Extracted text

OCR Page 1 of 13
33.3 October 29, 1972 REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT SURROGATE BRIEFING EOB BRIEFING ROOM 11:05 A.M. EST THE PRESIDENT: This meeting, as you know, has been called as the final wrap-up meeting for all of our surrogates prior to your going out to the country in this last week of the campaign. Let me say something first with regard to what you have done already. As I look over this room, and as I look at the list of people who are here, and as I have read your sched- ules, I know how much you have done. Sometimes you rather wonder, I suppose, whether you are getting through. I must say that when you read the Washington Post you wonder, and when you see the national networks, few of you ever break into the national networks. However, what is important for all of us to realize is that what determines an election is, of course, what happens in each State and each local community. The appearances that you make in these States, in the local communities, have a massive impact there. Go back and read your clippings there. See what the TV and radio is there. That is what really matters a great deal. I want to say, too, that I am very appreciative of what you have done. I am very proud of what you have done. I know that to go out and be heckled from time to time, or wondering why you aren't getting the play, must bother a few of you. I must say that I have had so much of it through the years it just goes off my back; it doesn't bother me any more. I am sure, George, that some of you that have been out a little, that you realize that when they don't pay atten- tion to you, that is when to worry. When they do pay attention to you, that means you are getting through, and so you are getting through. You have done a splendid job. The work of the surrogates in this campaign, when it is all written in the future, will be one of the very, very positive points that will be emphasized by those political scientists who will try to find out how it all happened.