Big John: Back and Galloping

But Ronald was also in Washington, and running hard

Big John, the slick Texan, swept into Washington last week and turned on his charm to sell his most cherished product: himself. Although John Connally's audience included more than 100 skeptical members of the National Press Gallery, even the clinking coffee cups were silenced. Still handsome and imposing despite the pounding of a topsy-turvy political career, Connally was in command.

First he injected a touch of understated humor: "I've been coming to this city in one capacity or another for nearly 40 years, and I'm beginning to like the place. Wouldn't mind living here, in fact." (Laughter.) The smile faded. Next came a moment of graciousness: "I believe President Carter is a sincere, patriotic, hard-working man who wants very much to have a successful Administration." (A pause.) "But these qualities are insufficient to provide effective leadership."

The voice got louder. The zingers multiplied. "The Carter Administration is wrong for the times in which we live. It has little sense of strategy, and little sense of the use of power on a global scale." Finally, the point of the speech: "I am today announcing my candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States."

As his handling of the announcement demonstrated, John Connally, 61, is at the peak of his formidable oratorical powers, after a career that included stints as Governor of Texas, Secretary of the Navy in the Kennedy Administration, Secretary of the Treasury under President Nixon and even as a defendant (eventually acquitted) in a Watergate-era bribery trial. He thus became the first major Republican to announce his candidacy for President in a field that may bloom to ten before the primary-election season opens in New Hampshire.

Even as Connally made his big move, his chief competitors were also in Washington, using a meeting of the Republican National Committee as the occasion to rush through a series of cocktail parties, private chats with party pros and even gentle courtesy calls on each other. Eight announced or likely candidates visited the capital in four days.

Among them was George Bush, 54, a former Congressman, CIA director and U.S. envoy to Peking, who likes to be described as "the thinking man's candidate." Said he: "Call me a conservative, but one with compassion." Bush lunched with G.O.P. Congressmen, breakfasted with reporters and made a low-key speech in Georgetown.

The favorite of many committee members is Ronald Reagan, who is readily conceded by all competitors to be the front runner. Considering the ill fortune of such past early leaders as Republican George Romney in 1968 and Democrat Edmund Muskie in 1972, Connally said of Reagan: "I do not envy his position."

Yet the man who almost took away the nomination from President Gerald Ford in 1976 swept smoothly through visits with nearly every Republican Senator on Capitol Hill last week. He lunched with some 60 G.O.P. Congressmen and held 20-minute private talks with several others. Reagan demanded no commitments to his still unannounced candidacy and worked instead to moderate his image of extreme conservatism. "He appeared very reasonable," said Iowa Congressman James Leach, a moderate. "He tried to show us he was in tune with other people."

Nevada's conservative Senator Paul Laxalt obliquely noted two of Reagan's image problems as he guided the Californian on the Hill. "You're not talking about a right-wing nut with horns out of his ears," said Laxalt, "but a responsible conservative whose age may be a problem." Reagan, 67, is only six years older than Connally, but when he called on Tennessee's Howard Baker, 53, who also has presidential ambitions, the Senator's press aide could not resist joking to reporters: "The two had a father-son talk."

Unless Reagan falters from fatigue in the 35-state primary siege that lies ahead, the age issue may not loom large. On ideology, Reagan and Connally have both staked out similar conservative positions. Reagan may be handicapped most by having lost last time. Connally's biggest liability remains the fact that he was once a Democrat and was once close to Nixon. In addition, although he was found innocent in 1975 of accepting $10,000 in bribes from dairymen, there was little doubt that he had helped them get higher price supports in the hope, if not a pledge, that they would support Nixon in 1972.

Connally's fate as a candidate will rest chiefly on whether Republicans are captivated by his energetic style, "presidential" personality and way with words. Whatever else, the politicking in Washington last week showed that both Connally and Reagan hold an imposing edge over Jimmy Carter in the art of making a political speech.

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