Gene: Back to the Faithful

Minnesota's Man of La Mancha was undeterred by the odds against him when he began his lonely race seven months ago. And, last week, Eugene McCarthy seemed equally untroubled by the all but overwhelming force of Democratic convention delegates now marshaled behind Hubert Humphrey. "I do not think the delegates have really made up their minds yet," he said, as he resumed his campaign at a Washington press conference.

Although party professionals--not for the first time--were counting him out of the presidential race, McCarthy, as always, relied upon his almost mystic and so far well-justified faith in the explosive unpredictability of this year's politics. Emerging from six days of seclusion in his Washington house following Robert Kennedy's assassination, the Minnesotan slipped into the White House for a 40-minute conference with the President, in midweek flew to New York to take up the race again.

Unswerving Fealty. The Senator's campaign style remained as urbane and dispassionate as ever, even though the primaries were over and he now faces the arduous labor of trying to convert the convention delegates, mostly professional politicians, who are sympathetic or committed to Humphrey's camp. Ironically, McCarthy, as a scholar and a gentleman, could anticipate more sympathy from outright conservatives, even Republicans, who approve of his dignified image.

He could expect scant help from Kennedy forces. Some lower-echelon R.F.K. workers did join up with the McCarthy cause last week, and one Bobby Kennedy staff member, Speechwriter Richard Goodwin, who had worked earlier for McCarthy, may very well return to his old boss. But Kennedy Aide Ted Sorensen spoke for most of the dissolving clan when he urged New York delegates who favored R.F.K. to go to the convention uncommitted. Although Kennedy and McCarthy forces share much the same ideology, many R.F.K. supporters paid such unswerving fealty to their man that they continued to resent McCarthy.

Touch of Bitterness. In his effort to establish a base of strength among the minorities who supported Kennedy, McCarthy gave unwonted attention last week to the subjects of poverty and racial justice. "We have maintained a kind of American apartheid in this country," he told the racially mixed Community Council of Greater New York. "We must proceed to bring an end to this colonialism in our own country." The audience, thick with former Kennedy loyalists, was little impressed, and one Negro even shouted "Down with McCarthy!" Afterward the Senator exclaimed with a touch of bitterness: "Those people are the enemy!"

That same day, before the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a pacifist group formed in 1915, McCarthy was back among more sympathetic constituents. In a thoughtful speech discussing the nation's evolution toward what he termed "lifeless consumer society," he pleaded for "personalism and reason and spiritual renewal."

But McCarthy will have a difficult time persuading the Democratic convention that he is the man to lead a national reconciliation. Were Humphrey the choice, McCarthy suggested last week, he could only support him if the Vice President altered his position on the war. No matter who the nominee is, however, McCarthy intends to exert all the pressure of the party's dissidents on the platform committee in hopes of writing in strong planks on peace and racial justice. If he fails, McCarthy hinted with characteristic delicacy, he might join--but not lead--a third-party movement in the general election.

For his part, Hubert Humphrey retired to his home in Waverly, Minn., to "put in fence posts and mow the lawn," and also to reassess the new political horizon. That reappraisal, if some of Robert Kennedy's top aides have their way, will force Humphrey closer to the late Senator's position on Viet Nam, and may even persuade the Vice President that he should ballast his ticket with Ted Kennedy. In fact, the surviving brother is known to be high on Humphrey's list of running mates, along with Senators Fred Harris of Oklahoma and Edmund Muskie of Maine. How Kennedy feels about the idea is still unknown--perhaps even to the Massachusetts Senator.

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