liberal - would be debated and the election would be a referendum on public policy.

"I knew him as a close friend and I had really looked forward to running against him in the election that was to be held," Goldwater wrote after Kennedy's death in 1963. The two candidates planned to stump the country "like politicians should do. Standing up to state our points, our issues, and then debating each other."

Imagine that. These two politicians could have built a stage for a politics of discourse, a test of ideas. Goldwater was fond of JFK. It was a friendship that did not require affirmation; they could agree to disagree.

Kennedy's assassination ended the notion of a joint campaign stage.

Goldwater even withdrew from the Republican field, saying he no longer had the stomach for a campaign. However, in January of 1964, after much pressure from his colleagues, he took up the fight against Johnson. Goldwater promised a Scottsdale crowd: "I will not change my beliefs to win votes. I will offer a choice, not an echo."

That choice did not include side-by-side comparisons with the Democratic nominee. Goldwater had no use for Johnson.

And vice versa. Johnson successfully portrayed Goldwater as a trigger-happy extremist. Instead of a debate, Johnson's campaign broadcast - only once - a TV commercial showing a little girl peeling petals off a daisy. The pictures were followed by a countdown and then a mushroom-cloud explosion. The ad, repeated over and over on TV news programs, never mentioned Goldwater by name.

Yet it was probably the ultimate negative ad. Johnson cruised to an easy victory in November 1964.

Historian Peter Iverson, author of the 1997 biography, "Barry Goldwater: Native Arizonan," says Goldwater disliked Johnson in a way that was rare for him. "It was almost a visceral dislike," Iverson says. When Goldwater would speak to one of Iverson's classes at Arizona State University, a student would always ask about Johnson. Goldwater would cut off the question by snapping: "Why that jackass!"

Even if JFK hadn't been killed, the grand campaign might not have occurred. Logistics had not been worked out; JFK and Goldwater had debated the merits of using one campaign aircraft or two.

Moreover, Kennedy's support for the idea was tepid. "He liked Goldwater," historian and former Kennedy aide Arthur Schlesinger Jr. said. But "Kennedy was really talking up (Michigan Gov. George) Romney because he thought he'd be the weakest candidate."

Perhaps discourse was a laudable goal, but winning, at least to JFK, was even more important.

I once asked Goldwater about his ideas for 1964. He laughed and dismissed it as something we will never know about: the campaign that could have been.

Mark N. Trahant's column appears Sunday and Thursday in the Local News section of The Times. His phone message number is 206-464-8517. His email address is: mtrahant@seatimes.com