Into Focus

Out of a blur of planeborne and trainborne candidates, of parades, rallies and TV shows, the 1956 campaign began to take recognizable shape. One month before Election Day what the candidates and their parties said, did and planned increasingly tended to conform to these factors:

P: There are no burning issues: Truman, McCarthy, time for a change, mink coats, depression, boys in foxholes and Alger Hiss lie muted beneath the surface. The Eisenhower health issue has been knocked out by Ike's robust appearance, and the Nixon issue is undermined by Nixon's own high-level campaigning. There are, however, some intense regional issues, e.g., the farm program in the Midwest, local unemployment problems in such states as Indiana and Michigan, segregation in the South.

P: There is no feeling or preaching of crusade in either camp. Without it, victory, at least for local candidates, depends heavily on organization--who gets out the registration, who gets out the vote. In numbers and enthusiasm, the organized Democrats seem to outmatch the organized Republicans, a situation that the Republicans are working hard to change.

P: Adlai Stevenson has only a small, personal following among Democrats. In many parts of the U.S., he draws crowds that are undemonstrative; his looks, his voice, his personality, according to New York Times reporters roving the Middle West, generally have little appeal. ("Eisenhower is ordinary-like," said a gasoline-station attendant in Oceana County, Mich., "and so is Kefauver.") Expounding on "The Case for the Democrats" in last week's Saturday Evening Post, House Speaker Sam Rayburn managed to write 4,500 words of a 4,700-word article before mentioning the candidate's name. Stevenson's campaign managers are well aware of their problem, are carefully following the "reverse coattails" strategy (TIME, Sept. 10) of linking Stevenson with local candidates and local issues.

P: By contrast Dwight Eisenhower is still, after four years in office, phenomenally popular. From coast to coast local Republican candidates are reaching for his coattails, and each week he adds to his preelection schedule of personal campaigning. Most prognosticating to date has the Democrats picking up momentum and moving into position to challenge seriously the whole Republican ticket. But the fact seems to be that, at midpoint, the Republicans are doing well at the national level, not so well at the local level. Last week top G.O.P. campaign strategists met in Washington, saw no reason to change their basic plans. Reason: in the month before election Dwight Eisenhower is clearly in the lead.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.