Jim Reston: Walking through the crowds of air-kissing politicians, actors and high fliers, it was tough to tell where the politics stopped and the showbiz started. Maybe, in the end, there is no difference.

Peter Morgan
About This Quote

Jim Reston, a New York Times reporter in the late 1960s, wrote a story about a presidential candidate, Hubert Humphrey, who was trying to get nominated at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Humphrey was running against the party’s favorite son, Senator Robert Kennedy. In his article, Reston noted that when he asked Humphrey how he would handle the media if elected president, Humphrey said he would “wear it down.” Reston asked him what he meant by “wear it down.” Humphrey replied: “I mean spend time with them, get to know them. I mean go to their homes and talk to them, get to know their wives and children.

I mean spend time with them, not just on television but in the coffee shops and the cocktail lounges—and you know how soft they are when you get into that kind of meeting. They get tired of it too quickly. I mean spend time with them, get to know them.”

Source: Frost/Nixon

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