Preseason Game

As an all-out candidate not quite ready to launch an all-out campaign, Richard Nixon looks for nonpolitical affairs where he can appear as Vice President rather than would-be President. His two top preferences: 1) colleges and universities, which he thinks are too often ignored by Republican politicos; and 2) sports events with their big, happy crowds. Since he presided over the Rose Bowl Game last New Year's Day, he has probably appeared before 200,000 people in nonpolitical events--at a golf writers' dinner in New York, three colleges, an alumni dinner for Harvard and Stanford business schools, and the Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley. Last week he flew off (by commercial jet) to help San Francisco's Giants, lately of New York, dedicate their new $15 million Candlestick Park (see SPORT), took the time to drop by two more colleges on a two-day tour.

Among the Giants. The enthusiasm he met startled the Washington newsmen in his entourage. His appearance in Candlestick Park brought a standing ovation from the 43,000 fans, normally a crusty lot. Minutes later when California's own Democratic Governor Edmund ("Pat") Brown stood up, no one else did, and the fans let out a deep-throated "BOO-OO-OO."* The players seemed to feel the same way. Nixon, a sports-page reader who knows the major leagues, made himself at home in locker room and dugout, kidded Giant First Baseman Willie McCovey about the weight he had to sweat off, posed for photographers with Negro Slugger Willie Mays.

Before the game, Nixon's entourage drove out to the rolling campus of Stanford University (enrollment: 8,760), Herbert Hoover's alma mater in Palo Alto. Dozens trailed after him into the auditorium, where 1,700 jammed the seats and another 1,000 overflowed out on the steps and lawn. The place exploded in cheers as he strode onstage. At the question period he invited barbed ones ("As I said to Khrushchev in Moscow, I've been insulted by experts--so go right ahead"), and got one. Could a man who used innuendoes about political opponents provide national leadership? Nixon repeated the question for all to hear. "I believe a candidate's attitude toward Communism, his record, his votes, by all means should be discussed in a campaign," he declared. "I intend to discuss Communism throughout the campaign, and I expect my opponent to do likewise." The students applauded loudly.

Close to the Saints. Nixon's second college visit was to the Roman Catholic University of San Francisco. Some 30 Jesuit priests and 1,500 students greeted him, heard him praise the school's required course on Communist thought and tactics. In turn, San Francisco's president, the Rev. John F. X. Connolly, praised Nixon's "morality, spiritual values and truth," concluded: "I wish God's blessings on him in all his endeavors."

While Nixon was out West, Illinois held its primary, gave him a strong vote of confidence in an uncontested G.O.P. primary that, when the slow count is completed, seemed certain to come close to Ike's 781,710-vote endorsement in 1956.

* Night before at a prededication banquet, Brown had made a major-league booboo by saying smilingly that he looked forward to an all-California World Series between the Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

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