Who's the Genius?

Well aware that every passing poll and primary attests to Dwight Eisenhower's extraordinary popularity with the voters, reporters at the President's press conference last week were fascinated by his unorthodox reaction to it all. Said the National Broadcasting Co.'s Ray Scherer: "You have generally said that you find yourself amazed that people would take the trouble to vote for you. I wonder if I could presume to ask why you find that such a phenomenon?"

"Well," replied Ike, "suppose they voted for you. Would you be astonished?" Scherer, who obviously was, gasped: "I certainly would." Then Ike took the opportunity to express a bit of homely political philosophy. In the U.S. "we are raised in the tradition of no supermen and no indispensable men, and therefore if you do retain some of the humility and modesty with which you hope you were born, why I believe that when [someone] comes along and says. 'I believe you are doing a pretty fair job as President of the U.S.,' you would be rather astonished."

Sound Instincts. The fact was that many a correspondent in Ike's audience was astonished, not so much by the President's popularity as by the realization that Ike, never a politico, had revealed himself as a man of sound politician's instincts. His veto of the ill-smelling natural gas bill last February and of the farm bill, his utter frankness about his health, and last week his swift appointment of the Senate's most distinguished Democrat, Georgia's retiring Walter George, to a NATO ambassadorship (see below) --all these have turned resoundingly to his political account.

Who. asked Columnist Stewart Alsop this week, as he ticked off Ike's recent political coups, is "the new genius in the White House?" Alsop's answer: "None other than Dwight D. Eisenhower."

Blank Look. Into the rest of his 27-minute conference, Ike jammed an assortment of news. Returning briefly to the problem of U.S. military defenses, he said that it was "absolutely essential" that the nation "take its own particular position in the world" and create a military establishment "suited to its own requirements." He advocated "bona fide" U.S. membership in the U.N.-affiliated International Labor Organization. Turned to partisan politics by a reporter's question, he dismissed, with a shrug and a grimace, a suggestion that the resounding defeat of Governor Allan Shivers in the recent Democratic delegate battles in Texas could be construed as a repudiation of his Administration. Asked for comment on Estes Kefauver's -suggestion that he designate ex-President Harry Truman a sort of ambassador of good will during Truman's European trip, Ike looked blank, said that was one he hadn't heard before.

Also last week, the President:

P:Appointed Vice Admiral Robert P. Briscoe, deputy chief of naval fleet operations, to succeed Admiral William M. Fechteler, due for retirement, as commander in chief of allied forces in Southern Europe, and Vice Admiral William M. Callaghan, commander of Far Eastern naval forces, to replace retiring Vice Admiral Francis S. Low as commander of the Western Sea Frontier.

P:Encouraged Harold E. Stassen, his staff specialist, to keep plugging "patiently and persistently" at the problem of disarmament, in spite of the failure of the recent London talks.

P: Recommended to Congress that General (temp.) Anthony C. ("Nuts") McAuliffe of Bastogne fame, a permanent-rank major general, be retired with the rank of full general.

P:Heard from congressional Republican leaders that Congress may adjourn by July 15, after passing his soil-bank, foreign-aid and highway bills.

P:Took off at week's end to join Mamie and her mother at the Eisenhower Gettysburg farm, where a double celebration--Mother's Day and Mrs. Doud's 78th birthday--was in the offing.

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