Libel?

A thoroughly political man, Richard Nixon last week seized upon Senator Edmund Muskie's amazingly candid remark (TIME, Sept. 20) that he would not favor a black as his running mate in 1972. Muskie reasoned it might keep him from winning and thus from fighting for racial justice as only a President can.

The President, after telling reporters he would not discuss politics, proceeded to say that it was "a libel on the American people" to presume that they would not accept a black vice-presidential nominee. The President's reproachful tone suggested the improbable--that he would be happy to have a black for a running mate. He also noted that similar views were once uttered about Roman Catholics and proven baseless by John Kennedy. Nixon said that it was "very important for those of us in positions of leadership not to tell a large number of people in America, whoever they are, that because of the accident of their birth they don't have a chance to go to the top."

To which Honest Ed Muskie's reply would have to be: "Touche."

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