The Sweet Smell of Success
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The Sweet Smell of Success

John Lindsay was at wits end by December, 1967. It seemed like everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. Dozens of men from his own party were waiting in the wings to usurp him, and that's not even mentioning the Democrats, who were growing increasingly more rabid by the day. Lindsay was trapped between a rock and a hard place, and on the advice of Robert Price, he took one of the riskiest gambles of his whole career.

Lindsay, using a complex network of surrogates, set up a meeting with civil rights activist (and suspected black nationalist) Mae Mallory for a "covenant on the future of minorities within the greater area of New York City." Both Lindsay and Mallory knew this had nothing to do with civil rights; It was all posturing. Breaking with historical convention, Lindsay invited multiple prominent liberal Democrats to attend the meeting in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and made the event into a spectacle, marching down the streets of Brooklyn with a parade of notable politicians and activists. The meeting itself, ironically, went nowhere. All the various egos in the room butted heads, as Mario Cariello tried reasoning with Mallory, talking up the power of the conservatives in the party, and Herman Badillo seemed to confirm that as he shot down every proposal. Mallory herself demanded more and more in response, and Lindsay remained decidedly non-participative, not taking a single strong stance on anything.

Despite the actual chaos going on inside the talk, not a single person within the NYC press gave a damn about the results. The tabloids were filled with wall-to-wall coverage of the event, most savaging Lindsay as a maniac on the loose. He nearly broke, and was almost on the edge of calling a press conference and spilling his guts out to the press. But, Price made him wait. And it paid off.

The news slowly trickled to a halt, as most New Yorkers grew tired of the non-stop coverage. It was quickly supplemented with images of the Democratic Party at complete war with itself. Comptroller Procaccino railed against Cariello, calling him names that couldn't be printed in more respectable publications. Those publications didn't sell. Badillo tried to set himself up as a conservative champion, destroying any chance for reform in the city, only to get lambasted as a hound and opportunist. For a week, they all lambasted each other, until, in the words of Sid Davidoff, "...God himself spoke." Senator Robert Kennedy had made a brief statement in support of the meeting, staying above the fray of chaotic inner city politicking. He had bigger fish to fry, with Primary Season for the '68 election beginning to heat up. Then he saw the papers.

Seeing an opportunity to further burst his own image once voting started, Robert Kennedy went down to New York, and he single-handedly tore the Democratic Coalition apart. Live on WNYC, he lambasted Badillo and Procaccino, and hailed those Democrats (without naming names) who supported the meeting. Almost overnight, public opinion flipped on the two, and while many were still uncomfortable with civil rights itself, nobody was being endeared to the conservatives. Lindsay himself, ironically in his moment of triumph, was in a manic pursuit of keeping the GOP tight-lipped on the situation. While many were still aiming on upsetting the unpopular Mayor, watching the Democrats tearing each other apart was too good of an opportunity to pass up. They still forced his hand, with large pork spending going to the Republican stronghold of Staten Island.

Despite his own (numerous) failures, to many New Yorkers, Lindsay seemed "mayoral" for the first time since his inauguration.
 
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Romney & Lindsay
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Romney & Lindsay Meet Ahead of Primaries


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January 13th, 1968
Written by Henry Zeiger



REPUBLICAN PRIMARIES -- Only a few weeks after he announced his bid for the Republican nomination, Michigan Governor George Romney has met with Mayor Lindsay in a series of talks set to start today in City Hall. Sources say they are to discuss party infrastructure in New York, what Lindsay can do to help his Primary run, and the state of the Republican Party nationwide.

While their will be other attendees, the Times does not have the identification of those people. This comes after Senator Kennedy, himself surrounded by rumors of his own Presidential run, campaigned in Brooklyn on bringing money to Bedford-Stuyvesant only one week ago. He met with Lindsay, who openly supported the move, in a brief press conference in City Hall.
 
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