Answers & Questions

The differences, little and big, that the dignity of the most important political office in the world brings were evident on the morning after Jack Kennedy won his election. At 10 a.m. Kennedy walked the 100 yds. or so from his Hyannisport house to Brother Bobby's for a staff meeting. When he entered the living room, all present rose--the first time they had ever done so for their boss. They were all old friends and hardly roistering ones, but the occasion was reminiscent of young Prince Hal, becoming King Henry V and having to abandon his old carefree intimacy with Falstaff.

Flopping down on a green sofa, Kennedy sorted out a clutch of papers--a memo from the Brookings Institution on transition of Government responsibility, details on job requirements supplied by Aide Clark Clifford, who had been working with Brookings for many weeks. "Well," said Jack Kennedy, riffling through the sheaf, "what do we have to do?" He glanced up at Ted Sorensen, his No. 1 assistant. "Ted,'' said Kennedy, "I want you to be my special counsel." He named his dogged, cigar-chomping campaign press aide, Pierre Salinger, as press secretary; Clifford as special liaison man to the White House for the transition period; Campaign Schedule Coordinator Ken O'Donnell as special assistant.

What's in a Name? As Kennedy and his men discussed jobs and appointments, he put through a call to Washington that got his Administration off to a popular start. He asked Central Intelligence Director Allen Dulles and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover to stay in their jobs. The two, who had worked in Government through at least three Administrations, readily agreed.

While the meeting proceeded, newsmen crowded into the Hyannis National Guard Armory for Kennedy's first full-fledged press conference, agreed to follow general ground rules of the Eisenhower Administration (no reporters may phone, type or leave the room till the conference is done), then haggled for a while over what to call Kennedy. Earlier in the campaign they had shifted from Jack to Senator. Now "Mr. President-elect" sounded too clumsy; "Mr. President" would not be fitting till Jan. 20, 1961. Later, Kennedy himself cleared it up, asked that he be called "Senator--a mighty good title," though the press conference ended with a called-out "Thank you, Mr. President" anyway.

At the press conference, Kennedy:

P: Said he had asked James Landis, 61, onetime Harvard Law School dean and longtime New Dealer, to provide him with a study of federal regulatory agencies--an appointment that caused some stir because Manhattan Lawyer Landis has cases pending before at least two federal agencies (see BUSINESS).

P: Announced his reply to a telegram from President Eisenhower, who had invited Kennedy and his aides to meet with him and White House officers to discuss transition problems. Kennedy answered with a telegram: I LOOK FORWARD TO MEETING YOU AND AGAIN EXPRESS MY APPRECIATION FOR YOUR COOPERATION. (Earlier, Kennedy had wired Ike: THE WHOLE COUNTRY IS HOPEFUL THAT YOUR LONG EXPERIENCE IN THE SERVICE OF YOUR COUNTRY CAN BE DRAWN UPON FURTHER IN THE YEARS TO COME.) Probable meeting date: right after Thanksgiving.

P: Denied that he had ever had Addison's disease and declared that his health is "very good."

P: Professed no knowledge of any future role that Brothers Bobby and Ted might play in his Administration. "I have not discussed it with either one of them." (Campaign Manager Bobby Kennedy has already intimated that he would not accept a White House job.)

Despite the narrow margin in the popular vote ("I didn't know it was going to be quite that close"), his election, he said, was a "victory for the Democrats," and he feels in no way inhibited from pressing forward with his program. "I have been elected, and therefore I'm going to do my best to implement [my] views and meet my responsibilities . . . The margin is narrow, but the responsibility is clear." Neither Nixon, nor President Eisenhower, nor the Republican Party, he said, should feel repudiated by the election. "An alternative course, an alternative group, an alternative philosophy and an alternative party was selected, but . . . I certainly would not use the word 'repudiation' of the Republicans."

Precious Little Room. The press conference answers were a fine example of Kennedy style--the short, sharp sentences competently phrased and coolly delivered. But they gave few answers to the real questions that intrigue many a Republican and Democrat alike about the Kennedy Administration. Will he be as liberal with big-spending programs as his campaigning implied? He could, without much difficulty, push through Congress a bill for old-age medical care that would be financed by increased Social Security deductions. But if he was to stick by his promises of price stability, no new taxes and a balanced budget, and also stick by his promise of bigger defense spending, he would have little room for maneuver and little money to spare on social programs.

There were some who thought Jack Kennedy's liberalism merely a campaign gambit and predicted he would quickly revert to his own conservative interests and the influence of his right-wing father, Millionaire Joe Kennedy (who last week came forward out of the dark for the first time in the entire campaign to pose for photographers with his son). But that was not the way Kennedy was now talking. There was another question frequently asked. Could an ex-Senator who was only a middling success in Congress, backed up by only half the voters in the U.S., get substantial programs through the increasingly powerful Republican-Democratic conservative coalitions in the House and Senate--even with the adroit aid of Vice President Lyndon Johnson? Did he have the power and the push to cut through bureaucratic inertia and put into effect new courses in national defense or in foreign policy?

The same questions undoubtedly occurred to President-elect John F. Kennedy as he climbed aboard the family Convair and flew south to his father's home at Palm Beach, Fla. for a rest and a thinking ahead of the next step in a fast, fast, fast career.

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