Jet-Powered Bandwagon

Whooshing across the political skies for all to see last week was Jack Kennedy in his jet-propelled bandwagon. Behind him lay nearly two years of a most expert and relentless pursuit of the Democratic presidential nomination, a campaign so finely machined, so thoroughly organized, so carefully fashioned for a single purpose that professional politicians fairly mopped their brows and goggled at what they saw. Said Illinois' old political pro Jake Arvey (who could scarcely cling any longer to Adlai Stevenson's star) : "Kennedy's got this country laid out like one big switchboard. He knows what's going on in every state, in every local issue. He's tough and decisive and determined. I marvel at his organizational ability. Openmouthed wonderment was precisely what the pilot of the bandwagon wanted, for the time was at hand to convince the bosses of the big holdout states that they would be left far behind at the Los Angeles convention if they did not scramble aboard. But there was no stampede. In New York, the delegates' caucus at Albany handed Kennedy a predicted minimum of 87 out of 114. In Manhattan, Kennedy himself paid a call on the Liberal Party policy committee and pledged lasting devotion to civil rights, announced that he had no strength in the South and was seeking none. (Coupled with a Washington endorsement of Negro sit-in strikes --"the American spirit is coming alive again"--this thoroughly sawed the limb off from under the few Southerners who had supported him.) In New Jersey, Kennedy again spent premium time polishing up Favorite Son Robert Meyner, who, as Governor, was already under stiff pressure by the Kennedy forces in his delegation; still, stubborn Bob Meyner refused to make any public endorsements. In California, Kennedy advance men helped fan reports that Governor Edmund ("Pat") Brown was now "leaning" Kennedyward, but Brown was not yet talked out of his 81 first-ballot favorite-son votes. Penn sylvania's Governor David Lawrence (81 votes) kept his silence. Kennedy-minded Lawrence watchers thought that they read a new Kennedy gleam in his eye, but Lyndon Johnson's forces began claiming 27 Pennsylvania votes.

Subtle Punch. The wagon missed no side roads. In Hubert Humphrey's Minnesota, Kennedy men were working for an endorsement from Governor Orville Freeman and from Humphrey himself. Only a short time after erstwhile Candidate Humphrey told a group of delegates that "in fact, as I have listened to Kennedy speak, I don't see how I even had a chance," a Kennedy newsletter turned up in Minnesota with a picture of Hubert and Jack, captioned with the same quotation.

Michigan's chief Kennedy booster, Governor G. Mennen Williams, alerted Jack to discontent among Negro leaders. Kennedy sent his family Convair to Detroit, picked up ten prominent Negroes, airlifted them to a conference at Kennedy's Georgetown home in Washington. It was, as one of the Negroes reported later, a "real red-carpet" welcome. "We had brunch on the patio, and there was a subtle punch beforehand--I thought there was gin in there, but I heard it was cognac. There was chicken and some fancy kind of eggs, and there were whites and Negroes waiting on us. Afterward, that man must have given away $100 worth of cigars from some foreign country. Mrs. Kennedy was there, too, and later they had the press conference for television and everything. We were all impressed." Bubbled "Soapy" Williams afterward: "Kennedy didn't hurt himself any."

Hot Tears. In two states the bandwagon nearly overshot its goal. Some Iowa delegates got hot because of Kennedyite attempts to get a public commitment out of Kennedy-leaning Governor Herschel Loveless; so enraged were some delegates that a few fell prey to the sweet-talk of Lyndon Johnson and his wife Lady Bird, when they came calling. In Colorado a critical casualty turned up at the delegates' convention in Durango, where Kennedy forces ganged up on Lyndon Johnson Supporter Edwin C. Johnson, who wanted to be named to the delegation. A three-time Governor and a thrice-elected U.S. Senator, Ed Johnson had suitable credentials, but he left the hall weeping over the thrashing he got. "It was the ruthless Kennedy machine in a conspiracy with organized labor that defeated me," he cried. "Their vindictiveness caught me by surprise."

At week's end Kennedy was unperturbed that there were still quite a few empty seats on his bandwagon. He seemed supremely confident that they would soon be filled and that he would win on the first ballot. To this, there were few who would say nay, but it dawned on many last week that the chief enthusiasm for Kennedy came from the Kennedy camp, and that if he got the nomination, it would not be because of a great outpouring of popular feeling, but because he had captured it by might and main.

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