south pasadena, el monty and whittier. by 1938 nixon registered as a republican. up to that time, melvin small claims nixon was a nonideological centrist. in 1936 or in retrospect, one of his roommates from 1936 and on at the end of his law school career at duke, claimed nixon believed that the individual should push back against big government and big society and big business. an american can never be free if he or she abdicated his or her personal responsibilities to someone else. finally, nixon did pledge in a letter to herman pairry, his first political mentor, a letter dated 6 october, 1945 to practice "practical liberalism " as opposed to " that new brand of liberalism pushed by jerry in the 1946 campaign." this is some of the members of his committee of 100 who helped push his 1946 and 1948 campaigns, it's something that needs to be worked upon. thank you very much. [ applause ] . >> ladies and gentlemen, normally i'm a little irreverent and i'm standing here so she can't get the hook on me but i'm sure she'll grab me. she'll find a way. i'd like to be seri