The Eye of the Hurricane

The combination of hot air and cold political calculation can stir up a squall in almost any year, and such were the ingredients of the storm that swirled around the head of Vice President Richard Nixon. The cold calculation came from the Democrats, who have long made Nixon their favorite target. The hot air came principally from columnists and other pundits who reasoned that the Democrats had made Nixon a political liability and therefore Ike might drop him from the ticket. For Nixon, it was like being in the eye of a hurricane.

Last week President Eisenhower dispelled the storm with as flat a statement as a presidential candidate is ever likely to make about his prospective running mate. "Anyone," said the President at his news conference, "who attempts to drive a wedge between Dick Nixon and me is--has just about as much chance as if he tried to drive it between my brother and me ... I will say it in exactly the terms I mean: I am very happy that Dick Nixon is my friend. I would be happy to be on any political ticket in which I was a candidate with him. Now if these words aren't plain, then it is merely because people can't understand the plain, unvarnished truth."

Ike went out of his way to emphasize that he had come to no new conclusion, that he was merely repeating in stronger language what he had said before.

Black Cloud. The paradox of the whole affair was that the storm, despite its beginnings, had turned into a phenomenon so real that it had fooled many a Republican. G.O.P. Chairman Len Hall was one of the first to see it coming and tried to head it off; immediately after Ike announced his intention of running for a second term, Hall hailed Nixon as a "great American," adding, "and a great American is, in my opinion, a strong candidate."

The Nixon story became an intensely personal drama, and cartoonists dealt with it as such. As the clouds got blacker some Republicans began to waver, and rumors spread that certain unnamed but highly placed G.O.P. leaders were telling Ike that Nixon should go.

White House Call. Then, the day before his press conference last week, Ike called Nixon to the White House and told him what he would say next day. Within 24 hours, Nixon got more good news from the New Hampshire primary, where he received a remarkable total of 22,936 votes--all of them write-ins--for Vice President.

Neither Ike's statement nor the New Hampshire votes could guarantee that the Nixon storm was over; Nixon was still an attractive target for Democrats who did not want to waste their ammunition on Eisenhower. But as far as politicians were concerned, last week was the week that Dick Nixon, for all practical purposes, was nominated.

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