The Candidate

Lest anyone misunderstand the purpose of a lot of talking and traveling that he will be doing between now and Nov. 6, Candidate Dwight Eisenhower took an opportunity to set the matter straight in his own plain language. Speaking last week before a crowd of 50,000 in Cleveland's public square, he took one look at the accomplishments of his Administration, another at what remains to be done in Washington, and amiably confessed he "sincerely and devotedly" wants to "continue the job." In order to do so, he needed something from his audience: "Your help."

In addition to making his frankest re-election appeal to date, Ike used his Cleveland talk to rip into Adlai Stevenson. Without mentioning Stevenson by name, he struck at "politicians . . . who go about the country expressing . . . their worries about America and the American people," suggested that such "worrywarts" should "forget themselves for a while" and "get out and mingle with the people." If they did, he was sure "their worries would begin to sound foolish--even to them." Troubled with an ailing public-address system, Ike evoked only mild enthusiasm from his Cleveland audience.

Leaving his special campaign train to travel to Kentucky by air, Ike continued his attack that night from Lexington. Seventeen thousand University of Kentucky students and Lexington townspeople interrupted him time and time again with short, hard bursts of applause as he belted away at "the opposition." Wherever and however he has served his country, he said, he has never found the choice between "going forward or going backward" difficult. Yet, in 1956, "a lot of politicians" are doing their best to make such a choice look "extremely hard." Then, scornfully, he wondered if such action could be attributed to "people who suffer from living in a world of words and phrases for so long that they can no longer recognize action when they see it. And when it comes to a really critical matter like political leadership, we recall a fact that all of us have seen in our daily lives: the longest lectures almost always come from those with least experience."

Ike's final public appearance of the week was billed by the White House as "nonpolitical"; as things turned out, he could hardly have appeared in a more favorable light than before the 34,479 jammed into Brooklyn's Ebbets Field for the first game of the World Series. With baseball-wise enthusiasm Ike helped root the Dodgers home to a 6-3 victory over the New York Yankees. As he left the park, the friendly crowd reciprocated with roars of applause.

It was a satisfying political week for Candidate Eisenhower, a man who likes his job and frankly wants to keep it.

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