A Modicum of Cheer

With nowhere to go but up, the Democrats last week felt some faint tugs of levitation. Thanks to more efficient organization, Humphrey enjoyed bigger and better crowds than in his first round of stumping. There were some signs that the party was pulling itself together. Most important, the candidate spared himself the headline-grabbing blunders of his previous week's outing.

While still gabbing far too much--on a television program, he took 14 minutes to answer a single question--Humphrey was beginning to talk more sense.

He continued to hammer on the need for immediate ratification of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty; Nixon favors delay. Addressing himself to the issue of crime and violence, Humphrey produced a cogent set of proposals that would provide large-scale federal assistance to state and local authorities in improving not only police forces but judicial and correction services as well.

He restated his support of stringent gun-control laws, including registration of weapons and licensing of owners. Nixon opposes federally mandated registration and licensing.

Socialists, Too. Humphrey could take a modicum of cheer from some signs of Democratic reunion. Fortnight ago, most party leaders in Texas and State Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh in California declined to appear with him.

Last week Edward Kennedy campaigned for Humphrey in Boston. Kennedy's brother-in-law Stephen Smith also offered to help. Senator George McGovern joined the Humphrey party in South Dakota. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. leadership ratified George Meany's support and began an urgent, if belated drive to recapture the loyalty of unionists who have been drifting toward George Wallace. The United Auto Workers' liberal executive board--the least friendly labor group because of Walter Reuther's opposition to the war --formally endorsed Humphrey as well.

Even the Socialist Party reluctantly came out for the Democratic ticket, arguing that "no strategy of protest voting will seriously forward the progressive political trends."

Humphrey has felt all along that the dissidents on the near left at least would eventually rally to him. Eugene McCarthy still holds out, but others are falling into line. Some, like Ted Kennedy, have come with good grace, and others, like Ted Sorensen, with none. Sorensen urged votes for Humphrey as the candidate "least likely to sink us all." Antiwar demonstrators still heckle and curse the Vice President (they even booed Kennedy in Boston for appearing with Humphrey), but the foulmouthed fringe may prove more of an asset than a liability in the long run.

Jell-O v. Concrete. The opinion polls have consistently portended disaster, but by diminishing margins. Humphrey trailed Nixon by 16 points in an August Gallup poll and 12 points this month. A new national sampling scheduled to come out this week will show Nixon's lead reduced to eight points.

By mid-October, Humphrey expects an even break in the national polls. Humphrey people say that polls in North Carolina, Texas, California and Michigan--generally considered trouble spots for Humphrey--now give him a chance to carry those states.

Thus Humphrey looks for continuing improvement of his position. He believes that debates with Nixon and Wallace would give him an opportunity to prove, as he charged last week, that Nixon's "positions make an ad for Jell-O look like concrete." He feels that he can build his appeal to a climax just at the right moment on election eve. He and Edmund Muskie went to Independence, Mo., for a visit with Harry Truman, whose give-'em-hell upset of 1948 they hope to emulate. But Humphrey has just less than six weeks to go, and it will take all of his old energy and a degree of political acumen that he may no longer possess.

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