The Hard Sell

"We're trying to get an organization going that is bigger than U.S. Steel, and we're trying to do it in three months," said Robert Francis Kennedy. "It's a fantastic job." With that, Bobby Kennedy, campaign manager and the most fantastic worker in his brother's throbbing political machine, took to the road with steel in his heart and organization on his mind.

Paced by Byron ("Whizzer") White, national chairman of Citizens for Kennedy, Bobby headed for New York to face his biggest problem of the week--patching together the faction-torn New York Democratic organization.

Pacifying Guerrillas. For two years, New York's Democratic Party has been in a state of civil war, with the embattled regulars (Tammany Boss Carmine De Sapio, State Chairman Mike Prendergast) under heavy attack from such guerrillas as the reform liberals (headed by ex-Governor Herbert Lehman, Eleanor Roosevelt and Thomas K. Finletter), disgruntled Negro groups (oriented toward Representative Adam Clayton Powell), and the traditionally anti-Tammany Liberal Party.

Making his Manhattan rounds, from a 9 a.m. appointment at Gracie Mansion with Mayor Robert Wagner, to lunch at Hampshire House with Prendergast and De Sapio, to a sundown session in Lehman's Park Avenue apartment, to a midnight dinner with Anthony Akers, perennial candidate for Congress in the rich, Republican, silk-stocking district of Manhattan, Bobby left no faction unfaced. His approach was friendly but firm: "All

I'm interested in is Senator Kennedy being elected President." And his implication was unmistakably clear: anyone who failed to cooperate might find the welcome mat, and the provender of political patronage, pulled out from under him unceremoniously at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue after next January.

Everywhere that Bobby went, the politicos listened attentively and yielded to his hard sell. But just to be sure, Bobby promised to send in a neutral nonresident coordinator to keep him posted.

"It's a day-to-day operation," Bobby explained later. "You can't leave it alone. That's what happened to Stevenson. You have to keep the peace all the time. Some little thing may happen that is totally insignificant by itself, but after 24 hours it may be a full-blown problem."

Spotting Potential. Before checking in at Hyannisport headquarters, Bobby stopped by Washington again to attend a symposium of 50 registration analysts and experts who will fan out across the country urging the voters, especially in the big cities, to register. (One of Jack Kennedy's polls shows that if most of the unregistered 3,778,000 in New York, for example, could be persuaded or coerced into registering, six or seven out of every ten would pull the Kennedy lever in November.) Back in Hyannisport, Bobby showed the lines of fatigue under his suntan, but he had no time for relaxation. Uppermost in his buzzing mind were the plans for yet another campaign of Kennedy specialists: a road show by a team of political and voting experts that will discuss local and regional problems with political leaders and, hopefully, find solutions. A dozen meetings have been arranged, with forays into Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago set for this week. Heading the team: Bobby Kennedy.

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