McGovern's Spark

DEMOCRATS According to the conventional script and timetable, this is the period in which the out party's presidential aspirants try to sound like statesmen in public while maneuvering for support and money in private. Senator George McGovern has decided to write his own scenario by declaring his candidacy for the Democratic nomination this week--thereby becoming the earliest self-certified contender in recent memory.

Why the rush? After a two-hour interview with the South Dakotan, TIME Correspondent Neil MacNeil explained: "McGovern has to move a full year ahead of time because to wait would mean his ruination. He would be forgotten in the melee to come. He had to offer something now, or give Edmund Muskie the chance to wrap up the nomination in the year before the convention." For a McGovern candidacy, it is not a question of staying alive but of striking the initial spark of life.

McGovern. 48, fully acknowledges the favored position that Muskie enjoys. To cut the Maine Senator's lead, McGovern believes that he must offer formal competition that will put pressure on Muskie to take hard positions on controversial issues. Further, if McGovern can demonstrate that a genuine contest is shaping up--a gigantic if --Muskie's ability to nail down commitments of support from party leaders will suffer. The strategy also calls for stressing the importance of the primary season next year. Said McGovern: "I think that there's a different mood in the Democratic Party since the 1968 Chicago experience. You're going to have to demonstrate strength in the primaries. It's not going to be settled in the back rooms."

McGovern said that he would enter a "representative group" of primaries, probably including some, like New Hampshire, in which New Englander Muskie has a natural advantage. If he makes enough of an impact between now and then, McGovern believes, Muskie will be compelled to fight it out. In the interim, "to lay the basis for the primary contests," McGovern plans to travel widely and speak loudly.

As one of the earliest and most consistent doves, McGovern figures that Muskie's record is vulnerable on the war and military spending in general. "Viet Nam," said McGovern, "is just the most grievous manifestation of a world view that is based on what we're afraid of rather than what we stand for. I was a bomber pilot in World War II. I'm not a pacifist. I think we've now lost sight of the absolutely essential need for coexistence, even with countries with whom we don't agree." He has also championed the poor, argued for larger federal food-distribution programs and led the fight for internal reform of Democratic Party procedures.

Hence McGovern hopes--presuming the continued presidential reticence of Edward Kennedy--to appear as the political heir to Robert Kennedy. By seeking the same constituency that Kennedy did in 1968. McGovern. by implication at least, will be trying to shove Muskie into the old-politics ditch of Hubert Humphrey and Lyndon Johnson.

Against the Tide. Sitting in Room 362 of the Old Senate Office Building, once John Kennedy's suite, McGovern delivers Kennedyesque rhetoric, but quietly: "The U.S. is richly endowed with ideals: personal freedom, personal dignity, the spirit of the Declaration of Independence. I think I have the sense of values, the compassion, to help close the gap between our founding ideals and our present practice. I'm not seeking power and prestige for their own sake, but as a way to provide the greatest service an American can provide. That's in the White House."

McGovern's candidacy must be rated as a brash swim against a powerful tide. Aside from Muskie's numerous advantages--including national recognition and a mid-party stance--there are other problems for the shy-looking plainsman. What his admirers regard as a pleasing, low-key image comes across to others as a lack of dynamism and popular appeal that could be fatal. His showing in polls last year was poor. A move by Ted Kennedy would probably eclipse him. Then there are the other Senate prospects: Humphrey, Birch Bayh, Henry Jackson and Harold Hughes, who form a secondary line of potential competition. Nonetheless, vows McGovern: "I'm not going to drop out." By announcing one winter too early, McGovern at least sets himself apart from the dark horses who are waiting to be asked.

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