Rocky in the Ring

Working from the moment he stepped out of a commercial airliner (Eastern Air Lines) from New York to the moment he boarded another (Pan American) five days later, New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller convinced the governors' conference at San Juan, Puerto Rico that he is a deadly serious candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1960. In press conferences, in hard digging behind the scenes, in earnest conversation with his fellow Governors, and in tireless, wide-grinning glad-handedness, he had no serious challenger as the conference's star operator. Wrote the New York Herald Tribune's Columnist Roscoe Drummond: "My impression is that Mr. Rockefeller can hardly wait to see his candidacy get off the ground and into the open."

In building up to that impression, Rockefeller:

P: In the week's most crowded press conference, flatly ruled out any thought of running for Vice President.

P: Told a dozen reporters in a late night "don't quote me" session that by early November he will start to campaign--if his reading of straw polls (his own and others) convinces him by that time that he can get more votes against Democrats than Vice President Nixon.*

P: Managed to convince followers of Oregon's hopeful, youthful (37) Republican Mark Hatfield that he was looking Governor Hatfield over as a possible running mate.

P: Genially hosted the entire thousand-guest conference--Governors, aides, newsmen, wives, children--for a half-day's free play at brother Laurance's $9,000,000 Dorado Beach Hotel and Golf Club, cheered others on to fun and frolic but kept himself busy at his political chores except for one much-photographed ocean dip.

P: Won the respect of most fellow Governors and rang up a record for solid performance by pushing his politically unpopular proposal (see Civil Defense) for state-supervised construction of fallout bomb shelters.

Just before heading home, Rockefeller practiced his emerging new campaign line. Republicans must "put up the kind of candidates who can win," said he, "and stand for frank facing of issues as they exist today, with honest and courageous solutions." Before Rockefeller landed in New York, Long Island Congressman Stuyvesant Wainwright, whose brother works for Rockefeller, announced from Washington a "draft Rockefeller" movement ready to set up a Midwestern headquarters. He was shortly seconded by Wisconsin's Congressman Alvin O'Konski, who promised that Rockefeller would have a full slate of delegates in the April Wisconsin primaries. By week's end Rocky was no longer a possible contender but a candidate in the ring, and the only question left for November was whether he would campaign openly or drop out of the race.

*Pollster Elmo Roper promptly criticized Rockefeller for letting his decision rest upon a mere "popularity poll" when he "ought to make up his mind whether the things he believes in are more likely to come about if he is President." Pollster George Gallup, who last July showed Nixon trailing Democrat Adlai Stevenson 44% to 56%, reported that Nixon's Russian trip boosted his trial-heat vote to 51% v. 49% for Stevenson.

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