Since the name Nelson Rockefeller has been brought up lately with regards to the current state of the GOP and the 2012 election, I ran across this Meet The Press interview with Nelson Rockefeller on the subject of his tax proposals to President Eisenhower, but really about whether or not he was planning on running for Governor of New York.

In doing a tap dance routine that would make Gregory Hines proud, Rockefeller skirts and double-skirts around the issue of running for the State House.

As a Moderate-bordering-on-Liberal Republican, his views were more in line with the Democratic Party than his own and he served in various capacities in the Roosevelt, Truman as well as Eisenhower administrations. His particular brand of politics as a Rockefeller Republican came to become the description of anyone in the Republican Party who espoused moderate values, often accompanied with ridicule.

He left a considerable involvement in Public Service in 1956 to concentrate on New York politics and, contrary to his dodging of the question during this Meet The Press installment he ultimately ran, and successfully won four terms as Governor before his brief appearance as vice-President during the Ford years.

Here is that Meet The Press from April 20, 1958 featuring Lawrence Spivak and Company.

Amid fears the Republican Party of 1964 was taking a sharp turn to the right, with the rise in popularity of Barry Goldwater, and all indications pointing to his nomination as the Republican Presidential candidate, much attention was being paid on that election year to the outcome of the Republican Governor's Conference, being held in Cleveland Ohio in June, 1964.

And it was the current state of the Republican Party in 1964 that was the topic of conversation on this episode of Meet The Press, first aired on June 7, 1964.

Interviewed were the Chairman of the Conference, Kansas Governor John Anderson and Host of the Conference, Ohio Governor James Rhodes. A number of subjects were discussed - where candidate William Scranton figured in this picture, the Rockefeller wing of the Party - how other Governor's were feeling about the current climate.

Interesting sets of questions and interesting answers, as was always the case in this early incarnation of Meet The Press.

Here is that entire program.

News for this day in 1964 (via radio station WXYZ in Detroit) started off with word on the upcoming Oregon Presidential Primary that had Ambassador to Saigon and GOP Presidential hopeful Henry Cabot Lodge leading the pack, with Nelson Rockefeller running a close second. Both the Oregon and upcoming California Primaries were considered something of a free-for-all with grumblings of a Stop Barry Goldwater Movement among the GOP's Moderates.

In other news - From Capitol Hill, the Senate GOP pledged to keep the Scandal Probe into former Democratic Aide Bobby Baker going. President Johnson and Defense Sec. Robert McNamara were holding talks over the situation in Vietnam.

Speaking of Vietnam, it was reported that 51 South Vietnamese troops were killed in an ambush by Vietcong guerrillas just north of Saigon the previous day.

Civil Rights Leader Bayard Rustin pledged some 50,000 demonstrators to picket the upcoming Democratic Convention in Atlantic City. When asked if the same would be true for the GOP Convention, Bayard said there would be pickets, but the GOP wasn't so important.

In Michigan news - the friction between Governor George Romney and Attorney General Frank Kelly heated up again. This time over the issue of Legislative Reapportionment.

And GM said it would try and hold the line on new car prices in 1965, saying that 1964 car sales would likely hit 8 million, marking the first time in history the car maker did so well.

And that was how it rolled, this May 15th 1964 as broadcast over Detroit Radio station WXYZ via their Morning Report.

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Looking at local news for this April 20th in 1964. From New York, nerves were on edge and appeals were being sought for the upcoming massive Civil Rights Protests, slated to go on opening day of the New York World's Fair, April 22nd.

The New York Supreme Court weighed in with a "no" to CORE and other Civil Rights groups for permission to stage the protest, but they were pledged to go on anyway, no matter what.

President Johnson narrowly missed a convergence of the Elderly during his brief visit to New York. The demonstration was in favor of pending Medicare legislation, which Johnson was championing. In light of other protests directed towards him, he may have wanted to stick around to hear the support.

In other news, mostly regarding the goings-on in New York - a new poll released showed support for the Presidential candidacy of Nelson Rockefeller in the upcoming 1964 election was slim at best. Not a good sign from home turf, to say the least.

McCarthy-era Attorney Roy Cohn was scheduled for a new date and a second Conspiracy and Perjury Trial as the first one was declared a mistrial the day before.

And it was disclosed a tentative $210 million dollar New York School budget for 1965-1966 was coming up for approval. Back when education was important.

And what is news from New York without news of Broadway? News of openings and closings and an interview with Mr. and Mrs. Richard Burton.

And that's how it, and a lot of other news, rolled in The Big Apple on this April 20th in 1964, from WNBC's 6:30 New York News Special.

This week of March 1, 1975 was an interesting one, not the least for vice-President Nelson Rockefeller's famous quote about the possibility of running in 1980:

Vice-President Rockefeller: “I don’t think anyone gives a good God-damn, if you’ll forgive me, about 1980 politics. And I think you make a tremendous mistake even thinking about it. I think it shows a loss of focus of the crisis proportion of the problems we face today, and I resent it as a politician that people think that all I’m interested in is politics when I’m trying to solve the problems, or help the President to meet the problems of today.”

Aside from Rockefeller's protests, the week was full of talk of compromise between Democrats and Republicans (naturally), the Gas Tax (naturally), The Energy Crisis (naturally) the emergency budget (that again), foreign aid to Cambodia and the prospects of Gerald Ford running for re-election in 1980 (he said yeah). All that and the month hadn't even started yet.

Here is the broadcast of Washington Week In Review with Neil Strawser and CBS News from March 1, 1975.

On this particular day in 1979 you probably heard about the sudden death of former vice-President Nelson Rockefeller at 70 from a heart attack. You would probably also hear later that he was rumored to have died with a smile on his face, but that was long before the days of TMZ. Other news you were probably hearing about were the continued and intensifying demonstrations in Tehran over the newly installed Shah-replaced government and the prevention of Ayatollah Khomeni from landing in Iran. You also heard about Pope John Paul II and his tour of Mexico, being greeted by upwards of a million people and the breathless anticipation on what he was going to say to the crowd later in the day. You would probably be hearing about all that and a lot more and wondering if it really was worth getting out of bed on this particular day.

And that was the question. But in the meantime, here is the CBS World News Roundup for January 27, 1979.