Against the Field

At a casual glance, Vice President Richard Nixon seemed to be a man enviably in command of his own immediate political situation. He was the unchallenged contender for the Republican presidential nomination, with the blessing of the man he hopes to succeed in the White House. No doubtful primary elections impeded his path of progress toward the Republican National Convention in July; no serious rivals for his party's top honor stood in his way. But last week, twelve weeks before the convention, Dick Nixon's command of the situation was a questionable honor: it left him fighting almost single-handed against the combined offensives of all the Democrats, and fighting at the same time to keep some good order and discipline in a Republican Party restive over inactivity and increasingly gloomy over congressional prospects.

Image. Nixon's first job, as he saw it, was to keep alive the image of the responsible leader, while the Democrats were grabbing most of the headlines in primary campaigns. His technique: a series of calculated, noncontroversial public appearances before as many people as possible. Early last week he turned up to talk about the spirit of freedom and independence before a gigantic Polish-American picnic in Chicago. He hopped back to Washington to preside over the Senate. Then he was off to work his way through the vast U.S. World Trade Fair in Manhattan's Coliseum, where he could hardly see the exhibits for the swarm of reporters and photographers that buzzed around him.

More difficult is Nixon's job of staking out a program that is different from Eisenhower's, without doing damage to the Administration's record. Nixon's solution: the timeless Washington device known as the calculated news leak. Thus a steady stream of stories trickled into the nation's press, attributing Nixon's views to "high authorities," "Nixon spokesmen," or "well-informed circles." Thus the U.S. learns that Nixon intends to speak out on his own after the nomination, that he considers Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft Benson a political liability, that he has played a major role in getting the Administration to revise itself on old-age medical-assistance programs.

Party. As the potential leader of the Republican Party, Nixon has to worry about the political welfare of every other Republican candidate. A Gallup poll last week showed that, as of now, 60% of the electorate favored Democratic congressional candidates, with only 40% planning to vote for Republicans--the lowest congressional score ever polled by the G.O.P. Nixon must seek every means to corral the party's strays, reconcile its wide-ranging factions (from New York's liberal Jack Javits to Arizona's conservative Barry Goldwater), and mold the G.O.P. into a strong, united political force. Nixon's most notable recent moves in this direction have been his indirect overtures to New York's standoffish Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who is a favorite of wavering independents and has considerable influence in pivotal (45 electoral votes) New York State. In New York last week, Nixon took public note of his private hopes of interesting Governor Rockefeller in the vice-presidential nomination. Said Nixon: "A number of party leaders, Republican leaders, believe that Governor Rockefeller . . . would add strength to the ticket." But, he added, he did not blame Rockefeller, who withdrew last fall as a candidate for the G.O.P. presidential nomination, for showing no immediate interest. Snapped Rockefeller firmly: "I will not be a candidate for Vice President under any circumstances, no matter who asks me."

Results. Considering the unique nature of his battles, Nixon's fight has gone well. He has refused to campaign in primaries, yet last month all but equaled President Eisenhower's 1956 victories in Illinois and Pennsylvania. And last week in Indiana he did it again--winning 401,000 primary votes, or 50,000 more than Ike's high-water mark four years earlier, and 50,000 more than the tally for Democrat Jack Kennedy, who had made a dozen-odd campaign speeches in Indiana and was the only serious Democrat entered.

The increase in Nixon's personal strength as shown by primary votes, and the apparent rise in Democratic congressional power as shown by the polls, indicated that the election of 1960 would not so much be one of opposing candidates or opposing parties, but would pit Candidate Richard Nixon against the Democratic Party.

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