The Man from PAUSE

We might call it PAUSE--for Perplexed and Uncommitted State Executives, said Oregon's Governor Tom McCall, chuckling over his own acronym. Whatever he called it, McCall's proposed society of Republican Governors was intended as a device to keep the party's options open on next year's presidential nominees.

The Oregonian's notion, outlined in a letter to 20 other Republican Governors, was that they should all meticulously refrain from supporting any of the potential contenders until, after "continual pulse feeling," they could all move "in concert toward selection of the Republican who has the best chance of victory next year." If the Governors were thus able to unite behind one man, concluded McCall, their choice would "almost certainly" carry the 1968 G.O.P. convention.

New York's Nelson Rockefeller--remembering his own experience in 1964--could not endorse the pause behind PAUSE. After acknowledging but politely disclaiming his old supporter's hopeful postscript, which indicated that the New Yorker was still his personal choice, Rockefeller bluntly replied that unless the moderates plan to "simply deliver the nomination to the other side on a silver platter," they had better fall in quickly behind Michigan's George Romney. "He is," noted Rockefeller, "consistently running around ten points ahead of Lyndon Johnson in the polls throughout the country. He is the first and only Republican since General Eisenhower to be in that happy position."* Rocky added: "I hope we are not going to drift into another 1964."

Unturned Key. Few of the Governors could disagree with Rockefeller's sentiment. Yet McCall apparently feared that unless they delayed, the Governors would find themselves inextricably locked in with Romney--though, in fact, the Michigander to date has hardly succeeded in turning the key. More than one Governor appears lukewarm on Romney. Even before he put the letter in the mail, McCall had enthusiastic pledges of support from such bright, attractive moderates as Pennsylvania's Raymond Shafer, Maryland's Spiro Agnew and New Mexico's David Cargo.

To wait or not to wait? The moderates' dilemma was made no easier by the certain knowledge that even as they tarried, Richard Nixon was indefatigably lining up convention delegates. Rockefeller's stern analysis, in fact, was sharply underscored by a Gallup poll of nearly three-fifths of the G.O.P. county chairmen, showing that a large majority of the local pros, most of them conservative in temper, believe that Nixon will be the next Republican candidate.

*He is not entirely alone. A poll conducted by Philadelphia Psephologist John Bucci in what he called the "barometer" state of Delaware showed last veck that Rockefeller leads Lyndon Johnson, 58.1% to 41.9,-.

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