A Strategist's Battle

Before the battle started at Chicago, its shape was clear, though the result was in doubt. On the main strategic decisions, both sides had passed their points of no return.

Cabot Lodge, Ike's campaign manager, made many a pre-convention tactical error, but on his basic analysis of the contending forces and on top strategy, he was dead right.

Taft was "Mr. Republican," his following was zealous, experienced and in control of the party machinery. Taft's best chance was to impress wavering delegates with the idea that he could not be stopped at the convention.

On Dwight Eisenhower's side was the arithmetic of November election prospects (TIME, June 30); any Republican who faced the figures could see that Ike had a better chance to win in November. Arithmetic, however, kindles no flames. The Ike forces lacked an exciting issue until Taft handed them one: the grab of Southern delegations.

Lodge recognized it, jumped on it instantly, and kept jumping. The Taftmen had committed themselves, and kept grabbing. When, five days before the convention opened, their national committee took the Georgia delegation, the Taft campaign reached its high-water mark. That was Gettysburg. The same day, 23 Republican governors, meeting in Houston, signed a statement taking the Eisenhower side on the contests and warning that the nominee must have "clean hands." Specifically, the governors were against letting contested delegates vote on other contested delegates, a point that could be seen as critical five weeks before the convention opened (TIME, June 9). The first floor vote came on this question. When the Taft forces lost that, they lost initiative and momentum and never regained it. That they held together to the last was evidence of the strong emotional charge in the Taft campaign; it was not due to brilliant organization or leadership.

In addition to the electoral arithmetic and the moral issue, the Ike forces wound up with superior organization and generalship, both at the strategic and the tactical level.

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