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This file contains materials relating to John Carlson, Richard Nixon, Skiing, and John Dunlop.
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Press Secretary Briefings, 12/26/75
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Press Secretary Briefings, 12/26/75
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This file contains materials relating to John Carlson, Richard Nixon, Skiing, and John Dunlop.
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Ron Nessen Files (Ford Administration)
Ron Nessen's Press Briefing Transcripts
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Colorado
Vail (Colo.)
White House (Washington, D.C.)
Presidential trips
Public opinion polls
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1975-12-26
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1975
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26
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1975-12-26
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12
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1975
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Digitized from Box 15 of the Ron Nessen Files at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
This Copy For
NEWS CONFERENCE
#401
AT THE WHITE HOUSE
WITH RON NESSEN
AT 10:48 A.M. MST
DECEMBER 26, 1975
FRIDAY
(Vail, Colorado)
MR. NESSEN: We have a fair amount of stuff.
We are going to be passing out today a Statement
by the President and a fact sheet concerning the drug abuse
problem in the United States. If you will recall, the other
day at the White House the President met with a group of
Congressmen who share a concern for the drug problem and
as a result of that meeting the President has prepared this
statement and fact sheet. This will be distributed here in
the briefing room now.
Q
Was that Monday?
MR. NESSEN: The meeting with the Congressmen, John,
was on Monday.
We will check that.
Q
What did he meet with them on?
MR. NESSEN: Their mutual concern about the drug
problem in the United States.
The second item today is the President has signed
an Executive Order designating John Robson as Chairman of
the Civil Aeronautics Board for the period of calendar year 1976.
By law the President must annually designate the Chairman of
the CAB and he signed that today.
Q
Is Mr. Robson the present Chairman?
MR. NESSEN: Yes, he is. This is a re-designation
as required by law.
The President has signed one additional bill and
we will have some paper on this to hand out immediately after
the briefing. It is H.R. 8122, the Public Works Appropriation
for Water and Power Development and Energy Research. The
amount of the bill is $7,278, 712, for fiscal 1976, and
during the transition quarter $2,077,533. This is the activities
of the Corps of Engineers, the Civil Division of the Corps
of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, the power agencies
which are within the Department of Interior, the Energy
Research and Development, administration and several related
independent agencies and commissions, and there is a printed
release on that which we will give out.
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The next item is the President's schedule for today.
He has gone out skiing. He is skiing with four representatives
of the U.S. Alpine Ski Team.
Q
Officials or members?
MR. NESSEN: Let me give you the names and I will
show you how this works.
Alpine skiing refers to downhill and joint slalom
skiing. There is another division of skiing which is Nordic
and that has to do with cross-country and jumping, but this is
the Alpine team. The four people he is skiing with today
are Susie Patterson of Sun Valley. She is a skiing member of
the team. Also, Hank Tauber of Gloversville, New York.
He is the Alpine Director for the U.S. 01ympic Team which
will go to Innsbruck for the Winter 01ympic games this coming
year.
The President is also skiing with Graham Anderson
of Seattle, who is the Vice President of the U.S. Alpine
Ski Team, and with Dick Andrews of San Francisco, the General
Manager of the U.S. Alpine Ski Team.
The headquarters of the U.S. Alpine Ski Team is
in Park City, Utah.
On the 26th of January, 14 skiers will be
selected as the U.S. Alpine Ski Team to compete at Innsbruck.
There are currently 28 U.S. skiers at Park City, Utah, training
and competing and out of those 28, 14 will be selected to
represent the United States. Out of the four people he is
skiing with today, Susie Patterson is the one member who is
competing for a place on the team. The others are officials.
A little background on today's event. About a
month ago, officials of the U.S. Alpine Ski Team were in the
White House for a visit and the President met them and after-
wards sent them a letter inviting them to join him here for
today's skiing. What will happen will be that they will
make one or two runs together with the President.
At about Noon today the President will have lunch
at the Ski Patrol Headquarters on the mountain with members
of the Ski Patrol. It is an annual event during the
season and the menu will include elk burgers.
Q
Will we have coverage of that?
MR. NESSEN: No, there will be no coverage of the
lunch. The ski headquarters are very tiny and there will be
no coverage --
Q
Where is it located?
MR. NESSEN: On the mountain.
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Q
How many members?
MR. NESSEN: I will have to ask how many members
in the Ski Patrol.
Q
How many members having lunch?
Q
Did he do this last year?
MR. NESSEN: Yes,
It will be the members of the Ski Patrol and the
President. The Ski Team will not join them for lunch.
Q
May I protest the fact the President obviously
knew he would ski with these people today? We were told
there would be special photographs, but we were not told why.
Why not?
MR. NESSEN: The special photographs were not with
the Ski Team. Some people felt the positions yesterday were
not the best positions to get good skiing pictures and the
President shared that so last night he asked me to arrange
for more skiing pictures so the people could get more skiing
pictures.
Q
How come we didn't know this because we have
seen you all morning?
MR. NESSEN: You mean about skiing with the Ski
Team?
Q Yes, that is news.
MR. NESSEN: When I went over there I saw the Ski
members out in front of the house.
Q You didn't know this?
MR. NESSEN: I knew they would ski sometime but I
didn't know it would be today.
Then after lunch the President will make another
run or two and will go back to the house for the afternoon.
He has some social plans for the evening which,
as soon as I get them all together, we will post at 5 o'clock.
The social plans will be posted at 5 o'clock.
Q Outside his home?
MR. NESSEN: He will be leaving this afternoon for
a social engagement.
Q
Do you know what bill he will be signing?
MR. NESSEN: There is a courier plane coming from
Washington with things for him to look at and Cheney has some
things for him to look at this afternoon.
MORE
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Q
Does that go to Lowry?
MR. NESSEN: No, it goes to Grand Junction then comes
to Avon and then is driven in to town.
Some of you asked if I had a further update on
Christmas phone calls the President made or received. I gave
some yesterday. I checked this morning and the log shows that
he received Christmas phone calls yesterday from Melvin Laird,
Bob Hope and his brother, Richard Ford of Grand Rapids.
The outgoing phone calls from the President --
Christmas greetings to Dr. Kissinger and to former President
and Mrs. Nixon.
Q
When did that happen?
MR. NESSEN: Last evening.
Q How long did the call to the former President
and Mrs. Nixon last?
MR. NESSEN: Several minutes.
Q
Can you describe at all what they talked about?
MR. NESSEN: It was an exchange of Christmas
greetings.
Q
Ron, I didn't hear you earlier, when did you
announce that?
MR. NESSEN: It wasn't an announcement but it
was in the pool report yesterday, I think, and I was in here
yesterday and somebody asked me about the calls. The phone
calls the day before were to the Vice President, Mrs. Lyndon
Johnson, who is spending Christmas with her daughter Lynda
in the Washington suburbs, and he returned a call to Billy
Graham, who had called several days earlier, and he returned
the call the day before yesterday. Maybe that is what he
meant about the special connection to get snow. (Laughter)
Q
There is a story in the morning papers to the
effect the Syrian Government has asked the United States --
MR. NESSEN: Let me finish my announcements, Bob.
I thought you were going to mention the story in
the paper today about Mrs. Tully and her mother-in-law and
they are here and say they want to see the President about a
problem with Mrs. Tully's husband, I believe. Dick Cheney
will see Mrs. Tully and her mother-in-law at some point
today. The meeting has not been arranged, but when it is,
Dick will give me a call, and I will pass on to you,
probably at the 5 o'clock posting, I would think, whatever
details of that meeting I can.
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My assumption is that Dick will tell the wife and
mother that they should take the matter through the normal
procedure, which is the Pardon Attorney at the Justice
Department. Since the meeting has not taken place yet,
that is just my assumption of what he will tell them.
Let's see -- moving right along during the course
of yesterday afternoon some of us were just sitting around
here talking and I made reference to a Gallup Poll which
showed the President's favorable rating going up five points
and I said the President had been told about this and I said
my understanding of it was it would be out in a few days.
That was incorrect. The poll, I think, actually came out two
days ago. I apologize for that. It was purely a misunder-
standing on my part.
The next thing--is there any interest in having a
TV set installed here for the weekend football games?
Q
Yes.
MR. NESSEN: All right, we will work on that.
Q
And a better table for the card players?
(Laughter)
MR. NESSEN: I am very, very pleased to make the
next announcement -- that is, the President is announcing today
that he has appointed John Carlson to be the Deputy Press
Secretary to the President succeeding Bill Greener, who, as
you know, has been nominated and confirmed as the Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. We have a biography
on John which we will pass out after this briefing.
The President personally congratulated John this
morning, welcomed him to his new post, expressed complete
confidence in John and respect for John and the reputation
John has built up at the White House.
I couldn't agree more with the President's
assessment. I think John is going to be a tremendous
addition to the management of the Press Office. He certainly
has my full backing and support.
The relationship I will have with John, I hope,
will be as close as possible to the relationship that Dick
Cheney and Don Rumsfeld had when Don was at the White House --
the interchangeable deputy system, which means John speaks
with the same authority, has the same information, has the
same access to the President, has the same access to whatever
senior policy meetings he wants to attend. He will attend
all the meetings either in my place or with me.
John, I think you all know, has been tremendously
helpful to reporters over the years because of his great
wealth of information on domestic matters and now he will
have even more information. He will be able to answer your
questions with the same knowledge and authority that I have.
He is also going to help me get the place organized, I hope.
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John has managerial background, both in private
industry and in the military. John and I have worked out a
plan where he will take over a good deal of the paper
workload and the day-to-day administration and that will
leave me more time to spend with the President, attending
meetings, gathering information, and, more importantly,
will leave more time for me to spend with reporters.
I do anticipate there may be another change or
two in the Press Office. I don't have anything to announce
today. The change or two will be designed to further improve
the operation of the Press Office. I don't have a replacement
for John, who was Assistant Press Secretary in the domestic
area, but we are working on that. Meanwhile, to fill that gap,
John will try to do both jobs, the deputy job and also keep
his hand in on details of the President's domestic programs.
Q
Is he physically moving into Greener's office?
MR. NESSEN: Yes. Just to give you some idea of the
procedure of how John was selected, when I found out Bill
Greener was going to the Pentagon, I talked to a number of
people both in the White House and out of the White House,
in journalism and out of journalism, and asked whether they
were interested in being considered for the job. Some were,
some were not. Among those who said they were interested in
being considered, I drew up a list of about eight names, which
I think reduced to four names. With that list of four names,
I consulted with Cheney and with the President and the
unanimous first choice from that list was John Carlson.
I am delighted and I am sure you share my pleasure
that John is going to take this job.
Q
What does it pay?
MR. NESSEN: In the range of $40,000 to $42,000.
He is worth every penny of it.
Q
Can't you tell us the exact figure?
MR. NESSEN: Since this five percent pay raise,
I don't know the exact figure, but he is worth every penny
of it, whatever it is.
Q We will see.
MR. NESSEN: I think you know already. (Laughter)
With that brief warm-up, I don't think we have any
further announcements.
Q
Can I start my question again?
MR. NESSEN: On Syria, we don't have any information
on it and no comment on it.
MORE
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- 7 -
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Q
What was the question?
MR. NESSEN: There was a story in the paper today
that contained a report -- if I can summarize it, Bob, my
understanding of the report was that there had been considerable
anti-Communist feelings in recent days in Syria which had
resulted, I think, in some arrests and a turning against the
Soviet Union and,I think,a turning towards the United States.
In
case, if that is an accurate description of the report
in the paper, we don't have any information on that and,
therefore, I have no comment.
Q
That is not really what I was going to ask
about. There is another paragraph in that story which says
the Syrian Government has approached the United States
Government and asked for food supplies and food aid.
That was the part I was asking about.
MR. NESSEN: I checked this morning with the NSC
and the State Department, and we don't have any information
on it.
Q
The other day when we questioned you about the
Dunlop matter, you indicated that you were going to check
and see whether the President, in his Monday meeting with
Dunlop, had talked to him about staying on.
MR. NESSEN: I did check and the answer is that it
was a private meeting between the two of them and I don't feel
free to discuss the details of what they talked about other
than to reiterate what I said the other day, which is that
Dunlop has not directly indicated to the President any
intention to resign.
Q
Can you indicate -- if I can follow that, please --
can you indicate, without reference to any specific meeting,
whether the President has made any kind of private communication
to Dunlop asking him to stay on, as you did the other day
publicly?
MR. NESSEN: The only occasion he would have had
to talk about it was at that meeting. It was a private
meeting and I don't feel I can go into what they talked about.
Q
On this Syrian story, the U.S. Assistant
Secretary of State was in Syria last week, as you no doubt
know. I think what you are saying is that that story about
their request for food aid is not accurate because, if it
did in fact happen, you would know about it.
MR. NESSEN: I assume I would, yes.
Q
The fact is the White House knows of no such
request?
MR. NESSEN: We have no information on it.
MORE
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Q
Ron, can you confirm that the President's next
speech will be January 5 in St. Louis to the Farm Bureau?
MR. NESSEN: I don't have anything to announce on
that today, John.
Q As long as we are going back over the speeches,
do you want to correct anything else you said yesterday about
the number of times he will be appearing in each State, and
so on?
MR. NESSEN: No.
Q
How could you have gone so wrong on the
Gallup Poll? All of us in the networks and, I think, the
newspapers as well went pretty hard with that. It was not
just a casual statement that you dropped --
MR. NESSEN: My mistake was -- I meant I was there
when the President was told there was some good news. I
thought he was told there was some good news coming from the
Gallup Poll. It turned out the good news had already come,
but I had not seen it up to that point.
Q The figures 44 to 49 were not accurate?
MR. NESSEN: I didn't give those figures, I said
a five point rise and somebody said what was it. I said I
didn't know what it was to start with and somebody said they
thought it was 44, but I didn't give that figure.
I remember saying I didn't know what the base
figure was that the five point rise was based on. Somebody
else said they thought it was 44.
Q
Before coming out here the President issued
more strong warnings to the Soviet Union about their
involvement in Angola. Secretary Kissinger issued similar
warnings and I guess on Christmas Eve -- or Christmas Day --
the Soviets openly rebuffed those warnings with a quote to
the effect that the force of the national liberation struggle
of the people is an important principle of the Soviet foreign
policy, et cetera- in other words, told the President where
he could go as far as Angola is concerned. What is the
President's reaction to the Soviet statement on Angola?
MR. NESSEN: I think you have the President's views
on Angola and I don't have anything to add to them today.
Q
The President's position on Angola has since
been rebuffed and rejected by the Soviet Union. Where does
that leave the President on detente?
MR. NESSEN: I don't have anything to add to what
he has said already and what Secretary Kissinger said in his
behalf.
Q
Ron, I don't want to belabor a point you apologized
to us on, but did you. know about this last night? There were
some people apparently who got this corrected last night.
There are a number of us who have this story of the incorrect
poll in the papers this morning.
MORE
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I would like to know, when you learned of it and if
you learned it was incorrect, why you didn't call these people
whom you told --
MR. NESSEN: I am not going to be announcing poll
results. I was sitting around here and we were sort of talking
casually, I thought, and kind of kicking political things
around, and I mentioned that in a casual way and certainly
not as an announcement but just something somebody mentioned
to the President.
Q
You obviously wanted people to use it. As
the Press Secretary toothe President, you came over here
talking to reporters, it ended up in a pool report.
MR. NESSEN: I didn't know you made pool reports
of casual conversations.
MORE
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Q
I didn't make a pool report. You were
sitting here in the Press Room. You were not sitting
in a bar having a conversation. You did tell us something
and you are the Press Secretary to the President.
What I am asking, when you found the information
was incorrect -- and I can understand your making the
mistake -- but why didn't you call those people at least
who were here and tell those people the information was
incorrect and let them change their story?
MR. NESSEN: I don't recall who was here. It was not
an announcement. It was, I thought, a casual conversation.
I didn't know it was going to be in a pool report.
I certainly will stop talking about polls from
now on.
Q Couldn't you have put it on the board, the
information you just told us? You know we are coming out
every day and a lot of people more often than that. Couldn't
you have put the information on the board this morning?
MR. NESSEN: I should have.
Q You are telling us it was just a foul-up,
a mistake, you didn't mean anything, and you were not trying
to float anything?
MR. NESSEN: I certainly was not. We were just
chatting, I thought.
Q
You just thought the poll was one thing and
it was something else?
MR. NESSEN: The mistake, Bob, was that I thought,
based on the way it was told the President, that the poll
would be out in a few days, or over the weekend. The
mistake I made, and apparently the mistake the person
made who was talking to the President was the poll had been
out a couple of days.
Q
The President was misinformed, too?
MR. NESSEN: My impression was there was going to be
good news in the Gallup poll.
Q
Who told the President?
MR. NESSEN: One of the staff.
Q
Can you tell me what the President said this
morning when you said that Christmas gift we talked about
yesterday, the Gallup poll, was not a Christmas gift, it was
a lump of coal?
MR. NESSEN: A lump of coal? (Laughter)
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Q
The good news of yesterday turned out
to be no news at all. What did he say about that when
he heard it today?
MR. NESSEN: I didn't discuss it with him today.
The essential findings of the Gallup poll are as I said
they were, which was a five percent rise in his approval
rating. My mistake was I thought it was coming out in
the next few days, but it came out two days ago.
He had not seen it and neither had I, nor
apparently had the person that was telling him.
Q
Is there any private polling the President
is having done for himself?
MR. NESSEN: The White House is not doing any
private polling.
Q Not even with the coming campaign?
MR. NESSEN: I think the RNC does some polling
and the PFC does some polling but there is no money in the
White House for polling.
Q
Do you know what the figures were when they
came out a few days ago?
MR. NESSEN: I do now.
Q
What were they?
MR. NESSEN: Am I making an announcement on
behalf of the Gallup organization again?
Q
No.
MR. NESSEN: My understanding is that it is
41 to 46.
Q What does that mean? Your understanding was
it was coming out this weekend. You know for sure it was
41 to 46 that came out a few days ago?
MR. NESSEN: Tom, I am going to stop talking about
polls. I should have stopped talking about polls a long
time ago. I should never have started talking about polls.
I wasn't talking about it in the sense of making
an announcement. I was sitting here, I thought, having a
casual bull session.
Q This is one thing we have to get clear.
MR. NESSEN: No more bull sessions.
Q The thing is, people lose out if they don't
get some of the gems you drop here.
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MR. NESSEN: Apparently everybody would have
been happy not to have gotten that gem.
Q
If there had been a five percent drop in the
President's rating --
MR. NESSEN: Somebody would have told the President,
"We have bad news for Christmas, Mr. President."
Q
You tell us those things in casual conversa-
tion and --
MR. NESSEN: I won't anymore.
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Q
What will you have, a sign that says "bull
session?"
Q
We want you to come out and talk, but everybody
should be alerted.
MR. NESSEN: Do a call-out saying Nessen is about
to have a bull session.
Q
Ron, that is serious. There are a lot of
nice little tidbits you drop in those things. Is there any
way afterwards you can post what you have to say?
MR. NESSEN: There was a pool report made, I am
told.
Q Also that report included the telephone calls
the President made yesterday, including the call to the
Nixons. I didn't see that.
MR. NESSEN: I didn't get the phone log until this
morning, Walt, beyond the three I talked about yesterday.
Q
Do you think he talked politics to Nixon?
MR. NESSEN: No, it was an exchange of Christmas
greetings.
Aldo.
Q
Did you announce yesterday in the bull session
that the President has decided to go to Florida once and
New Hampshire once?
MR. NESSEN: I didn't announce it. Again, it was
a bull session.
Q
Has that decision been made that he is only
going in each State one time?
MR. NESSEN: I said he wasn't going to travel
very much, he would probably go once or no more than a couple
of times.
Q
It has been decided he isn't going very often,
but it hasn't been decided he will only go once?
MR. NESSEN: The exact number of times has not been
decided.
Q
I am not clear on what you are now telling
us.
MR. NESSEN: Neither am I.
Q
This is a kind of special circumstance, in view
of the fact this information that was conveyed turned out to be
wrong.
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Do you have some kind of idea now that you could
tell us of what he is going to be doing in these first two
primaries? The number of times --
MR. NESSEN: Lou, nothing new other than what the
White House has been saying for a couple of weeks; that is,
that he will not do much campaigning in the primary season.
There is nothing new about that. The exact number of
times he will go to New Hampshire, Florida, and the other
States, once or twice, it hasn't really been decided.
Q
Do you anticipate he will go skiing in
New Hampshire?
MR. NESSEN: He doesn't have any plans to go skiing
in New Hampshire. We talked casually about it last night
and it. hasn't been decided. I would say it is something he
is thinking about.
Q
He is thinking about going skiing in New Hampshire?
MR. NESSEN: Yes.
Q
During the one visit there?
MR. NESSEN: It would be in conjunction with a visit
to New Hampshire. It wouldn't be a trip to go skiing.
If he goes up there and stays over, he will possibly ski.
It is at a very nebulous stage, and I think last night was
the first time he mentioned it to me and he didn't indicate
he was near a decision on it.
Q
Is this for vote-getting?
MR. NESSEN: The skiing?
Q
Yes.
MR. NESSEN: No, that would be for enjoyment.
Q
He would do a little campaigning while he was
there?
MR. NESSEN: As he skis down?
Q Ron, the Secretary of Defense is out here, He
came out here on a Government plane. Is he doing any
business here?
MR. NESSEN: No, not with the President, he is not.
He has met the President at social events, but I am not aware
of any business. He is on a private vacation.
Q
He is on a private vacation but he came on a
Government plane, Is he reimbursing the Government?
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MR. NESSEN: Whatever the proper manner is to
reimburse the Government for his flight, under Treasury or
IRS rules -- he will follow that. I don't know what the proper
method is, but he will follow the method that they decree.
Q
You know he is reimbursing the Government?
MR. NESSEN: He is following whatever the required
procedure is.
Q
Has the President decided that he can win
more votes by staying in the White House rather than by
openly campaigning?
MR. NESSEN: I don't think the decision was made
on the basis of how do you get more votes, As he said on the
day he announced he was a candidate, his first responsibility
is to be President and he has work to do.
Q
He does want to win, doesn't he?
MR. NESSEN: I wouldn't be surprised to find he would
like to be elected, yes.
Q
Ron, this pool report yesterday quotes you as
saying that you expected Ford to visit New Hampshire and
Florida one time each and it has one time each in quotes.
You told us this morning it hadn't really been decided.
There seems to be a conflict. Are you repudiating the pool
report? Can you clear this up?
MR. NESSEN: I am saying the definite plans have
not been made, but that I think he will be going once, maybe
twice.
Q
Each?
MR. NESSEN: Each.
THE PRESS: Thank you very much.
END
(AT 11:22 A.M. MST)