The convention was the first Republican convention scheduled for only three days since 1944, joining only the 2012 Democratic National Convention as the only conventions in modern convention history to be scheduled for three days.
First Lady Pat Nixon became the first Republican First Lady, and the first First Lady in over 25 years, to address a party's national convention. Her speech set the standard for future convention speeches by political spouses. Republican First Ladies Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Laura Bush and Melania Trump, among others, have all followed in this tradition. Democratic First Ladies Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, and Jill Biden have also followed in this tradition
Balloting
Nixon easily turned back primary challenges from the right, in the person of Representative John M. Ashbrook of Ohio and, from the left, Representative Pete McCloskey of California. However, under New Mexicostate law, McCloskey had earned one delegate, which the convention refused to seat, fearing that the delegate might put McCloskey's name in nomination and deliver an anti-war speech. Congressman (and delegate) Manuel Lujan of New Mexico, a staunch Nixon supporter, honored state law by voting for McCloskey himself. The final result was that Nixon received 1,347 votes to one for McCloskey and none for Ashbrook. Throughout the precisely scripted convention, delegates chanted "Four more years! Four more years!"[6]
Spiro Agnew was renominated for vice president with 1,345 votes against one vote for NBC television journalist David Brinkley and two abstentions.[7]
Protest activity
The convention was targeted for widespread protests, particularly against the Vietnam War,[8] and the Nixon administration made efforts to suppress it. This tension was captured by Top Value Television in the independent documentary Four More Years, which juxtaposes shots of the protests outside the convention with the internal politics of the convention. A day after the convention, The New York Times reported that 900 demonstrators had been arrested, and the police reported that 52 people, including 12 policemen, had been injured.[9]
Oliver Stone's filmBorn on the Fourth of July, based on Ron Kovic's autobiography of the same name, depicts Kovic and fellow Vietnam Veterans Against the War activists Bobby Muller, Bill Wieman and Mark Clevinger being spat upon at the convention.[10] The scene did not appear in Kovic's autobiography but was taken almost directly from a documentary film created the 1972 Republican Convention titled Operation Last Patrol by filmmaker and actor Frank Cavestani and photo journalist Cathrine Leroy.[citation needed]
^Ancona, Vincent S. (Fall 1992). "When the Elephants Marched Out of San Diego". The Journal of San Diego History. Vol. 38, no. 4. San Diego Historical Society. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
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