Early in Richard M. Nixon's 1968 campaign for president, his speechwriter, Raymond K. Price, was among those charged with a delicate task: Review Nixon's disastrous "last press conference" speech of Nov. 7, 1962, and figure out how to handle it in the upcoming race.
Nixon had delivered that rambling address after losing his bid to unseat Pat Brown as governor of California. Surprising reporters by venturing down from his hotel room the morning after his defeat, Nixon sneered at "all the members of the press [who] are so delighted that I have lost" and chided them for biased coverage. He concluded, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference and it will be one in which I have welcomed the opportunity to test wits with you."
Combined with his failed 1960 presidential bid, the 1962 loss and the emotional speech -- especially its signature phrase -- were seen as consigning the former vice president to oblivion. Five nights later, ABC aired a special titled "The Political Obituary of Richard Nixon." But when Price and others screened the dreaded speech years later, they found that it didn't seem so bad.
Nixon's remarks were indeed raw and spontaneous, especially for a man given to controlling his public image tightly. The barbs at the press displayed an unmistakable hostility.
But the candidate neither shouted nor raged. His manner was far more restrained than printed accounts -- or public memory -- suggested. He even conceded: "I've given as good as I've taken."
In short, in its many retellings, the "last press conference," though reflective of some real bitterness, was magnified into a debacle more damning than it had to be.
This story comes to mind after watching the Washington punditocracy indulge in a giddy round of derision at Howard Dean's expense. The former Vermont governor and onetime front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination was judged to have lost his moorings during his concession speech following his disappointing third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses Monday night.
Like Nixon's press conference, however, Dean's speech has grown increasingly bizarre -- and more damaging to his campaign -- in the echo chamber of news media chatter. What began as some people's opinion swelled into the unanimous verdict of the news media. Yet like Nixon, Dean could easily come back -- and in a matter of weeks, not years.
