Sad Sag

The Democratic campaign bounced merrily and fruitfully through the week--as Maine voters rolled up their victory and Democratic dollars rolled heavily into the campaign fund--but the party's chief candidate conversely seemed to be having his troubles. It was characteristic of Adlai Stevenson's week that whenever he loosened up and turned on the charm, he was a snappy hit; but before TV cameras and big audiences Adlai sadly sagged.

Making the rounds of eight regional party pep gatherings from Santa Fe to Hartford, the Stevenson smile, quip and zip were at their captivating best (said Campaign Manager Jim Finnegan: the meetings were "little short of sensational"). At Manhattan's Ambassador Hotel, where 250 of the best-heeled Democrats turned out to pledge $350,000 to the fund, the candidate was in fine fettle ("I'm delighted to see a group so distinguished--and so solvent"). In Harrisburg, Pa. he laced his arms around the waists of a couple of "farmerette" Stevenson supporters, joshed away as photographers popped their bulbs ("These aren't cowgirls. These are my girls . . . I think we ought to practice coming in here every night"). He showed perhaps a more profitable political acumen in Harrisburg when he dispatched Running Mate Estes Kefauver to a hotel to cheer up 650 Ladies of the G.A.R., who waxed fuming because they had not been able to get an audience with President Eisenhower in Gettysburg.

"One of the Best." Yet the onstage Adlai was in comparatively dull fettle. In Albany he devoted three pages of a five-page speech in homage to New York's roster of eminent Democrats (Roosevelt, Lehman, Al Smith), not neglecting recent foes Averell Harriman and Carmine De Sapio. Nor was his attack on the Eisenhower Administration any more resounding than the calling of the roll: a "false front" administration, he called it, where Eisenhower appointees were undercutting programs, e.g., public housing, conservation, which had progressed under the Democratic administrations. Many a New York Democratic conventioneer sat on his hands.

Back in Manhattan Adlai fared better in a speech before a meeting of New York's Liberal Party, the highly sophisticated audience that Stevenson is most at home with. (Said Adlai: "An exceedingly responsive audience, one of the best.") Here Stevenson let loose with penetrating wit and fine oratorical style, twitted the Republicans for contradictory statements (on neutralism, the meaning of Russia's reduction of its army, the importance of the Suez crisis), came out foursquare for compliance with the Supreme Court decision on segregation.

One of the Worst. Two days later in Harrisburg he made his first campaign "saturation" speech (on all major TV networks--cost: more than $200,000).* The slick program opener: a film clip of the famed Joe Smith incident at the Republican Convention (TIME. Sept. 3), followed by the filmed excerpt of Stevenson's postnomination speech calling for an open race for the vice-presidential nomination. Later, straining to put himself across in person, Adlai threw a wild punch when he declared that "the President is not master in his own house," implied that the country was being run by Richard Nixon and the Eisenhower Cabinet. Only when he strayed onto subjects dealing with his own political idealism did Stevenson sound like himself. "Our plan for 20th century man," he said, "is not just for his survival, but for his triumph . . . Trust the people."

Idealism or no, the speech was perilously close to a flop. Even the hired TV eye could not blink away the sight of an uninspired audience. Next day the Stevenson camp was blaming the teleprompters and the bad acoustics in the hall. But the Kefauverites were not so charitable, told each other and whoever wanted to listen that Adlai Stevenson had failed to land any solid political punches.

* After analyzing the effect of simultaneous telecasting on all networks, the G.O.P. high command concluded last week that there must be a large segment of U.S. viewers who by now are surfeited with "saturation" campaigning. Result: President Eisenhower's major campaign speeches will hereafter be seen and heard on only one network at a time.

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