A Tale of Two Georges

Halfway from the snows of New Hampshire to the sands of Miami Beach, the Democratic presidential action is now with the two Georges, McGovern and Wallace, who have done far better than any of the experts expected when the campaigning began (see THE PRESS). From either side, they are eroding the center occupied by Hubert Humphrey. Last week the story was not that Humphrey won the primaries in Ohio and Indiana--which he did--but that in each of these states one of the two Georges almost did him in.

Humphrey remains very much alive, however, unlike Edmund Muskie of Maine, the most spectacular casualty of the crowded campaign. The list of dead and wounded grew last week; after a disappointing 8% showing in Ohio, where he had expected to do well among more conservative Democrats, Washington's Henry ("Scoop") Jackson announced that he too would retire from campaigning. Despite an unbecoming retreat on civil rights to make capital of the busing issue and a last-minute attack on McGovern's radical-left backers, Jackson never succeeded in getting his name, much less his message, across.

INDIANA. One high point of Wallace's characteristically helter-skelter campaign in Indiana was a $25-a-plate lunch at the Indianapolis Hilton, which drew, among others, Grand Dragon William Chaney of the state Ku Klux Klan and Frank Thompson, head of a local John Birch Society chapter, who listed Wallace's credentials: "He's American, he's Christian, he's experienced." Humphrey did not start campaigning in Indiana until seven days before last week's primary, and at that he had to divide his time between Indiana and neighboring Ohio. Humphrey squeaked through, winning 47% of the vote to Wallace's 42%. Wallace was helped by a heavy Republican crossover vote. Humphrey had a 38,000-vote margin in the popular vote, with most of his edge coming from Indianapolis and Gary, which have the state's heaviest concentrations of blacks.

OHIO. In an entirely different situation next door in Ohio, blacks also gave Humphrey the crucial push over George McGovern, who got 39.6% of the total to Humphrey's 41.2%. McGovern got half of the white votes, but Humphrey took four out of every five black votes. There were murmurings of some dirty work in Cleveland's black precincts, one of which split 54 to 25 for Humphrey, while another next door went to Humphrey 115 to 0. That was only one confusion in a grotesquely botched election. Voting machines failed to operate, could not be unlocked, were not reprogrammed from last year's municipal elections, even never appeared at polling places. In the Cleveland area, 16 precincts never opened. One out-of-stater snarled: "I don't think Ohio is ready for self-government."

Nevertheless, the results proved that McGovern had very nearly beaten Humphrey in a state that should have been natural Humphrey terrain. Unlike Wisconsin, where McGovern's organizers began working months ago, Ohio was not even important to McGovern's plans until just three weeks before the primary. But he outspent Humphrey by more than two to one.

Humphrey has won his primaries narrowly, but as he noted succinctly last week, "Winning is winning." He has taken on George Wallace head to head and beaten him, and when he meets Wallace again in West Virginia this week, he is expected to win handily. Nebraska, which was once taken for granted as McGovern territory, is also up this week and Humphrey seemed to be leading at the end. Farther down the road, though, the McGovern people are looking for a fast finish in Oregon, California and New York.

At the moment both McGovern and Humphrey look likely to go all the way to the convention, with neither man in firm command of the nomination. Ohio suggests that neither campaign will collapse soon; the climax may well come in California's winner-take-all primary on June 6. Says Gary Hart, McGovern's campaign manager: "California is Armageddon."

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