The Word

Before making any major personal decision, Michigan's George Romney usually spends an entire day in seclusion meditating and seeking divine guidance. Last week, after a day at home, Mormon Romney had the word. The nation--if not the Deity--would have been very much surprised if it had been no.

In effect, Governor Romney has been campaigning for the presidency since February, when he ventured into six states to decry the decline of American morality. Nine months later--and nine months before the G.O.P. convention in Miami--Romney finally proclaimed what everyone knew he had in him.

"I have decided to fight for and win the Republican nomination," he told a news conference. "I have made my decision with great earnestness."

Instant Comeback. Then, flanked by Wife Lenore and three of their children, the Governor earnestly catalogued the nation's ills: crime, welfare, slums, inflation. "We are becoming a house divided," he said. "The richest nation in the world is a fiscal mess. Once a beacon of hope for people everywhere, America is now widely regarded as belligerent and domineering. We are mixed in an Asian land war which sacrifices our young men and drains our resources, with no end in sight. False optimism and lack of candor on the part of our leaders have confused our citizens and sapped their resolve. A Republican President can work for a just peace in Viet Nam unshackled by mistakes of the past."

As an announced candidate, Romney is in the unique position of having to stage a comeback at the moment he leaves the starting line. For months his popularity has been skidding largely because of such gaffes as his "brainwashing" admission in September. To have any hope of winning the crucial New Hampshire primary on March 12, he will have to elucidate comprehensive--and comprehensible--positions on foreign policy and pervasive domestic issues. Richard Nixon,* meanwhile, is gearing his campaign in the Granite State to emphasize his expertise on foreign affairs and other major issues; Romney plans to jog through the street-corner-and-supermarket campaign that suits him best.

Many Republicans, including some of Romney's avowed supporters, now believe that the Michigander's campaign will turn into a holding operation, coalescing the party's moderates and keeping them in the forefront until another middle-of-the-road candidate with a realistic chance of gaining the nomination can step in. Cheering Romney last week on his announcement, Nelson Rockefeller observed: "A wise national Republican Party will choose a moderate, able, winning candidate in 1968." Despite all of Rocky's disclaimers, some Republicans thought that rather than prescribing for Romney, he was describing Nelson Rockefeller.

* An AP poll of delegates and alternates to the 1964 Republican convention showed last week that Nixon would be the 1968 pref erence of 46%, followed by Rockefeller (20%), Reagan (19%) and Romney (7%).

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