Rocky's Return

It was too early to tell whether it was smart strategy, but New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller last week was clearly back in the lists as an active presidential candidate. He had never withdrawn unequivocally, but when he said last month that he preferred not to campaign for the nomination, a lot of people got the impression that he was out of the race for good. In the changed game that ensued after President Johnson's rejection of a second term, Rocky was still playing his hand cagily. Nonetheless, he was unmistakably doing--if not saying--the things Americans traditionally expect from a presidential candidate.

Open Arm-Twisting. He flew down to Atlanta for the funeral of Martin Luther King. When the New York state assembly rejected his cherished $6 billion slum-clearance plan, Rockefeller put on a remarkable display of arm-twisting, forcing 34 legislators to reverse their votes and give him a resounding political victory. In an amazing confession for a politician, Rocky later admitted he had passed out warnings to balky assemblymen that he would withhold such "personal favors" as jobs for their friends and his approval of their pet bills if they refused to cooperate. Said he: "Those guys have never seen this side of me before."

To gear up for the coming campaign, Rockefeller named Emmet John Hughes, 47, former speechwriter for Dwight Eisenhower, Time Inc. staffer and Newsweek columnist, and three others to his "personal staff." He also gave his tacit approval to the formation of a blue-chip Rockefeller for President Committee whose members include four Senators, four Governors, five former Republican national chairmen and 14 noted businessmen. Its chairman: Cummins Engine Co. Chairman J. Irwin Miller, 58, of Columbus, Ind., a former head of the National Council of Churches and an archetype of the public-spirited businessman (he helped John F. Kennedy talk businessmen into opening public accommodations to Negroes after the 1963 Birmingham riots). Said Miller: "We are confident that a true draft will develop."

Kentucky's Senator Thruston Morton, who was instrumental in organizing the committee, shared that confidence. Though his enthusiasm was at a low ebb several weeks ago when he declared, "To use an old Kentucky ex pression, I suppose I am just plain track sore," now Morton was ebulliently predicting that in a short time the committee would succeed in mustering broad support for Rockefeller's candidacy. Added Morton: "If we can't do it in four weeks, then we might as well give up. We'll have more delegates lined up in four weeks than a mule can haul."

A Question of Availability. Rockefeller's approach to winning the nomination in 1968 is certainly an unorthodox one. Nobody has tried anything quite like it since Eisenhower swept into the 1952 convention without actively campaigning--and Rocky hardly has the enormous popular appeal or the broad political support that Ike enjoyed. His support west of the Hudson remains scattered and uncertain. Moreover, the designation of Hughes as chief of his policymaking staff is hardly likely to cheer those Republicans who already distrust Rocky. Hughes, author of America the Vincible, an excoriation of John Foster Dulles' foreign policy, and The Ordeal of Power, an unflattering backstairs account of Ike's presidency, has been a bitter critic of the Viet Nam war, and many party members may wonder to what extent his acerbic opinions will be reflected in policy statements issued by Rocky's headquarters. Whether Rockefeller's campaign manages to catch fire depends almost entirely on how his popularity fares in the public-opinion polls and on the impact of the nationwide speech-making campaign that he will launch in Washington this week. With Rockefeller as competition, former Vice President Richard Nixon can expect his standing in the polls to decline--but it will probably have to plummet precipitously before there is any stampede toward a Rockefeller bandwagon. Meanwhile, Nixon can be expected to clean up in the primaries that Rocky refused to enter.

In any case, Rockefeller is plainly back in. "Availability is the way I put it," he said last week. Could he win the November election? a reporter asked him during a Manhattan press conference. "If I didn't think so," said Rocky, "I wouldn't be here."

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