The general election campaign did not go well for McGovern. Nixon did little campaigning; he was buoyed by the success of his visit to China and arms-control-signing summit meeting in the Soviet Union earlier that year and, shortly before the election, Henry Kissinger's somewhat premature statement that "peace is at hand" in Vietnam. Top Republican figures attacked McGovern for being weak on defense issues and "encouraging the enemy"; Nixon asserted that McGovern was for "peace at any price" in Vietnam, rather than the "peace with honor" that Nixon said he would bring about. McGovern chose to not emphasize his own war record during the campaign. The McGovern Commission changes to the convention rules marginalized the influence of establishment Democratic Party figures, and McGovern struggled to get endorsements from figures such as former President Johnson and Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley. The AFL–CIO remained neutral, after having always endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate in the past. Some southern Democrats, led by former Texas governor John Connally, switched their support to the Republican incumbent through a campaign effort called Democrats for Nixon. Nixon outspent McGovern by more than two-to-one.