Muskie: Maintaining Momentum

En route from New Hampshire to Florida, Senator Edmund Muskie relaxed, lighted up one of the three cigars that he permits himself a day, and discussed his views on the upcoming presidential campaign with TIME Correspondent Dean Fischer:

How do you feel about the announcement of your candidacy?

I think it was a little stiff and stern; yet it is difficult to work in a change of pace in an eight-minute speech. You can't very well start with jokes and in eight minutes get into a serious subject. But with respect to the basic question of what an announcement speech of this kind should be, the announcement was what I wanted it to be. I felt it should be a clear signal of where my priorities lie, where my commitment is, and of my determination to pursue it. In this sense, I wanted it to be a tough speech, since this would be for some time to come the only national audience I would have.

How important to your candidacy are the first eight primaries?

I don't think I need to get eight successive victories. That's almost an impossible requirement to meet. In New Hampshire, it's clear that I have to win. Wisconsin is a very important test, as it's always been, and since George McGovern ties his prospects pretty heavily to the results there, and since Hubert Humphrey can't avoid having his prospects pretty heavily tied to the results there, Wisconsin can be a very important primary--in many ways the most significant primary up to that point in the sense that it's likely to be more crucial for more of the major candidates than some of the other primaries.

Is Humphrey your chief competition for the nomination?

That's hard to say. Obviously he has great strength, and the polls show that, Ted Kennedy aside, he is standing higher than anyone else. Of course, Hubert has a great many friends across the country built up over a quarter-century of national activity, especially in labor unions and the black community. I regard him as a friend, and I've been committed to him in the past. But I don't know how he will stand up in the polls and in the face of this persistent feeling that his time is past.

What role will independents play in this year's presidential election?

I suppose I've been particularly sensitive to the independent vote because in order to build a constituency in Maine I had to turn very heavily to them. As long as 17 years ago, as many as 25% of the votes were cast by independents in Maine. I don't know that there will be any great jump in the magnitude of independent voters. I don't know if it's possible to measure any great jump in the proportion of people who focus primarily on the issues. Whether or not they'll become a majority--well, I doubt very much if we've reached that point in 1972. But I do think they're likely to be the balance of power in this election.

Will Viet Nam be a major issue?

I don't know that people want to hear it discussed at great length so much, but they want to know where a candidate stands and how he disagrees with our present policy. But it's in the background of their feelings about this Administration, about our country and its values. It's an issue involving public attitudes and will be until we're out of it.

How does it feel to be rated the underdog in a race with Richard Nixon?

I think that's to be expected.

After all, the President has taken all those initiatives. But his own standing in the polls is below 50%. At a time when my visibility was low, when I had no chance to take similar spectacular initiatives, when I was carefully building an organization, traveling around the country preparing--with all that, and with sharp contrast in exposure besides--he's still only four points ahead of me in one poll [the Harris survey, with George Wallace as a third candidate]. One thing I've learned this past year is that you don't want to tie yourself to the polls so closely that you feel you have to be on top every day. You just can't. The important thing is to maintain your own timing, pace and momentum. You just can't do it on a day-to-day basis. If you try to create an impression of frenetic activity, shrillness, reaching and grabbing for headlines because that's the only way you can get them, that's just contrary to the image the public is looking for.

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