Nany Evans oral history.indd - Washington Secretary of State

go back to Dan for a few seconds, before showing images of some men doing silly things.
Hughes: I picked up on a piece that Dave Brewster wrote in 1972 in the Argus. He was
recalling the 1968 convention and “The Perils of Political Virtue”: “Scene: The Beau Rivage
Hotel, Miami Beach … It’s 1 a.m. and Dan Evans sits in his hotel room shortly after giving
the disastrously over-rehearsed keynote address that put the convention to sleep.” The
story proceeded to talk about Dan’s decision to endorse Rockefeller for president when
most everyone was telling him the political thing to do would be to endorse Nixon. I sent a
snippet of this story to Dan, and l think I sent it to you.
Evans: Yes, you did.
Hughes: Dan told me, “David Brewster’s article … is partly accurate but with a high
percentage of fiction.”
Evans: I remember I read it to him, but I can’t remember now what was wrong about it.
Hughes: Well I think it was the part about the “disastrously over-rehearsed keynote address.”
Evans: Well, if you read it you would think it was good, because he was talking about
things that now are still issues. And he was looking ahead about what we need to do
about civility and shared goals. It was really quite forward looking for the Republican Party
at that time. But it was 11 o’clock at night back there and it had been a long day.
Evans: As for “over-rehearsed” — he had 20 minutes in the auditorium for the first time
using a Teleprompter. Those were very new in those days. And he had never used one. So
he had a little time to practice on that, and that was it.
Hughes: Brewster also wrote in that same piece: “This is the archetypal Evans” moment
revealing the perils of political virtue. As Evans sounded out the room, the advice to
endorse Richard Nixon was unanimous. That afternoon Nixon’s staff had informed the
Evans’ men that the Washington governor was high on the list of vice-presidential prospects
if he endorsed Nixon. Typically, Evans kept his staff in the dark about his decision and
retired at 4 a.m. The next morning Evans picked up a stack of telegrams from the financial
backers for his own 1968 re-election campaign. They said one thing: ‘Go for Nixon. A shooin,
or else.’ A few hours later Evans announced his endorsement of Nelson Rockefeller,
arguing simply that his keynote address had named domestic matters as the nation’s top
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