The Kickoff

Barry Goldwater stood before 150 Republican precinct leaders in Cleveland last week and invited them to ask questions. One began, "Since we have a suspicion you are running for President . . ." Whereupon Goldwater grinned and broke in: "You can suspicion all you darned please, but as of now I'm not a candidate." The politicians broke out in disbelieving laughter, and Barry insisted," I'm not kiddin' you."

Barry was not, of course, kidding anyone. He has been wearing his cleated shoes in practice sessions for months. Last week, starting a speaking tour, he really kicked off on his run for the Republican Party's 1964 presidential nomination.

Pleas for Unity. It began in Cleveland at a $5-a-plate chicken luncheon. Three thousand people jammed the main ballroom and balconies of the Sheraton-Cleveland Hotel, overflowed into an extra room, where they watched Goldwater on closed-circuit television. He kept them cheering with his charge that the "far left" is more dangerous to the U.S. than the "far right." He slammed the Kennedy Administration hard for giving more than "50 important policymaking jobs" to members of Americans for Democratic Action. Snapped Goldwater: "I worry a lot more about extremists who are inside the house breaking up the furniture than I do about those who stand outside and throw rocks at windows."

Throughout, Goldwater preached Republican Party unity in effective riposte to New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller's recent efforts to read the "radical right" out of the G.O.P. Said Goldwater in Cleveland: "Let's not attempt to castigate members of our party because you think their views are too far to the left or too far to the right."

Two days later, Candidate Goldwater arrived at Chicago's Conrad Hilton Hotel, found himself all but smothered in a crowd of enthusiastic women--all wearing badges proclaiming them ESCORTS and all aiming to help him get through the lobby to a luncheon of the National Federation of Republican Women. Once inside, silver-haired Barry wowed the women with a few words about the Kennedy Administration: "If we have made any progress during the past three years, it has been progress in the wrong direction. It is progress along the dangerous path of accommodation of our enemies." And again he cried out for Republicans of all stripes to unite against the Kennedy Administration. Said he: "It'd be pretty hard to find a Republican who wouldn't be better for the country than a New Frontiersman."

More Like Football Fans. Later the women were polled as to their favorite Republican candidate for 1964; of 293 questioned, 262 picked Goldwater. More important, the Senator had drawn the cream of the Illinois Republican Party for his speech, including all three G.O.P. candidates for Governor. Four days earlier, when Nelson Rockefeller had visited the state, G.O.P. leaders had found excuses for not showing up. And though both Rocky and his wife were courteously greeted by good-sized crowds, they could hardly have been unimpressed by the Goldwater placards and sweat shirts that popped up everywhere during their Illinois visit.

At week's end Goldwater thundered into Bartlesville, Okla., where he was met by a shouting, festive crowd that acted more like football fans than conservative Republicans. Speaking before 5,000 exuberant Bartlesville backers, Barry for the first time muted his party-unity plea, sounded off against liberal Republicans who advocate "the warmed-over, watered-down arguments of the Democrats." He said: "The Republicans can and must offer this nation a choice when any of our candidates go before the electorate . . . We don't want to be known as Little Sir Echo. We want real Republican voices and choices to be heard."

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