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Part: 12 Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536 Page 682683684685686687688689690691692693694695696697698699703704705706707708709710711712713714715716717 of 1143
choice to tangle with the AMA,” and handed him some clippings on the dispute between Magnuson and the AMA. The President said he had missed the story in the Times, which I had given him, and that it was hard to read everything, although he tried to read the Times and five or six other papers everyday. He then picked up a paper with a cartoon of Senator Kefauver in a coonskin cap looking out of a television set, which had a caption: “Making a whistle-stop campaign in your own parlor?” which amused the President.
We then said to him, “You can't let this happen. You must run.” He replied with feeling, “Oh, I have only one thing that I really care about and that is my child. She is at a great disadvantage by my being President. The White House and Blair House are no place for her. My wife is worn out by all her duties. She has shaken 50,000 hands in a year, has all kinds of teas and things daily. I don't know that she can last four years more and I haven't done what I've wanted in 20 years. I've just finished 30 continuous years in elective office and none of it was because of my seeking. I was saying this to the Minister of Pakistan and he said to me and he said to me, ‘Someone arranges these things.’ Why, the night before I was nominated in the '44 Convention, I was in a room with Bob Hannegan when President Roosevelt phoned and asked him, ‘Have you persuaded that fellow to run?' I could hear both
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