Fight Talk

In his long, carefully planned, win-or-else run for the White House, Massachusetts' Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy has worked tirelessly at establishing an image as a strong, tough candidate for the Democratic nomination who would be a strong, tough campaigner in the general election. Last week, speaking in Washington to the National Press Club, Kennedy applied an even higher polish to that image, made a major bid for recognition as one who, if elected, would be a strong, tough President.

His famed forelock trimmed and brushed back in a styling that made him look somewhat more mature, 42-year-old Jack Kennedy recalled strong and weak Presidents of the past, said that "the American people in 1960 have an imperative right to know what any man bidding for the presidency thinks about the place he is bidding for--whether he is aware of and willing to use the powerful resources of that office."

One Concept. "Of course," said Kennedy, "it is important to elect a good man with good intentions--but Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding were both good men of good intentions--so were Lincoln and Buchanan--but there is a Lincoln Room in the White House, and no Buchanan Room."

Since 1952, Kennedy continued, the U.S. has "seen one concept of the presidency at work. Our needs and hopes have been eloquently stated--but the initiative and follow-through have too often been left to others." He suggested that "the American people in 1952 and 1956 may well have preferred this detached, limited concept of the presidency after 20 years of fast-moving, creative presidential rule."

But no more. The times and the people "demand a vigorous proponent of the national interest--not a passive broker for conflicting private interests. They demand a man capable of acting as the Commander-in-Chief of the grand alliance, not merely a bookkeeper who feels that his work is done when the numbers on the balance sheet come out even. They demand that he be the head of a responsible party, not rise so far above politics as to be invisible."

One Drawback. In the "challenging, revolutionary '60s," said Kennedy, "the presidency will demand more than ringing manifestoes issued from the rear of the battle. It will demand that the President place himself in the very thick of the fight, that he care passionately about the fate of the people . . . that he be willing to serve them at the risk of incurring their momentary displeasure. [He] must above all be the Chief Executive in every sense of the word. He must be prepared to exercise the fullest powers of his office--all that are specified and some that are not."

Fielding post-speech questions from the floor, Kennedy was asked if Republican Richard Nixon did not live up to the specifications Kennedy had just advanced. "Nixon," said Kennedy, "is a fighter--but I didn't have him in mind when I drew the image."

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