The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-02-08
TODAY and TOMORROW
By WALTER LIPPMANN


A part from one or two who are
not seriously in the running, Mr..
Willkie seems to be the only coa-
tender in either party who says
he is a candidate for President.
Thus far but for him the primaries
and the general election look as
if they would be a contest among
candidates for President who will
not say that they are, or who say
that they are not, candidates for
President.
They seem to be re-enacting the
scene described by Casca in the
first act of Shakespeare's Julius
Caesar" when Mesrs. Hoover,
Landon, Hamilton, Pew, the Re.
publican national committeemer
and the Democratic committee
men and DR.. Gallup were offering
Caesar the crown:
II can as well be hanged a:
tell the manner of it: it was mere
foolery I saw Mark Antony
offer him a crown; yet twas moi
crown, twas one of those caro-
nets; and, as I told you, he put il
by once; but for, all that, to my
thinking, he would fain have hae
it. Then he offered it to him again
but" having read the latest Gal
lup poll. Editor note) ito my
thinking, he was very loath to lay
his fingers off it..
This foolery, otherwise known a!
political strategy, would, if it were
not for Mr.. Willkie, be the stand
ard practice in both parties. Thu
candidates would all murmur coy
ly and blush demurely like maid
ems listening to a proposal of mar
riage in an old-style novel ant
with one eye on DE-. Gallup, keel
telling us that they will be a siste
| to us.
The notion that a candidate TO,
President should declare himself
and then say what he thinks, il
too supplemented for the maste,
strategists who are getting read,
to provide our country with it!
next President. l wonde-. if it is
good strategy. In considering thi
question we may pass over quick
ly the rather odd assumption tina
the citizens do not need to know
do not care to know, and are no
entitled to know we'll in advanc,
and while there is time for de
bate, who it is that thinks he i
fit to conduct the war, make tn
peace, and demobilize the armies
Let us ask ourselves whether ]
is good strategy for getting a can
didate elected, and not merel
nominated. For getting the noni
nation it has much to be said TO
it. BY not being a candidate an
yet by not being not candidate
Mr.. Roosevelt suffocates at brit
all other Democratic boomlets. N
other candidacy can have the au
dacity to be born into the Demo
cratic political family. On the Re
publican side the principal con
tenders, apart from Wendell VII
kie, are all strong and silent men
too intensely pre-occupied to thinl
about being President Of the Unit
ed States. Their silence permit
them to appear to be everything
that Mr.. Roosevelt and the New
Deal are not, and everything tina
every conceivable Republican vot
er would like them to be. Thu
they are the candidates of all tn
professional politicians dreams
they remain in the safety of thei
silence all things to all men. Thi
illusion could be maintained a
least until the convention has vol
ed-that is, if it were not for tn
rude intrusion of this man Wiki
with his prejudice favor of lei
ting the people know what the
are doing.
But whatever may be said fo
the solemn pretense as a schem
for being nominated, there is niue
tc be said against it if the Reput
licans are serious about electin
their candidate. After all, what i
the real argument for. a fourt
term?
The arguments against it ar
formidable. Sixteen years is an ur
considerably long time for an
man to be President. This Admir-
istration is growing old and tire
at the top and though it is cor