Goldwater Raps Convention as ‘Worst One I’ve Ever Been to’

NEW ORLEANS — Former Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater today called the Republican National Convention “the worst-organized, worst-run convention I’ve ever been to,” and complained he couldn’t hear a word of President Reagan’s speech Monday night.

The party’s “Mr. Conservative” also said he had trouble getting into the session where he was honored.

However, he said he was confident the party would win the presidential election. He said George Bush had run a good campaign while “Dukakis is a Greek tragedy.”

Goldwater, who was the party’s presidential nominee in 1964, blamed poor acoustics for his failure to hear any of President Reagan’s speech as he sat in the gallery with members of Bush’s family.

“Everything in that hall was wrong,” he said. “They couldn’t turn the volume up. Where I sat I didn’t hear a word.”

Goldwater, interviewed on NBC-TV’s “Today” show, said it took him 40 minutes to get into the Louisiana Superdome, where the convention is being held, because he didn’t have a security pass.

Convention glitches aside, Goldwater said he wasn’t worried about the Republican Party overall, “because we’re going to win” the election.

Asked why he had characterized Michael S. Dukakis as “a Greek tragedy,” Goldwater said: “Well, he is Greek. He’s just a tragedy and he happens to be a Greek.”