Milford chronicle., 1952-02-01
THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
SHAPES UP

can Presidential nomination will be one of
the hardest in history. Both the hackers of
Taft and the hackers of Eisenhower are
passiOnately devoted to their causes. Both
are totally convinced that their man is the
best bet-not only in his qualifications for
the worlds most important and exhausting
job, but in his ability to win the election
On the Eisenhower side, one of the most
potent arguments is that he is the only
available Republican who could unity the
country, and be virtually sure of decisively
defeating Mr.. Truman or any other Demo-
cratic nominee. Walter Lippman put the
Eisenhower case we'll when he wrote in a
late column, "a change of party has become
most necessary after 20 years. The Truman
administrator is played out. 1t has lost con-
troll of Congress. e. 1t has lost effective
control in the executive branch, as witness on
the one hand the corruption and on the other
the domination of policy by the swollen and
competing bureaucracies. -.
Eisenhower offers much the best way out
Of the dilemma which IS posed as long as
the choice is between Taft and Truman or
Truman's heir. With Taft the most probable
result is another Democratic victory. Next
in probability there is a Taft victory achiev-
ed by a ruinOusly bitter and decisive strug-
gle. =. With Eisenhower the country can
have for the taking a new administration
which has behind it the largest and widest
popular support, which is more truly ma
tiOnal in its constituency, than any other
administration in our time"
This view is by no means universally
held. The Taft camp aggressively denies that
their man lacks great public following. The
Freeman magazine recently said, "In 1850
the whole strength of the Truman Admins
tration was thrown into Ohio to beat Taft
out of the SenatOrship. :. They threw mud
at Taft and, more Importantly, they threw
the paper green stuff that still unaccOuntably
goes by the name of money. But in spite of
speeches and caterwauling, hair-pulling and
invective, slander and demagOgy, on the part
of the Democrats . F.. Bob Taft was in again.
He had carried 81 out of the SO counties,
including all the industrial districts in the
state. He did this in spite of the fact that
Frank Lausche, a Democrat, won the Ohio
gOvernOrship." The Freeman then said that
the polls proved that Taft's public standing
has steadily improved. Last June'the Gallup
poll gave Eisenhower a 80 per cent prefer
ence as against % per cent for Taft Six
months later Eisenhower still had his 80 per
cent while Taft had gone up to % per cent.
So much for the Republican side To turn
to the Democrats, the feeling grows in Wash
ington circles that the President is fed up
with his job, that he is disillusiOned over
friends who let him down, and that he will
certain that the President would be able to
name the candidate and that the convention
would follow his lead automatically. That is
not so certain now. All the polls indicate
that Truman prestige has reached a new low,
and powerful forces in the Democratic party
are bitter at the President, his closest ad-
visors, and such Cabinet members as Nc
Grath and Snyder, within whose depart
ments the scandals occurred. An inter-party
@bo voO4
occur on any great scale, but it is certainly
possible. Some of the Kefauver hackers may
be counting on it. Senator Kefauver, an ag-
gressive and personabe man, has not been
at all popular in Presidential circles, and his
public reputation is the result of his investi-
cation of sordid tie-ups between criminals
and politicians.