The President's Plans

Gulping coffee in the House restaurant early one morning, Republican National Chairman Leonard Hall was summoned to the telephone. Over the wire came a familiar voice: "Len, I've got an idea I want to speak to you about. Come on over." Hall washed out a plane reservation to New York, called off his political engagements there, and trundled away to the White House. He was delighted at having his schedule mixed up: the call from Dwight Eisenhower, who wanted to talk about the campaign, was another proof of the President's vastly increased interest in party politics.

Working with Chairman Hall on the details of the President's 1956 political role is a group of top-drawer Republicans who meet informally and are known in party circles as "the Committee." More or less regular members are White House Chief Sherman Adams, Attorney General Herbert Brownell, Press Secretary James Hagerty, Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield, Pennsylvania's Senator Jim Duff and New York Lawyer Tom Stephens, who has been roaming the country for months as a G.O.P. organizer, trouble-shooter and factfinder. All of them have been planning with the President's health in mind, but they have been happy to encounter a real impetus for an active presidential campaign role--from Ike himself.

Ideas from D.E. From Republican fund-raising (he has conferred several times with G.O.P. Finance Chairman John Folger) to precinct activity ("What are we doing to get people to come to our precinct meetings?") to campaign gimmicks (last week he even looked interested while examining a squeaking rubber elephant), the President's political preoccupation has increased along with confidence in his health. Morning after morning to Len Hall's desk come handwritten chits with the initials D.E., offering ideas and suggestions on political subjects.

More important, the President has dedicated himself to helping the Republican Party recapture Congress. He was active in persuading Washington's Governor Arthur Langlie to run against Senator Warren Magnuson, in talking Assistant State Secretary Thruston Morton into trying for the Senate seat now held by Kentucky's Earle Clements, in arranging for Interior Secretary McKay to hit the Oregon trail against Wayne Morse. Among incumbent Republican Senators who can expect Ike's direct aid are Pennsylvania's Duff, Connecticut's Prescott Bush and Wisconsin's Alexander Wiley.

Not Only TV. It is the effort to win Congress that is drawing the President deeper into the campaign. (His personal popularity last week was rated by George Gallup at 71%, down five points since March but still at a remarkably high level.) Last November Chairman Hall told Ike that three or four major television speeches should be enough to insure his reelection. But the chances for a Republican Congress would then be slim. Told that he must himself work and travel if he wants a G.O.P. Congress, the President replied: "You bet. I know."

By last week the original plan to limit the President's campaigning to a few speeches from Washington had been completely scrapped. He now stands ready to make extensive campaign trips by air to New England, the Midwest, the Northwest and--possibly--the South.

Obviously, another Eisenhower was also ready for the campaign. Appearing with the President last week at the Women's National Press Club dinner, Mamie Eisenhower heard herself twitted as "just a girl who can't say no," especially "to a man with a grin." Then she unfolded a wave and broke out with a smile that even her husband might have envied (see cut).

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