Fried Crow, `a la Mode

"There is only one question," wrote Columnists Joseph & Stewart Alsop after President Truman's surprise victory in 1948, "on which professional politicians, polltakers, political reporters and other wiseacres and prognosticators can any longer speak with much authority. That is how they want their crow cooked."

With the stringy taste of 1948's crow still in their mouths, the brothers Alsop and many another pundit had determined not to eat it again over last week's New Hampshire primaries. Out-of-state correspondents had swarmed all over New Hampshire in an unprecedented invasion, finding out how the ordinary voters felt--one great omission in 1948. By Election Day, many correspondents felt that they had measured the pulse pretty well, and they began to sidle toward the steam table where the crow was kept warm.

Outside Chance. The New York Daily News's Columnist John O'Donnell, a Taftman, looked down his nose at Eisenhower's campaign, quoted an unidentified Ike informant: "This New Hampshire play for Eisenhower has turned out sour and that we'll admit." James ("Scotty") Reston of the New York ("We Like Ike") Times was impressed by Taft's "aggressive campaign." He found it more effective than the politicking in behalf of the absent Eisenhower. Wrote Reston: ". . . What does Taft have that Ike doesn't have? The answer seems to be: 'Nothing--but he has it in New Hampshire.' " As for Truman, Reston reported that the "best opinion," which he did not identify, was that the President would win. The Fair-Dealing New York Post's William V. Shannon agreed: Kefauver "has only a slim chance of getting even one of the eight [convention votes]."

Inside Dope. Stewart Alsop moved ahead of all the rest, and openly bid for the covered dish on the table. He had talked to National Committeeman Emmet Kelley, a Truman big wheel in New Hampshire, who predicted "a Truman landslide." Alsop predicted one, too, gave Kefauver an "outside chance" of "capturing just one delegate." One reason for that, Alsop said, was that Kefauver had "incautiously" transgressed "one of the great, built-in rules of American politics . . . that you simply do not challenge an incumbent President in your own party."

After voters rewrote Alsop's rules, and soundly thrashed Harry Truman, red-faced Stewart and brother Joseph joined in their column to give an explanation of sorts: brother Stu had been misled by none other than Kefauver himself. In a not-for-attribution interview, Kefauver had told Alsop that he did not have a chance. "Kefauver," reported the brothers solemnly, "certainly seemed quite honestly convinced that he had no real chance . . . Everybody was wrong--as usual."

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