A Four-Way Race?
SANDOZ, ROBERT
The Four-Way Race? By Robert Sandoz The current consensus in Washington* is that never has there been such a collection of ragamuffins, hypocrites, knaves and fools as the men aspiring to the...
...And more important, who best represents the country...
...A ticket comprised of these two men is impractical, improbable, and perhaps impossible—but fourth-party politicians are able to argue that it would attract millions who are concerned about the war, millions who are concerned about the cities, and 90 per cent of America's youth...
...Examples: ". . . but he hasn't said * A handful of reporters, two bartenders, one landlady, and some friends from out of town...
...The complaints about Nixon almost qualify for a place in the Smithsonian, they have been around so long...
...so it can be said without irony that Nixon and the gop deserve each other...
...but then so much that has already happened this year would have been hard to imagine...
...To have wide popular appeal is to be out of touch with minorities...
...To varying degrees, each man called for change, and the voters responded favorably...
...It would endanger his chances of receiving a Republican Presidential nomination in '72 or '76, but unless the make-up of the gop alters dramatically by then, his chances are not good anyway...
...To be vigorous is to be insensitive...
...Such an alternative may never surface, but many thoughtful people here and in New York are beginning to seriously weigh the possibilities...
...Such an ending to this turbulent political year would require large doses of courage, conviction, sacrifice, work, persistence—and something of a mircale...
...McCarthy is best known for his foreign policy stands, Lindsay for his domestic expertise...
...McCarthy is a legislator, Lindsay an administrator...
...Given the choice, however, it is probable that millions would prefer to vote for someone other than Humphrey, Nixon or Wallace...
...In the likely event of a Humphrey-Nixon race, to whom will these voters turn...
...He approaches the problems of '68 the same way he approached the problems of '60...
...But it is worth remembering that pluralities in less than 15 selected states can provide the electoral votes needed to elect a President...
...McCarthy now is taken slightly more seriously as a potential spoiler, yet still is not taken at all seriously as a potential President...
...Cuddling up to Reagan is considered worse...
...On the basis of 10 consecutive primaries where they captured 77 percent of the votes, it would appear that Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy spoke for a substantial majority of Democrats...
...His Bobby bit is considered tasteless...
...To be thoughtful is to be passive...
...The seeming public-private ambivalence of Humphrey's and Nixon's Vietnam positions is not the only thing turning people off...
...In Nixon's defense, it should be recorded that Republicans across the country have indicated that he is the man they want as their Presidential nominee—a blessing that rank-and-file Democrats have not even begun to bestow upon Hubert Humphrey...
...True, McCarthy no longer enchants everyone, and there are any number of inside dopesters ready to declare that Lindsay lacks "depth...
...This was one of the arguments put forth two weeks ago at the Chicago meeting of the Coalition for an Open Convention, where several hundred participants announced they would begin setting up the machinery for a fourth party...
...McCarthy is from a rural Midwestern state, Lindsay from an urban Eastern state...
...The all-purpose line about McCarthy is, "Gene has performed a real service to the country, but...
...For public consumption, however, Nixon discusses the war in terms that would appall a Mark Hatfield who had not had the benefit of a private audience with the former Vice President...
...If an independent McCarthy-Lindsay (Lindsay-McCarthy) ticket is ever to get beyond the summer pipedream stage, of course, someone is going to have to begin planning for it now...
...The students who worked for McCarthy in New Hampshire, the Negroes in Watts who voted for Bob Kennedy in such overwhelming numbers, and the plurality of Americans whom the polls show favoring Senator McCarthy for President—what will all these people do...
...In some of these states—New York and California, for instance—a McCarthy-Lindsay ticket would have at least an even chance...
...Indecision is said to be his thing...
...He is the leader probably most representative of his party...
...By Robert Sandoz The current consensus in Washington* is that never has there been such a collection of ragamuffins, hypocrites, knaves and fools as the men aspiring to the White House this year...
...In addition, of course, they would enjoy party balance...
...Every day in every way, apparently, their inadequacies come more clearly into focus...
...Neither man, though, has shied away from hazardous courses in the past: Lindsay's race for Mayor of New York and McCarthy's for President were not the acts of timid men...
...Actually, it is doubtful that by running with McCarthy, even as a Vice Presidential nominee, Lindsay would seriously damage his political career in New York City or in New York State...
...A four-way race could sharply divide the country, throwing the election into the House of Representatives, where either Humphrey or Nixon would probably win?which is where we are now...
...We were right in fighting Hitler...
...He can't win...
...We are equally right in fighting the Communists...
...Fill in your own ending...
...Who knows...
...We have to stop it with victory, or it will start all over again in a few years...
...And on and on...
...Or, it is just possible that a race including an attractive peace coalition could draw the country together...
...There is no alternative to the war's going on," says Nixon in the July issue of Good Housekeeping...
...He is on all sides of all issues...
...But the Democratic convention doesn't end until August 30, leaving almost no time at all to organize a national campaign from scratch...
...The best that can be said for either of them is what each reportedly is saying in private...
...Humphrey is a renowned verbal acrobat, but he obviously is going to have to improve his act before more people will buy it...
...Yet today, these voters are faced with the prospect of choosing in November between Humphrey—a symbol not of change but of continuity—and Nixon, whose changes could well be in very different directions than those discussed by McCarthy and Kennedy...
...What he has told the rest of the country is that he has "supported this policy enthusiastically," and that he has "no conflict of conscience" about having done so...
...McCarthy is a Catholic, Lindsay a Protestant...
...To temporarily leave his party to embark on such a venture would require a major risk in each man's political career...
...One is Eugene McCarthy, the other is John Lindsay...
...It is possible that many will end up voting for Humphrey...
...He has no gut feelings about anything...
...A McCarthy-Lindsay combination achieves most of the standard balances sought in a national ticket: at 52 (McCarthy) and 46 (Lindsay), they are just the right ages...
...So far, Nixon has successfully beaten back challenges from both Left and Right...
...Nixon and Humphrey, they were contemptuously dismissed some time ago...
...Roger Kingsbury has dealt with the Vice President's problems on the preceding pages...
...But who best represents the Democratic party...
...Humphrey may be a dove, but the only person he seems to have told about it is Bill Moyers...
...Those two states alone account for more than a quarter of the 270 electoral votes required to win...
...He has talked of the intricate relationships between teams and their captains, conductors and their music, fathers and their sons...
...Also, there is increasing talk here of a Humphrey-Sargent Shriver ticket, which would be an attractive one indeed...
...To be experienced is to be out of date...
...Humphrey has tried to escape this squeeze by going on a dazzling metaphorical binge...
...Take Rockefeller...
...What would happen in November if McCarthy and Lindsay were contesting for national offices...
...But if it came to pass, it wouldn't be the first time in 1968 that these ingredients had all come together...
...Nixon is made of cardboard...
...It is enough to repeat briefly here that Humphrey is caught in an awkward bind between his boisterous advocacy of the Administration and the nation's antipathy toward the Administration...
...Rumors persist that he will emerge as very much "his own man" (especially on Vietnam) once he has been nominated...
...anything new since December," or ". .. but he is too cool—no passion," or ". . . but this Paris trip raises serious questions about his judgment...
...There are two political figures in the country today, one from each party, who seem able to elicit a special response from a great many of those citizens who are exposed to them...
...If the two men ever became faintly receptive to the idea, the order of the ticket would present an initial dilemma...
...Even McCarthy is beginning to take his lumps now...
...If he couldn't make up his mind whether or not to run, what's he going to do when the Ruskies start zapping us with icbms...
...The way it all comes out, the only man in the country qualified to be President may be George Plimpton...
...Obviously, neither McCarthy nor Lindsay can be expected to actively entertain the idea until the national conventions are over...
...Still, there are less complaints in circulation about this pair than any other that might be on the ballot next fall...
...Similarly, Nixon so convincingly whispered sweet somethings to Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon that Hatfield, a prominent Republican dove, enthusiastically endorsed Nixon as "the man who can lead us out of Vietnam...
...As for the two leading candidates...
...Now he is cooing about Vietnam, but where was he last year, and the year before that...
...It is hard to imagine that McCarthy would settle for the second spot, since he is the man most responsible for making an independent ticket even conceivable...
Vol. 51 • July 1968 • No. 14
