Turning On the Charm in Europe

About to meet George Wallace for the first time, British Labor M.P. Bruce George was expecting an ogre. To his surprise, the Alabaman turned out to have "delightful charm." Wallace brushed off barbed questions, the M.P. noted, with an "impish grin and laughing eyes." The M.P.'s reaction was shared by many other Europeans. On his first trip to Europe, Wallace was determined to be ingratiating and play the statesman.

The journey got off to a rocky start when engine trouble grounded Wallace's chartered jet for ten hours in Newfoundland. Wallace was noticeably weary when he finally arrived in London early Monday morning. But with his usual cockiness, he drawled: "I've been up two nights now and I feel fine." He apparently wanted to demonstrate that his stamina had not been impaired by the paralysis that confines him to a wheelchair.

Wallace and Wife Cornelia were received politely wherever they went. He had chats of roughly half an hour each with British Prime Minister Harold Wilson (whom Wallace adjudged "a fine gentleman"); Tory Party Leader Margaret Thatcher ("a lovely talk with a lovely lady"); Belgian Prime Minister Leo Tindemans; Italian Premier Aldo Moro and President Giovanni Leone ("I said I recognized the contribution Italy has made to society in general, especially in our country"). But Wallace could not get an audience with Pope Paul VI.

Though Wallace's schedule was kept light, he sometimes appeared to be distracted and often had trouble hearing because of his growing deafness. "You really had to roar at him," said a luncheon companion, "and he had some trouble with our English accents." Wallace's energy did not seem to slacken, but there was no disguising the fact that he is an invalid. Noted the Daily Telegraph: "It was a small, strained, pathetically helpless figure that was helped from car to wheelchair and back."

Complex Stuff. His opinions were simplistic, if pungently stated. "I don't mind dictatorships abroad provided they are pro-American," he told a gathering in London. He also called detente a "highfalutin word. They ought to say 'get-together.' While we have so-called detente with the Soviet Union, we should recognize that we cannot necessarily depend on what they say. I think they have out-detented us." A British listener commented that Wallace "seemed to be trying to position himself where Scoop Jackson is, but he hasn't learned the names of the horses yet." In Brussels, Wallace discussed military issues with the U.S. delegation to NATO. Said one: "His questions indicated that he was following very carefully some fairly complex stuff."

The Governor avoided inflammatory domestic issues. He did not mention busing; instead, he spoke of the need to save the world's middle classes from taxes and inflation. At one lunch, he recalled the time he had been "mobbed" in Alabama by a group of friendly blacks. "Isn't that right?" he bellowed at a state trooper stationed by the door. "Yes siree, Guvnor," came the loyal reply. Said an observer: "It was almost as if he were presenting himself as the man uniquely qualified to heal the race wounds in America and even further afield."

Some time after his return to the U.S., Wallace plans to announce his candidacy for the presidency. A Louis Harris survey last summer gave him 14% of the vote among Democrats and independents; Hubert Humphrey followed with 12%, and Henry Jackson and Edmund Muskie with 10% each. But the same poll showed that more Democrats and independents--39%--would vote against Wallace than against any other candidate.

Wallace is better financed than in 1972. He has raised almost $3 million and has a cash balance of $659,000. His staff estimates that he should receive another $1 million by the end of the year and qualify for $3.5 million in federal matching funds. He will also be better organized than last time, when he lost many potential convention votes because lists of his delegates had not been drawn up in some states. "Our staff is now spending 90% of its time on the recruitment of delegate candidates," says Mickey Griffin, 27, Wallace's intense and efficient campaign coordinator Montgomery, Griffin supervises a team of 16 political scientists, all under 30, who travel the country to round up delegates. Organizers work full time in such key states as Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Texas, Michigan and California.

Yet there are signs of some erosion of his position in the South. No Southern Governor supports him for President. The growing black vote weighs against him, but he is trying, perhaps vainly, to accommodate to it. He has appointed a few blacks to his state administration (the top one is coordinator of highway and traffic safety), and last month he welcomed the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. to Montgomery. King said that he could not support Wallace for President, but added that he prayed every night for the Governor. Declared Wallace: "I love everybody, black or white. My fight was with the Government, but nobody understood that." Replied King: "I understand." Few people think Wallace has any chance of winning the nomination, but he could well wind up as a power broker with considerable say over the choice of the nominee and the platform.

Suffers Pain. The big question is Wallace's health. He can hardly be considered fit, though his doctors pronounce him healthy enough to be President. He suffers pain around his waist and takes drugs for it. He lacks control over his bladder and bowels, though these are regulated by medical devices to spare him any embarrassment. How he would survive the stresses of the presidency is anybody's guess. President Franklin Roosevelt was also confined to a wheelchair, but only his legs were paralyzed. Still, Wallace is making the most of the comparison. Says he: "F.D.R. was a paralytic and served four terms. I'm sure I could serve for one or maybe more."

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