How They're Running

In his drive for next year's Repub lican presidential nomination, Barry Goldwater has been badly bothered by the widespread report (true) that Senior Republican Dwight Eisenhower was mad at him, and the notion (un true) that Ike would actively oppose his candidacy.

Eisenhower certainly was annoyed with Barry -- mostly because of that famed Goldwater crack that "one Eisenhower in a decade is enough." But Goldwater has recently gone to great lengths to try to explain to Ike that the remark was quoted out of context, that he had meant no slur at all. Eisenhower seemed mollified.

Still, he let it be publicly known that he did not think that Barry had sufficiently explained his views on a great number of national issues. But Goldwater recently dropped in on Ike at Gettysburg, and last week the two agreed that they had agreed about one obvious thing: when any Republican--including Barry--officially announces his presidential candidacy, there will be time enough for him to start elucidating his ideas in depth.

The Useful Part. That agreement was prelude to a kind of Eisenhower-Goldwater confrontation last week in Washington's Sheraton-Park Hotel. The occasion was in honor of Ike's 73rd birthday, and some 750 top Republicans gathered. During the reception before the banquet, Barry and Ike mingled with the mob--but never quite came face to face. When Ike and Mamie walked into the banquet hall, Goldwater applauded enthusiastically. After the dinner, Eisenhower and Goldwater finally did get together, chatted briefly, but to eavesdropping ears, what they said to each other did not seem to matter greatly.

What did matter was Ike's speech, in which he made it clear that he would wholeheartedly support Goldwater if Barry were to get the 1964 Republican nomination. "I know of no Republican presidential candidate on the horizon whom I could not support at present," he said. "No matter whom the convention nominates, that man can be sure of my fervent support." He did, however, utter an implicit warning against Goldwater's becoming too closely associated with the wayway right. Said Eisenhower: "I despise all adjectives that try to describe people as liberal or conservative, rightist or leftist, as long as they stay in the useful part of the road." Even more, he said, he despises the people who "go to the gutter on either the right or the left, and hurl rocks at those in the center."

Decorum & Dignity. The birthday party also turned out to be a free-swinging attack on Jack Kennedy, his Administration, his family, his cronies and his family's cronies. G.O.P. National Chairman William Miller was the chief swinger. "Do you recall," he cried, "Sinatra types infesting 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the Eisenhower days? Or twisting in the historic East ballroom? Or wild swimming-pool antics shocking to all the country? Or all-night parties in foreign lands? No, you do not recall such things, because from 1953 to 1961 there was a sense of propriety and fitness and decorum and dignity which Americans have always expected, and which they received from their First Family . . . Gone are those prideful, confident days when the great leader with us here tonight coolly faced down the Reds at Quemoy, Matsu and in Jordan . . . General Ike, we sure wish you were back running the show."

Later in the week, Barry carried the attack into Kennedy's own Boston backyard. Speaking to a Republican dinner, he said: "Even the liberals have to recognize that what we have now in Washington is a would-be king and a want-to-be dynasty, not a President and a party." Blasting Kennedy for failure to exploit the "great cracks" that have appeared "across the entire slave empire of the Communist tyrants," he ad-libbed: "I'm beginning to wonder about this man who just three years ago downgraded the idea that we could achieve peace through visits and talks and goodwill missions, and who is engaged almost around the clock with visits and talks and good will missions . . . We have peace only because General Eisenhower and John Foster Dulles had the guts to proclaim brinkmanship."

Harder Fight. Meanwhile, New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller was still pursuing what most G.O.P. politicians considered his forlorn hope for his party's presidential nomination. Invading New Hampshire, where he and Barry will meet head-on in next March's presidential primary (most observers consider Goldwater ahead), Rocky spoke to a Republican rally in Durham. He came within an inch of formally announcing his candidacy--and of admitting that he is in deep trouble. "It is no secret to any of you," he said, "that I am seriously considering running for the presidency. It is no secret either that the polls have me running far behind; but as far as I am concerned, that is irrelevant. You can't stand for principle and run for cover when the going gets a little rough. You just fight a little harder --and that's exactly what I am doing."

So he was, but it all seemed pretty hopeless. Quite a while ago, Rocky asked onetime G.O.P. National Chairman Len Hall to manage his campaign --and got promptly turned down. Then Rocky turned to Connecticut's Meade Alcorn, another former national chairman, and an old Dartmouth classmate. Alcorn waited more than a month to give his answer--which was no. Last week the Rockefeller people said that they were canvassing the Midwest for a campaign manager.

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