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but it was -- there was no way we could live it because it would have ripped our schedules apart and there just wasn't enough time in the schedule to give time to all these candidates. Also you had to give comparable time, so if you gave somebody prime time you had to give everybody else prime time. It was that rule that I wanted to get lifted, so that television and radio could be used to the utmost for whatever purposes the stations wanted to give them time. I wanted it for debates.

You were specifying the party nominees?

What?

You were specifying the party nominees would have the chance to debate?

Yes. The time, the period I'm discussing obviously is 1960. I had first proposed the lifting of the rule in the campaign of 1952. And had Stevenson committed to debate Eisenhower. Eisenhower when I talked to him about it, said I should talk to Ben Duffey. Ben Duffey was his campaign manager. And I went to Ben and told him what my plan was and he just grinned and said no way would he put the General in that position. This man, you know, he'd fought the war and he was above it all and he wasn't going to let some little governor from Illinois put him on the spot. And Ike never would face up to it. I even had trouble with our affiliates getting them to support me on this legislation. In the end, they did.

What were their objections?