924 ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS

(Republican Delegation Meeting)

Q. Governor, do you have any particular message for the Republican
delegates tonight?

A. I want to see what their reaction and thinking is since they have
been exposed to both Governor Rockefeller and Mr. Nixon and there
is not going to be any heavy-handed arm-twisting, I can assure you.
It's an exploratory meeting to just see what the general reaction is
at the moment.

Q. You don't expect to make any formal decision after tonight's
meeting about your Favorite Son candidacy?

A. I am virtually certain there won't be any change in my position.

Q. Do you expect any changes in Favorite Son candidacies in
Cincinnati this week?

A. I'll know more about that after I talk with Governor Rhodes in
Cincinnati and with Governor Romney, which I hope to do. They,
plus the Maryland delegation, are probably the major uncommitted
delegations at the moment.

STATEMENT TO EXECUTIVE SESSION, NATIONAL
GOVERNORS' CONFERENCE, CINCINNATI, OHIO

July 23, 1968

A Critique of the Kerner Commission Report

The report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Dis-
orders is a compelling document, not so much for its subject as its
psychology. Ironically, it reveals more about the mind of our na-
tion than the nature of violence. Tragically, like the violence it
examined, the Kerner Report was self-defeating as a result of an
amorphous, if not fallacious, first premise.

From the introduction it became clear that the Kerner Commission
was prepared to indict the American mainstream — black and white —
for the riots in our cities. To quote from the report:

"White society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institu-
tions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society
condones it. " It is interesting to note that, while the ghetto is never