Seedlings

From Pollster George Gallup last week came three seedlings for the spring crop of political speculation. Items: P:Among Democrats, 66% expect their candidate, whoever he may be, to win the presidency in 1960. Only 54% of Republicans and 29% of Independents expect the next President to be a Republican.

P: Dwight Eisenhower's popularity, measured by Gallup's stock query on approval or disapproval of the way the President is doing his job, slid from the term-opening peak of 79% in January to 72%.*

P: Eisenhower's brand of Republicanism suits the G.O.P. rank and file just fine. Between "Liberal Republicanism" represented by Ike, Richard Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge, and "Conservative Republicanism" represented by the late Robert Taft, William Knowland and Herbert Hoover, the Eisenhower side won a thundering vote of confidence: 74% to 18% among Republican voters, 75% to 11% among Independents.

*Franklin Roosevelt's second term started at 65%, was down by midyear to 60%; Harry Truman's slipped from 69% in January 1949, to 57% in March.

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