The Impossible Dream

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The Impossible Dream
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    • rick007

    There is nothing wrong with your monitor. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the flow of information. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the time being, sit quietly and we will control all that you see. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your monitor. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind of----The Impossible Dream.
     
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    • The Impossible Dream
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    • rick007

    "I sometimes wonder what would have happened had he not survived. I came so close that I could taste it. But, as Pat said, maybe it was just not to be."-Former Vice President Richard Nixon, interview, 1977.

    "Can you imagine what people would have thought had Bobby been assassinated as well? [shakes her head.] I sometimes wonder. The fact that it happened so soon after the death of Doctor King and almost five years after the death of his brother...Still he lived and that's the main thing."-Actress Dominique Dunne, on the set of Bobby, January 9, 1993.

    -

    June 5, 1968.

    In the lead-up to tonight, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was nervous, he would later admit. He knew a loss in the California primary would spell the end of his presidential ambitions, at least for 1968. Though he had only entered the race after President Johnson bowed out on March 31, he had a few impressive wins over Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota and certainly over Vice President Hubert Humphrey, also of Minnesota, who wasn't really running (the Vice President had the support of the party establishment).

    However, both McCarthy and Kennedy were making great strides. However, Kennedy knew that he had to win the California primary in order to stay in the race. This would help him at least stay alive on the trail. On June 4, Kennedy won the California primary. Now it was just after midnight when the Kennedys were making their way through the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel. He was shaking hands and they were smiling. After being directed to the kitchen, somehow Ethel was separated from her husband.

    As she tried to force her way to where her husband was, Ethel heard several loud bangs. Fearfully, Ethel made her way forward and saw a man lying on the ground and her husband standing over him trying to give comfort as two more men wrestled a third to the ground and took a gun away.

    "Senator," said an aide, "We should go."

    Kennedy looked up, "Get this man to a hospital."

    As they were ushered out of the kitchen, Bobby and Ethel Kennedy were filled with worry for the young man that saved his life and relief that they were still alive. They were, more than ever, ready for what came next.
     
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    • historybuff

    rick007 said:
    "I sometimes wonder what would have happened had he not survived. I came so close that I could taste it. But, as Pat said, maybe it was just not to be."-Former Vice President Richard Nixon, interview, 1977.

    "Can you imagine what people would have thought had Bobby been assassinated as well? [shakes her head.] I sometimes wonder. The fact that it happened so soon after the death of Doctor King and almost five years after the death of his brother...Still he lived and that's the main thing."-Actress Dominique Dunne, on the set of Bobby, January 9, 1993.

    -

    June 5, 1968.

    In the lead-up to tonight, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was nervous, he would later admit. He knew a loss in the California primary would spell the end of his presidential ambitions, at least for 1968. Though he had only entered the race after President Johnson bowed out on March 31, he had a few impressive wins over Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota and certainly over Vice President Hubert Humphrey, also of Minnesota, who wasn't really running (the Vice President had the support of the party establishment).

    However, both McCarthy and Kennedy were making great strides. However, Kennedy knew that he had to win the California primary in order to stay in the race. This would help him at least stay alive on the trail. On June 4, Kennedy won the California primary. Now it was just after midnight when the Kennedys were making their way through the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel. He was shaking hands and they were smiling. After being directed to the kitchen, somehow Ethel was separated from her husband.

    As she tried to force her way to where her husband was, Ethel heard several loud bangs. Fearfully, Ethel made her way forward and saw a man lying on the ground and her husband standing over him trying to give comfort as two more men wrestled a third to the ground and took a gun away.

    "Senator," said an aide, "We should go."

    Kennedy looked up, "Get this man to a hospital."

    As they were ushered out of the kitchen, Bobby and Ethel Kennedy were filled with worry for the young man that saved his life and relief that they were still alive. They were, more than ever, ready for what came next.
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    Watching this. I'll see if I can send you any ideas.
     
    The Impossible Dream
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    • rick007

    From Los Angeles, an attempt was made on the life Senator Robert F. Kennedy, just after midnight in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel. As he was greeting supporters amongst the kitchen staff the gunman, by the name of Sirhan Bishara Sirhan approached the Senator. However, a young seventeen year old waiter named Juan Romero saw the gunman and stepped in front of Senator Kennedy just as the trigger was pulled. On hearing the shots, two of Senator Kennedy's body guards, Rafer Johnson and Roosevelt Grier, wrestled Sirhan to the ground and managed to get the gun away from him. Senator and Mrs. Kennedy were escorted away from the Ambassador Hotel and are now safe.

    -Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News, June 5, 1968.

    Romero would barely survive his wounds. When Kennedy visited him in the hospital on June 7, Romero said that he would do it again. After he left the hospital Kennedy turned to Illinois and New York. Aides, particularly Greenfield and Mankiewicz said that New York was a sure thing. Kennedy felt that this wouldn't be as easy as they thought. New York City in particular had a large Jewish community. That's when the calls started to come in. They were from Jews, not just in New York but all over the country, offering their support. They all said pretty much the same thing: "You almost died for Israel. You must be doing something right."

    While Kennedy was a great supporter of Israel, he also wanted a two state solution to the conflict. In a speech given just a week ahead of the New York primary he said as much. While that dampened his support amongst Jews somewhat he was still incredibly popular and won New York by 9%. McCarthy was not happy but there was nothing he could do. Nothing he could do except go to the convention in Chicago to fight this out. He never got the chance.

    -Days of Affirmation: The Life and Times of Robert F. Kennedy by Professor B.H. Obama, University of Chicago Press, 2012.

    [Richard] Nixon couldn't have been more paranoid. All this work and he would probably lose to another Kennedy. But Nixon still had to get nominated by his own party first. Though by mid-1968 he was in the lead in the primaries, Nixon knew that he might have trouble if his opponents teamed up at the convention or sooner. It would take time though.

    -Nixon: A Life by Newt Gingrich, HarperCollins Publishers, 1998.
     
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    • rick007

    [George] Wallace was planning to be the one thorn in Richard Nixon's side that might throw the election. Wallace was a Conservative Democrat and Segregationist who pledged to run with the American Independence Party. He hoped that by running as a third party candidate he would throw the election to the House of Representatives and make himself a kingmaker. He was the first candidate that year to announce his Vice President: Former Air Force General Curtis Lemay.

    -Settin' the Woods on Fire: The Life and Times of George Wallace by Stephen Lesher, Ballantine Books, 1999.

    Live from the Miami Beach Convention Centre, it's the Republican National Convention. We can now safely say that Former Vice President Richard Nixon is going to be the Republican nominee. There are reports that Michigan Governor George Romney is going to be tapped as the Vice Presidential nominee. Though those same reports also say that it is between him and Governor of Maryland Spiro T. Agnew.

    -ABC Nightly News report, August 7, 1968.

    Picking Romney was probably the best thing I did. Oh sure there were those who were worried about his religion or that he was not born in the United States. But he was a good counter to Kennedy, or so I thought at the time.

    -Former Vice President Richard Nixon, interview, 1977.
     
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