Rocky on the Campaign Road

Though snow, sleet and fog shrouded the runway, the Grumman Gulfstream private jet ignored instructions to stay aloft and proceeded to land. Aboard was too heavy a load of dreams and ambitions to be put off by the elements. New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller had arrived hi Grand Forks, N. Dak. After two appearances, the Governor, with half a dozen Republican notables in tow, flew on to Minot, N. Dak. Addressing the guests at a $100-a-plate dinner, the first ever held by local Republicans, Rocky paid glowing tribute to every politician in the room: "I had the pleasure of standing next to Dave Germain, during the reception . . . Also just a word to thank the Bishop Ryan High School chorus and Mrs. Koenig, who is their leader." A local Republican made the inevitable comparison: "Agnew once came out here and just stood around not shaking hands with anybody."

From Phoenix to Des Moines to Minot, Rocky has spent the past two months crisscrossing the country, talking the issues, praising the old-fashioned values and rallying the party faithful in their dark hour of Watergate. Not even employing the usual political camouflage and persiflage, the Governor was clearly off and running--for the fourth time and, at 65, for the last time--for the U.S. presidency. For Rocky, the prize glitters as never before, and as never before, it may be within reach.

Mr. Clean. The plans have been painstakingly laid. The first step is to shed the burden of governorship. By last week his aides had managed to assure just about everybody that the Governor would resign before the first of the year, after 15 years in the job. The post will then be turned over to Rocky's faithful Lieutenant Governor of those 15 years, Malcolm Wilson, 59, a conservative party loyalist. Rockefeller would thus avoid having to seek a fifth term in 1974 and the prospect of facing one of two hungry, popular Democrats: Congressman Ogden Reid or Howard Samuels, director of the New York City Off-Track Betting Corp. If he lost the election, his presidential hopes would be killed.

Moreover, by leaving office at the present time, Rocky can boast of a substantial record of achievement, especially in the areas of education and recreation.

His administration has not been tainted by scandal. In the time of Watergate, he is Mr. Clean.

Once he resigns, he will step smoothly into the national spotlight. Last week, with appropriate fanfare, he held the first meeting of his National Commission on Critical Choices for America, a kind of ad hoc think tank that will debate the central issues of the day. Its 40 members, all chosen by Rocky from various pursuits and from both major political parties, include Vice President Gerald Ford; Sol Linowitz, chairman of the National Urban Coalition; Patrick Moynihan, U.S. Ambassador to India; Ivan Allen, former mayor of Atlanta; Nancy Hanks, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts; William Paley, chairman of the board of CBS; Historian Daniel Boorstin; Physicist Edward Teller and Clare Boothe Luce.

Commission reports will be issued over the next two years, just before the presidential campaign gets under way --much as Rocky did with the reports of the Prospect for America Commission during his bid for the presidency in 1960.

Thus Rocky will be able to address himself to crucial national issues on a nonpolitical, bipartisan platform.

But nobody knows better than Rocky that he cannot become President by appealing to liberal intellectuals on the issues. As an aide told a disgruntled liberal supporter: "We did it your way three or four times, and now we're going to try it our way." Which means that Rocky is playing up his shift to the right. Out among the folks, he emphasizes his crackdown on the welfare rolls and his tough new antidrug law, which mandates a life sentence without parole for anyone dealing in hard drugs. He is hawkish on defense and conservative on fiscal matters. He likes to tell the story about how someone once found his grandfather, John D. Rockefeller, on his hands and knees in his office. Asked what he was doing, Granddaddy replied: "I'm looking for a dime I lost."

Rocky has been careful not to offend Nixon supporters. He has never attacked the President on Watergate, and he has tried to save the party from contamination. His standard refrain: "Watergate is a tragedy of individuals, not the Republican Party." At the G.O.P.

Governors Conference in Memphis last month, he drafted a resolution lauding Nixon for "outstanding accomplishments in international and domestic affairs" and for "his determination to make full disclosures to the public concerning Watergate."

There are signs that Rocky is getting through to the people he wants to reach. Though he earned the bitter hatred of the G.O.P. right wing for not supporting Barry Goldwater for President in 1964, the two former rivals are now the best of friends. At the meeting of the commission on choices last week, Gerald Ford acclaimed Rocky as a "superb Governor and very definitely presidential timber." Appearing at a Republican rally in Atlanta last week, he clearly drew more attention than John Connally, another possible contender for the G.O.P. nomination. By the time he had finished defending Nixon and excoriating welfare cheats and drug pushers, Rocky provoked rebel yells of delight--a music he had never heard before in Dixie.

The Governor is still a distant second to G.O.P. Favorite Ronald Reagan, who outstripped Rocky 29 to 19 in an October Gallup poll. But Reagan stumbled a bit in the last election when his proposal to put a ceiling on state income taxes was defeated. Nor was his image helped when it was revealed that he had paid no state income tax in 1970, though his write-offs were legitimate. For many Republicans, Reagan, who is retiring next year at the end of his second term as California Governor, is too simplistic.

That is a charge seldom made against Rockefeller. Though Rocky will be 68 in 1976, Reagan will be 65. Thus age is hardly an issue between the two men --though some voters may think both of them are too old. With three years to drum up support, Rocky has a chance to prove how vigorous he is. Win or lose, his last hurrah promises to be a political spectacular.

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