WASHINGTON REPORT: The Shadow of '76

...That's to us as it would be to you if a President Humphrey, in a situation similar to Ford's, selected George Wallace for Vice President...

...But if the Democrats nominate Humphrey and the Republicans dump Ford for Reagan, there'd be a campaign in 1976(1964...

...Undoubtedly, brother David, president of Chase Manhattan Bank, a powerful multinational financial institution, was not discouraging brother Nelson from "going public" on the issue...

...However, Democrats with their wits about them are beginning to think that, unlike in 1972, their party next year will nominate a presidential candidate whose support includes those with diverse political tendencies...

...Politically, the President, already a formally announced candidate, appears to be running currently against New York City, which is staggering on the edge of financial skid-row-municipal bankruptcy...

...Visitors to this Federal City are reporting that, of all the meritorious candidates - declared and undeclared - Humphrey is usually the one most favorably remembered by local Democrats after he leaves towns and cities where he and other aspirants have recently spoken...

...It's as if he's not being taken seriously, even When he's being shot at...

...Issues, anyone...

...He trips going up and down portable stairways brought to his official airplane...

...SISYPHUS...

...Such was the pressure for some assistance from a hitherto balky Congress which, however, may be persuaded to favor aid in terms, not of a specific city's plight, New York's, but as a first step toward compelling governments-federal, state and local-to revise unproductive ways they now tax, plan and finance, establish and operate programs...

...The most optimistic Democrats are suggesting the President's economic recovery policy is one of "let 'em eat cake...

...Rockefeller said financial default by the City would be a "catastrophe" with serious consequences for other cities and states, including Illinois, where financial alarums are being sounded...

...First of all, he's giving an impression to watching Americans that he's "snake-bit...

...As the 1976 presidential-election year approaches, the antipathy for Rockefeller among important segments of the Republican party becomes more visible and impressive...

...Humphrey's characteristically well-hewn advocacy helped reinforce predictions (or suspicions) that he was in training once again for the Big Apple...

...These activities are providing backstairs gossip for supporters of Ronald Reagan, who is now gesturing visibly and more frequently in expressions of his desire to contest Ford for the Republican party nomination at its convention next August in Kansas City...

...The President was publicly portraying New York City as profligate in its ways -including its financing of the municipal education system, primary through college, and welfare programs...

...Of course, no one's nomination as the Democratic candidate is assured at this point...

...Plus ga change . . . sauve qui peut...

...Nelson R's prominence on behalf of aid to New York City reinforces a political problem for President Ford...

...As a result, President Ford, his kitchen cabinet is suggesting, would enhance his chances appreciably by "dumping" Rockefeller in some fashion or other...

...Secretary of the Treasury Simon has recommended a hands-off policy by the President, advice that was being adhered to as of late last month...

...The City, like all profligates, should take the cold-turkey treatment-presumably, although the President didn't specify, at the former Earle Hotel in the Village, now housing welfare recipients, rather than at the Carlyle or the Plaza...

...A car he was riding in was struck during a visit to Hartford by a car containing teen-agers with empty beer cans strewn on the floor...

...Therefore, they reason, the Democrats next year could nominate the "Boston Strangler" and he would defeat the Republican candidate, still expected to be the sitting, but non-elected President, Gerald Ford...

...The President's major proposals seem to get a brush-off after a day or two coverage in the press, the most recent example being his proposal for nearly $30-billion dollars in tax cuts in exchange for a corresponding reduction in the federal budget...

...Reagan (Goldwater...

...Nevertheless, such a condition is recognized in political folklore...

...However, the President is increasingly plagued both within and without his own political party...

...That's not a. precise or scholarly diagnosis...

...A sensible Tory Senator told a liberal Democratic Senator the other day: "You don't know how much we dislike Rockefeller, and Ford's nominating him for Vice President is close to an unforgivable political act...

...Nor is President Ford's in the Republican party, although logic and experience suggest he should have an advantage against challengers...

...Evidence that Rockefeller is a proven interventionist in foreign affairs and a proven domestic conservative- at least, in election years-fails to persuade this Republican senator and those with similar views that they have more, not less, in common with Vice President Rockefeller...

...If not directly expressing a preference for another person, then, perhaps by declaring the vice-presidential nomination will be one for Republican delegates at the national convention next summer to determine...

...Humphrey (Johnson) vs...

...And the Senate Banking Committee, which has prepared a draft bail-out bill for the City, even held a public hearing on a Saturday during the October recess...

...This point-of-view more often than not focuses on Senator Humphrey, many of whose opponents in the party in both the 1968 and the 1972 presidential-election years appear to have forgiven, if not forgotten, his disputed foreign-policy positions of those times...

...The Middle East, of course, is the one most prominent in the American consciousness at this time...

...His ardent and successful arguments a month ago in the Senate on behalf of the "Sinai Accords," including one specifically requiring congressional permission before American technicians could be sent there as monitors of an Egyptian-Israeli territorial withdrawal agreement, were based in general on a plea to give a president and his agents "wiggle room" within which to negotiate settlements of delicate and/or inflamed conflicts...

...His family's proclaimed tolerance for, or participation in, certain personal activities, is distressing numerous Americans living west of the Potomac River...

...Last month, the Vice President, likewise non-elected, publicly began to dispute the President...

...Two women have unsuccessfully tried to assassinate him during appearances in California...

...He spoke in the manner of a president rather than his actual position-a member of the Senate to which the Constitution assigns a major role in the direction foreign policy should take...