Making Up

Ordinarily, a candidate takes the week off during the opposition's political convention. No point trying to compete for headlines when it's the other fellow's show. Last week George McGovern broke this taboo, as he has so many others. Too far behind to give up any opportunities, he spent the week trying to appease some of the political household gods he has offended.

Lyndon Johnson came first. The former President had endorsed him perfunctorily the week before, so McGovern flew down to the Pedernales to see if he could stretch the Johnson support a bit farther. He brought Sargent Shriver along, hoping that Shriver's warmer relations with L.B.J. might help ease the chill of the meeting. At Johnson's insistence, neither staff nor reporters were invited. Johnson greeted the candidates in ranch clothes and a flowing, whitish Buffalo Bill mane. Sitting in lawn chairs beneath a towering oak as they sipped iced tea, then going inside the ranch house for a steak lunch, the trio chatted for almost three hours. L.B.J. offered some campaign advice: talk to people on the phone for at least two hours every day; make sure you get a solid nap every day in your pajamas.

Courtship. It was more important to court Richard Daley, whose support is crucial for winning the pivotal state of Illinois. As with Johnson, McGovern agreed to meet the Chicago mayor on his own turf, and the candidate was forced to eat a certain amount of crow. He stated publicly that he would work with the Daley organization and not against it--a stance that may hurt him with the independents who are trying to topple the machine.

He gave his blessing to the entire Daley ticket, including State's Attorney Edward Hanrahan, who is under indictment for obstructing justice in the investigation of the killing of two Black Panthers. McGovern can only hope that his courtship of Daley will be considered a pragmatic necessity by his demanding followers. For all that, Daley has yet to make a move to work for McGovern in Chicago.

While trying to win over disenchanted Democrats, McGovern also faced some unreconcilable antagonists last week. Speaking before 3,500 American Legionnaires at their annual convention in Chicago, he reminded them that he too is a Legionnaire in good standing. "I intend to remain a member of this outfit for as long as I live. You can disagree with me, but you can't disown me." He even waved the flag a bit, reciting a few saccharine lines of Earl Robinson's song The House I Live In. ("What is America to me?/ A name, a map, the flag I see./ A certain word, democracy./ That is America to me.") But he also defended his policies, getting stony silence when he declared: "General Thieu is not worth one more drop of American blood."

McGovern's reception at the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Minneapolis was equally frosty. He tried to stir some populist embers by attacking Renegade Democrat John Connally. Noting that the Texan had been searching for a villa in Europe, McGovern remarked: "That's where the oil-depletion money goes." He even assailed Connally's $300 suits--an ambiguous campaign issue. While it is true that McGovern pays less than $200 for his suits, his running mate wears Pierre Cardin suits and has been on the best-dressed list.

McGovern absorbed friendlier vibrations when he met with Hubert Humphrey in Minneapolis. Loyally supporting McGovern despite their primary and convention battles, Humphrey told a group of labor leaders: "I know you've heard people say 'I don't know whether I'll vote or not.' Well, that's just like a man in the middle of the Mississippi River saying 'I don't know whether I'll swim or not.' " Reminded that not so many weeks ago he had been attacking McGovern, Humphrey responded: "But that's what politics is all about. It isn't lovemaking."

This week, in an address to the New York Society of Security Analysts, McGovern plans to set forth a revised version of his economic proposals, thus establishing a central theme for his campaign. But at some point in the coming weeks, he must establish something more difficult: a confidence among his supporters that the cause is not already lost. Last week Mervin Field's California Poll found, for example, that even among his followers, only a narrow majority of 51% expressed any hope that McGovern could win in November.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.