Willkie and 1944

Wendell Willkie is gaining popularity for the 1944 Republican Presidential nomination. This was the big subsurface political news noted last week by observers whose ears are well grounded. The trend may not be immediately apparent on the normal political barometers (the latest Gallup poll still had Willkie a firm second to New York's Thomas E. Dewey), but political wiseacres, taking the pulse of the people, were sure. Travelers who talked politics up & down the Midwest were especially struck by the resurgence of Willkie talk. One such was the New York Times's Turner Catledge, who was surprised to find that Willkie could apparently have Indiana's favorite-son nomination any time he wanted it (TIME, Feb. 22).

A significant corollary was Willkie's new success with the professionals; the man who knew few Republican bigwigs in 1940 is now nearly ready to firstname most G.O.P. ward heelers. For Wendell Willkie--though the fact is not yet realized--is no longer the great amateur of U.S. politics. His correspondence, much of it with "practical" GOPoliticians, is still enormous (2,500 letters a week). In the last six months he has visited 16 States, meeting State and city Republican leaders wherever he went, shaking their hands, inviting them to talk frankly, bluntly. He says to them, in effect: I know you think I'm a so-and-so; get it off your chest and let's argue about it. Then he tells them why he believes the Republican Party must take the lead in proposing a workable world order and a liberal domestic policy.

Zealous Willkie backers assume that Franklin Roosevelt will run for a fourth term. Their argument in favor of Willkie: any Republican can beat Franklin Roosevelt on domestic issues; Willkie is the only one who can successfully challenge the President on foreign policy.

Skirmish. As yet, Wendell Willkie has not formally jumped into the 1944 race. He came closest last week, announcing that he would certainly enter the Illinois Presidential primary if Chicago Tribune Publisher Robert Rutherford McCormick is also a candidate. (Colonel McCormick had been proposed for the nomination by a Chicago isolationist group.)

Next day, Colonel McCormick, wearing hunting boots, an old cap and a rumpled brown suit which he said he had not changed in ten days, flew into Manhattan from a Canadian inspection trip. To newsmen at LaGuardia Airport, he snorted: "Willkie? I don't believe that foreigner can carry Illinois.... Why, they think he's nuts out there. ... He just coupled his name with mine to get it in the papers."

Replied Wendell Willkie: "Just say that Mr. Willkie had a good laugh."

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