Not totally implausible:
"[*National Review* publisher William] Rusher and his...comrade Clif White aimed to secure the presidency for Reagan at the GOP convention by forging a tacit alliance with Rockefeller's supporters to stop Nixon on the first and second ballots. 'At the third ballot,' according to the notes of one Ripon member at the meeting with Rusher, 'Rockefeller and Nixon forces part company. Reagan, with Clif White as broker, 'aims at Reagan-Percy ticket with Nixon as Secretary of State and Rockefeller (with a sneer from Rusher) as 'the man who put it all together.' If Percy wouldn't take the vice-presidency, they would look for another moderate. *'If I could be convinced that Ed Brooke could deliver a portion of the Negro vote, we would take him.'* [my emphasis--DT] Rusher felt that the California governor would have no chance if he were perceived as the 1968 version of Goldwater, so at Miami he would 'do everything possible to appear moderate, humane, and compassionate...He must start appearing progressive, responsible, and ecumenical in a hurry.'" Geoffrey Kabaservice, *Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party,* p. 241
https://books.google.com/books?id=GJ9baqZLVIYC&pg=PT272