Elated and Divided

Hubert Humphrey has seldom doubted that the Republicans would nominate Richard Nixon. But he could hardly conceal his elation when Nixon won, and then chose Spiro Agnew as a running mate. More confident than ever of his party's nomination, Humphrey felt more at leisure to consider his choice for the No. 2 spot.

The Vice President could ill afford the eupepsia. The Democratic Party is as badly split as ever over the war. In fact, South Dakota Senator George McGovern's belated entry into the race can only increase intraparty factionalism (see following story). Moreover, the G.O.P.'s nomination of Spiro Agnew will tend to reduce the pressures for Democratic unity that might have resulted if a liberal Republican such as John Lindsay had been named to run with Nixon.

Critics' Cries. Although his camp now claims considerably more than the 1,312 delegate votes that Humphrey will need to win in Chicago, the Vice President's operatives are straining to promote an open convention, lest the critics' outcries of "fix" tarnish his victory. Humphrey's survival in November, they reason, depends upon his emerging from Chicago with the image of a cool, competent and widely popular candidate. Bitter floor fights, coupled with the expected massive demonstrations outside the hall, would hardly foster that impression.

Much may depend, of course, on Humphrey's choice of a running mate. In order to win in November, he will need the widest possible support in the cities and among the Kennedy-McCarthy factions. Three of the Vice President's favorites for a partner on the ticket are Oklahoma's Senator Fred Harris, Maine's Senator Edmund Muskie, and San Francisco's Mayor Joseph Alioto, a Catholic liberal of whom Humphrey thinks highly. A better known possibility would be Sargent Shriver, who might reconcile some of the Kennedy partisans.

Embittered Alliance. On tactical grounds, McCarthy himself would be Humphrey's ideal running mate. Whether the Senator could be persuaded to accept may become a crucial question in the Democratic Convention. McCarthy would align much of his considerable force behind the ticket--although his alliance with Humphrey would also embitter many of his supporters. To make the post palatable to McCarthy, Humphrey would probably have to demand strong planks on peace and racial justice for the party platform.

But Humphrey seemed temporarily to be experimenting with a different strategy. The day of Nixon's nomination, the Vice President drove from his home in Waverly, Minn., to Minneapolis, where he delivered a stem-winding, hard-line speech on the war and domestic violence. "If I'm President," he told a convention of National Catholic War Veterans, "there won't be a sellout in South Viet Nam. We can no more afford to let aggressors abroad get their way than we can let lawbreakers at home get their way."

Conservative Tack. The speech may suggest that Humphrey will now move to woo the right. The theory is that, barring a massive fourth-party revolt, the party's left will probably vote for Humphrey anyhow when faced with the alternative of Nixon and Agnew in November. Therefore, Humphrey might be persuaded to take a more conservative tack on law and order and the war in order to cut into Republican strength on the right.

In hopes of giving the dissidents a fair hearing at the convention, a group of Democrats led by Iowa's Governor Harold Hughes last week formed the unwieldy sounding Commission of Democratic Selection of Presidential Nominees. Its aims are to campaign for abolition of the unit rule, offer guidelines on seating of disputed delegations, and work to ensure adequate representation for minority groups. Yet Hughes, now running for the Senate, is unhappy with McCarthy as well as Humphrey. Once a confidant of Lyndon Johnson, Hughes fell out with the Administration, largely because of the war, and became a Robert Kennedy supporter. Hughes agrees with McCarthy on Viet Nam, but does not regard him as presidential timber. Some other R.F.K. partisans, such as Larry O'Brien, have switched to Humphrey. Others, like Richard Goodwin, have gone to McCarthy; but many have stayed estranged from both candidates and are likely to rally behind George McGovern. And before the convention is called to order, still more may seek out Harold Hughes as another dark horse possibility.

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