Pursuing the Forgotten American

...Cynics believe the President was really dooming Knowles then and there, knowing full well that without his backing the appointment would be most certainly blocked by conservatives...

...It now turns out that he is a determined conservationist, after all...

...There is simply no joy, no heady idealism, no crusading spirit on the part of these Republicans who were out in the cold for so long...

...His most crushing burden continues to be Vietnam, and there is little hope for progress in any area until this war is ended...

...In essence, he was saying that he did not want to be bothered by intermural politics...

...The case of Doctor John Knowles, of course, is exhibit A in the government's inept handling of political matters...

...But there remains a gnawing doubt whether Nixon is a true believer in the political axiom of the '50s which baldly asserted that the party which keeps the peace keeps the White House...

...It is almost as if the President has decided to give up on the Democratic-controlled Congress without trying...

...The President's personality tends to reinforce the ideological opposition of his bitter opponents, but it is also a measure of the quality of his Administration that his personality has crystallized much more than his political philosophy or strategy...

...But Nixon's track record to date indicates he is an easily winded runner who carefully chooses how he will expend his limited energy...

...Even more important, perhaps, is the mood here as the President returns from the West Coast...

...Nixon is not a racist, but merely a Republican politician of the most traditional sort, trapped by his electoral constituency—white, middle class, veering to the Right—and confronting his greatest internal challenge from a black opposition that is well to the Left...

...In sum, Nixon's most urgent task may be to discover why he wanted to be Chief Executive...

...of the complex social issues which rain controversies on his head...

...The man really is clutzy and cornball, enjoys Boy Scouts, Billy Graham and Monta-vani on the hi-fi...

...Even before Vietnam is solved, the Administration faces its first major domestic problem—managing the economy...

...WASHINGTONU.S.APursuing the Forgotten American By Roger Kingsbury Washington The image of Richard Nixon the White House tries hardest to put across is that of a precise, efficient and careful administrator...

...Clearly, he has only the vaguest idea of what the black revolution is all about...

...Lyndon Johnson reportedly left office deeply disturbed by the conviction—hardened after two long meetings with his successor—that Richard Nixon did not have any clear notion of what he aimed to do with the Presidency...

...And so on...

...John Mitchell, the grim-visaged Attorney General, appears to lack the slightest understanding Roger Kingsbury regularly reports on the Washington political scene...

...He gave every appearance of a successful candidate slightly bewildered by what is the seeming continuation of the enough, given the burdens of the election...

...Then, too, there are numerous encouraging signs that the time is ripe for a series of important agreements with the Soviets, who seem to be increasingly concerned with the threat posed by the Red Chinese and correspondingly anxious to mend their fences with the West...

...The black community understands this fact...

...Winston Blount, the Postmaster General, is widely regarded as the worst politician in Washington...

...Meanwhile, the President continues his relentless pursuit of the Forgotten American by munching hot dogs at ballgames, spouting batting averages and Reader's Digest verities on most public occasions and, in short, carefully measuring himself against the image of an Omaha Rotarian...

...Premature judgments are dangerous, to say the least...

...Of course, Nixon has not exactly swamped the Hill with legislation, but even on such crucial issues as the recent surcharge extension, the vacuum of leadership was evident...

...Is a recession in the offing next winter...

...This may have been true before America went to war with itself, but it certainly seems less true today...

...Simply put, the new Administration still has not gotten a grip on itself, or demonstrated that it is doing much more than reacting to the daily headlines in the New York Times...

...But what still worries a growing number of observers today is the seeming continuation of the befuddlement...

...It was a naive, politically amateurish performance, and only Mike Mansfield's practiced statesmanship saved Nixon from losing altogether...

...Millions still believe the old cliche that Democrats get us into wars and Republicans onto breadlines...

...Instead, one finds an ambience reminiscent of Johnson's last years: a grim determination to hold on, not to rock the boat, or stir up any steamy controversies...

...Any or all of these men could soon make their critics eat crow...

...And it is interesting to note that when the Administration finally did intervene in the Senatorial surtax debate, by rejecting Republican Minority Leader Everett Dirksen's proposed compromise with Mike Mansfield for a five-month extension, it did so on a most unrealistic basis—attempting to challenge head-on the Majority Leader who, at the time, held every trump card...

...For there is every reason to believe that the blacks will use the weapon of violence against Nixon if he continues to short-shrift them in the post-Vietnam period...

...Nixon's success or failure in whittling down inflation without causing a big jump in unemployment may well prove to be a crucial test of his chances for reelection...

...He seems preoccupied with Vietnam and other foreign policy matters and content to leave our own vastly troubled continent in the hands of his subordinates...

...The whole affair would simply never have occurred if the situation had been in sure and steady hands...

...In fact, it is entirely possible that Nixon may end his four years in office by winning a peace virtually everywhere but at home...

...Seven months of experience notwithstanding, it seems as flaccid and inept as anything a Dwight Eisenhower could invent...

...But the early evidence is far from encouraging...

...Unless Nixon finds a way to minister the needs of the blacks, his white followers could defect to someone who is even tougher on the race matter...

...Only Walter Hickel at Interior has been a pleasant surprise...

...On this matter, one can defend Nixon at least to a point...

...With the exception of the abm issue, Administration lobbying has been almost nonexistent...

...But after the war, their expectations are bound to rise and Nixon will have to meet these hopes somehow—despite the Administration's insistence that the end of the fighting will not really free Federal funds for the home front...

...Perhaps so...

...mystified Democrats and Republicans agree that the Presidential Congressional liaison staff, so evident during the Kennedy and Johnson years, now exists largely in the nominal White House table of organization...

...Only then can he provide the leadership that radiates from the office he worked so long to win...

...For all of Nixon's heady salesmanship to the nation, his Cabinet is thus far undistinguished: William Rogers at State is off to a very disappointing start...

...David Kennedy, the Secretary of the Treasury, specializes in gaffes...

...the jury is still out on Melvin Laird of Defense, but there is growing evidence that the Joint Chiefs are enjoying him for breakfast...

...Congress has been pretty well left to its own devices...

...Theodore White's latest election year opus quotes Nixon to the effect that a President is important only for foreign policy and that domestic problems have less of a call on his energies...

...One can accept Finch's public explanation that Nixon was willing to nominate the controversial hospital administrator as Undersecretary of Health if Dirk-sen and the American Medical Association went along...

...What will be done about inflation...

...Before the announcement of his welfare reform proposals, the President's alienation of the alienated seemed almost purposeful...

...At the moment, there is a real shortage of Federal cash available for domestic purposes because of the war...

...Without doubt, that much-flaunted Republican efficiency has yet to work its way into the fibers of his government...

...Robert Finch of Health, Education and Welfare, the most promising choice, still has to prove his ability to outflank Nixon's conservative palace guard...

...Nixon may sit in solitude surrounded by yellow legal pads, carefully weighing his options with the cold logic and exactness of a high-priced New York lawyer, but his executive talents are open to question...