July 15, 1964 - Senator Barry Goldwater today selected Representative William E. Miller of upstate New York as his Vice-Presidential running mate. Goldwater was reported to have asked Miller to run with him in a phone call about noon.
Miller, interviewed later, said he would be “delighted” to run with the Senator.
Before he made his choice, Goldwater also had been considering Michigan Representative Gerald R. Ford.
Miller has two advantages, it was understood. One is that he is very conservative, and the other is that he is a Roman Catholic.
It is thought that by selecting Miller, Goldwater might hope to maneuver President Johnson into selecting Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy as his running mate.
Kennedy, the Goldwater strategists feel, might cost the Democratic party votes in the South because of Southern hostility to the Justice Department’s actions in the field of civil rights.
Many conservatives at the Republican convention in San Francisco have been deluging Goldwater headquarters with pleas to pick Miller so as to have a solidly conservative ticket.
“Don’t sell out to the liberals!” is their battle cry.
Goldwater is known to feel that Miller is a “gut” righter skillful in the arts of political attack and sarcasm.
Ford, who has a secure reputation as one of the most effective Republican moderates in the Congress, is not an especially warm or skillful platform speaker.
Goldwater has not listened to those who broached the subject of Governor William Scranton of Pennsylvania as a possible running mate, a source said.
Goldwater regards the things that Scranton has said about him as “personal invective.”
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