Politicking with Fat Cats and Ethnics

THE Republicans do not want the President to campaign; the Democrats would like nothing better. But both parties can at least agree on one thing: Nixon is a poor campaigner whose defects may well become more apparent if he is tempted into the sort of mano a mano "crisis" crusading that he has always professed to be his style. Last week as George McGovern took a brief breather to rethink his campaign strategy and assess his finances, the President defied advice and came out politicking--but only part way. He confined his campaigning to carefully screened groups--ethnics and the Republican faithful. Every step of the way was meticulously planned.

At Nixon's first stop, the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor, he was greeted by an honor guard of exuberant children in parochial school uniforms and yarmulkes. The signs proclaimed CATHOLICS FOR NIXON or JEWS FOR NIXON. The President sounded a favorite theme: the U.S. was built on work, not welfare. "The people who came to American shores didn't come here for a handout," he said. "They came here for an opportunity. We must reject that kind of philosophy that someone on welfare should receive more than someone who works in the United States of America." When antiwar protesters started to shout down his rhetoric, they were quickly drowned out by the ubiquitous Nixon youth, who learned to chant "Four more years!" at the Republican Convention and have not stopped since. If the Democrats started all the fuss over youth, the Republicans may be giving them cause to regret it.

At a dinner in Manhattan, a far different crowd turned out to spend $1,000 a plate for a grand total of some $1.6 million--a whopping sum of money for steak and potatoes and the President's predictable sentiments. Said Nixon: "The power of the United States of America is a guardian of the peace of the world." He warned the audience never to send a President to an international conference as head of the "second most powerful nation in the world." After dinner, some young Republicans were permitted to gather before the dais. To them too the President promised power. "I want you to be able when you grow up to travel where Mrs. Nixon and I have gone, to the People's Republic of China."

So controlled was his campaign swing that Nixon hardly made an unscheduled pause. On arriving in Oakland, Calif., he shook some hands but missed many others. "What is this, a private party?" grumbled a Nixon supporter who had been faithfully waiting in the rain. Miffed as he was, he said he was still going to vote for the President. If the President hurried along, he had reasons; he was heading for bigger pickings at dinner in Los Angeles. To join him at the table, California fat cats shelled out even more than the New Yorkers--a cool $ 1.7 million. Bob Hope was on hand with bipartisan gibes: "Jack Benny is a Republican for Mc-Govern--but only until he gets the $1,000" and "McGovern called his own headquarters, and Clark MacGregor answered the phone." Nixon sounded a loftier note. "We will end the war," he said--an echo from the campaign four years ago. His administration would be remembered, he hoped, for "changing the world," for "reducing the possibility for wars in the future." The trip ended as it had begun: under tight rein. The President had not slipped. As an aide put it: "We are not going to campaign in the town square."

Before taking his timeout, McGovern campaigned more spontaneously than Nixon and occasionally suffered the consequences. In Brooklyn, he managed a pained chuckle when Democratic County Leader Meade Esposito promised to "support the Democratic ticket to the bitter end." Addressing labor leaders in Tacoma, Wash., McGovern called the area the "economic sore thumb" of the Nixon Administration. He promised a job for everyone, "though I can't spell this out line by line." The caution was advisable, since on his last visit to Washington he had pledged 25,000 new jobs if Boeing concentrated on building a quieter aircraft engine. That was possible, he now admitted, only if all the engines in all Boeing aircraft were converted--an unlikely prospect.

In California, McGovern was taken in tow by Hubert Humphrey, who did his ebullient best to make the nominee palatable to labor. Humphrey told union members in Los Angeles: "McGovern will make some mistakes, but they'll be mistakes, may I say, that are on your side. He may want to help the children more than someone who wants to watch those pennies. But, oh, may I say how fortunate we are to have a man that will make, possibly somewhere, a few of those mistakes." At a $250-a-plate dinner in keeping with his more modestly financed campaign, McGovern denounced the war with such graphic descriptions of napalm, pineapple bombs and steel fleshettes that the audience seemed to applaud in relief at the end. Still, crowds were more attentive than usual. "He sounds more like a Democrat," said Frank Mankiewicz. "I don't think he'll ever be a good old boy, but I think the party leaders like him more now."

As he paused to take stock, McGovern knew that he has to be liked a lot more if he is to have any chance of winning in November. His strategy is now as simple as it is stark: run hard in the big electoral states--New York, California, Texas, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania--and forget most of the others. He is also relying on television. On Sunday, the first of a series of half-hour programs on McGovern's life was shown. "We've got to rehabilitate the candidate," says an aide. "We've got to show he isn't a soft-headed weenie."

Hung Up. Curtailed though his campaign plans are, McGovern is still strapped for funds. As recently as June, McGovern was hoping to raise up to $36 million; to date he has a mere $ 11.5 million. Small contributors have provided the bulk of it; the fat cats have stayed away. Such is the condition of the treasury at the Democratic National Committee that it has been unable to pay a considerable bill owed to American Airlines. After Committee Treasurer Donald Petrie hung up on an important representative of the airline and called him a "jerk" to boot, American canceled the committee's twelve credit cards. Key staffers are now planning to pay as they fly.

Musing on his dilemma as he flew across the darkened country on Dakota Queen II, McGovern slumped wearily in his seat and nibbled grapes from a tray of fruit. Somehow combining hope with despair, he confessed: "I don't understand the polls, but I never understood them in the primaries, either. If we can win in California and New York and then add Illinois and Ohio and some others..."

McGovern could at least take some consolation in an endorsement last week by the New York Times. The Nixon Administration, said the Times, "appears to be without basic philosophy, without deeply held values, an Administration whose guiding principle is expediency." While less than totally enthusiastic about McGovern, the paper argued that on virtually every major issue, the Democrat "seems to us to be moving with the right priorities."

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