The Crucial Test

In The Making of the President 1960, Theodore White called Richard Nixon "one of life's losers." Last week, watching Nixon begin the first act of his 1968 drama, White felt obliged to revise his estimate. "He is like a good prewar house--solidly built," he said. "They don't build them that way anymore. He's also been repainted several times."

Dick Nixon has indeed undergone some retouching. As he ended his initial New Hampshire foray and flew to Wisconsin to prepare for the nation's second primary on April 2, Nixon seemed to have shucked many of his old liabilities--most notably his humorlessness and his guarded approach to the press. Self-confident and almost too self-effacing, Nixon wowed packed houses from Green Bay and Appleton to Stevens Point and Fond du Lac.

Radical or Liar? By far, his most effective performance came before 3,000 Wisconsin State University students in Stevens Point. In snow-bunny country, he japed about his own ski-jump nose, then turned serious for a continent-by-continent review of U.S. policy. On Viet Nam, Nixon nimbly sidestepped the thorny question of what should be done about the problem now, and simply insisted: "We must prevent confrontations like that in Viet Nam. We must help people in the free world fight against aggression, but not do their fighting for them."

At one point, Student James Kellerman leaped up and loudly challenged him: "I am convinced you are either for radical social change or you are a liar. What radical programs are you for? Do you believe Latin American people have the right to rebel against dictatorships?" Nixon replied that he was all for "revolutions" in agriculture and education in Latin America, but added: "I don't want to blow countries up. I am talking not about marching feet but helping hands."

Wisconsin is shaping up as the most crucial test for both Nixon and Michigan's Governor George Romney. Nixon is favored to win handily in New Hampshire, but he must also win big in Wisconsin to inter his "loser's image" once and for all. For Romney, who last week got a backslapping, arm-squeezing show of support from New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller when he visited Albany to deliver two speeches, the confrontation with Nixon in the Wisconsin primary will be virtually the last chance to keep his candidacy alive. The early book gives Nixon a sizable lead, mostly because of an efficient campaign organization run by Milwaukee Attorney John Maclver, who commands 3,000 volunteers and a budget of $500,000. Even in the First Congressional District, encompassing several American Motors plants, Nixon is a heavy favorite.

Whose Favorite? Last week, drawing up the card for the primary, a bipartisan Wisconsin nominating committee was divided on what other candidates to place on the ballot. Nixon, Romney, California Governor Ronald Reagan and, as always, Harold Stassen, were accepted as "generally advocated or recognized" possibilities. So were Rockefeller and Illinois' Senator Charles Percy, though both immediately announced that they would seek to have their names removed.

On the Democratic side, the committee unanimously approved President Johnson and Minnesota's Senator Eugene McCarthy. But against Republican objections, the Democratic members narrowly excluded Bobby Kennedy 5 to 4, on the curious grounds that his protestations of disinterest were more credible than, say, Rockefeller's. As for Reagan, even though he told a Sacramento press conference, held on his 57th birthday last week, that "I don't want to be on a ticket at all," he will not file an affidavit of disavowal.

Reagan argued that as California's favorite son, it would be inconsistent to withdraw his name from Wisconsin's ballot. According to Mervin Field's California Poll, however, Reagan is far from everybody's favorite. An overwhelming 70% of California Republicans want a choice of other delegate slates on their primary ballot, and only 25% want a single slate pledged to Reagan.

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