SCENT OF VICTORY

Smooth as a space satellite, precise as a computer, the 1968 Nixon-mobile whirrs around the country like a politician's dream machine. It seems, in fact, almost too automated. The candidate is seldom more than ten minutes late for an appearance. The bands strike up on cue; balloons tumble down at just the right moment. Meticulous planning schedules put the nominee at just the place where the turnout will be largest and the crowd will be the most responsive. More than 11,000 turned out last week in Anaheim, Calif., 5,000 in Fresno, 10,000 in Salt Lake City, 250,000 to watch the candidate's motorcade in Philadelphia. The press is kept happy with a steady if low-protein diet of news releases. The staff radiates efficiency and confidence. "There's a scent of victory in the air," Richard Nixon allowed last week. "We're on a winning team."

Convinced that he is headed in the right direction, Nixon hardly ever varies his stock "law and order" speech. If anything, his tone tends to be more conservative week by week. Last week drugs became the "modern curse of American youth, just like the plagues and epidemics of former years." The Supreme Court was attacked for weakening the hand of "the peace forces" in fighting crime. Washington was depicted as the "crime capital of the world." To the cheering audiences, it scarcely mattered that the facts were sometimes awry. For instance, though Washington does indeed have a serious crime problem, the capital ranks twelfth on a per capita basis in crimes of violence on the FBI's most recent tabulation of major U.S. cities.*

Mild Medicine. If it hits most of the high spots, the Nixon machine also manages to avoid dangerous pot holes and slippery curves. Speeches tend toward the platitudinous and noncontroversial. To solve the drug problem, Nixon said he would triple the number of customs agents, review smuggling laws, and work to establish international commissions to stop traffic in narcotics. All were reasonable enough proposals but they seemed like mild medicine indeed for the devastating plague that Nixon talked about.

On one issue, the Republican nominee seemed last week to retreat. He shied away from an earlier statement, made in North Carolina, that he would not withhold federal funds from school districts that practiced discrimination.

What he meant, he explained in Anaheim, was that he would not use federal funds specifically to promote integration. Under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Government money would still be denied systems that persisted in practicing segregation.

On occasion, the Nixon machine produces a lucid, well-reasoned statement that goes beyond the routine demands of vote gathering. One such was his radio address last week on the office of the presidency. Delivered over about 500 NBC and CBS stations, it was one of the best speeches either candidate has made so far during the campaign (see box).

While Nixon's concept of an open presidency is in diametric contrast with Lyndon Johnson's vest-pocket conduct of the office, it does not exactly reflect his own performance as a candidate.

Though he says he has taken firm stands on 167 issues--a boast that sounds oddly like one L.B.J. might make--he has yet to prove that he is willing to take specific, controversial positions. On the record to date, he can hardly claim to be inspirational. His frequent statements on law and order are often misleading.

His comments on American life and goals seldom touch on the dangerous failures and divisions of the American present.

His lack of candor does not at this stage seem to have damaged his campaign, at least in the eyes of most white, middle class voters. Yet Nixon has repeatedly avowed that he has planned his strategy all along with an eye to taking over a united country on Jan. 20. He might best do so by heeding, as a candidate, his own prescription for presidential politics--involvement "in the entire sweep of America's public concerns."

* After such places as St. Petersburg, Fla., Phoenix, Atlantic City and Bakersfield, Calif.

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