Back to the Battle

Favoring his game left knee ever so slightly, Vice President Richard Nixon slipped out of Walter Reed General Hospital a day ahead of schedule last week and back into the heat of the campaign. His doctors pronounced him recovered from the staph infection that had bedded him down for eleven days, yielded to his argument that he deserved a full weekend with his family before this week's 9,000-mile, 14-state foray.

Candidate Nixon put his final week of enforced confinement to good use. He worked on the fine points of strategy and schedules with aides, named some citizens' committees to campaign for the ticket. He made the front pages with a proposal that the U.S. finance several new institutes to pursue basic scientific research. Most of all, the Vice President used the time to gather some much-needed new material for his speeches, as he had last July when he entered solitary confinement for one week to frame his successful Chicago acceptance speech.

While the past fortnight gave Jack Kennedy an advantage in being able to campaign without competition, it also gave Nixon the advantage of being able to store up some rest and collect his thoughts--an advantage that a sometimes hoarse and weary Jack Kennedy might well eye with envy.

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