Names, Addresses & Numbers

To hundreds of Young Republicans who snake-danced through their annual convention in San Francisco last week, there seemed but one 1964 presidential candidate: Arizona's Senator Barry Goldwater. The convention blossomed with Goldwater-for-President balloons, buttons--and babes. In a poll of 430 official delegates, Goldwater got 320 preferential votes, with but 40 going to the runner-up, New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

The Young Republicans are, by definition, young--and possibly immature. Yet it was a hard political fact that only a week before, Republican state chairmen, mostly veterans in the party wars, had convened in Denver--and they too had seemed strong for Goldwater. Said the District of Columbia's Carl L. Shipley: "The depths of this Goldwater feeling is absolutely fantastic. The talk from all sides in Denver is driving nails in Rockefeller's political coffin." Said Maryland's David Scull: "A lot of us have reservations about his tendency to shoot from the hip; it makes us nervous when we think of it in a President. But as of now Goldwater is our best candidate." Said Texas' Peter O'Donnell: "Goldwater will be nominated."

Democrats were doing their own planning--and they were feeling pretty confident. Meeting in Washington last week, the Democratic National Committee polished off its substantive business in a single session of less than four hours. The committeemen picked Atlantic City as the site for the 1964 presidential convention, set the date for Aug. 24, six weeks after the G.O.P. convention to be held in San Francisco's Cow Palace. One reason for the site choice was that Democrats figure on a rather dull convention in which Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson will be routinely renominated. Atlantic City's besonged Boardwalk might offer bored delegates a chance for cut-rate, nonpolitical amusement.

As for the date of the Democratic Convention--latest in a century--the national committeemen simply did not want a "long campaign." They figured--with some advisory aid from the White House--that Kennedy would look better as a working President during the summer than as a hustings political pleader. And, after all, if things seem to be getting tough, Kennedy can always make one of those "nonpolitical" tours.

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