Evening star., 1959-10-18
Politics.:
Timing

Things the thing In polltlcs,
as it is in so many other pursuits.
particularly in the scramble for
such q coveted prize as a presi-
Dental nomination.
It is a factor which has received
intense consideration by Gov. Mel
son A. Rockefeller of New York
and his strategists as they map
his challenge of Vice President
Nixon, presently the way-out-in-
front leader in the race to become
the Republican standard-bearer
in 1860.
Neither Mr.. Rockefeller nor Mr..
Nixon has announced" his can
didacy. The stoutly supported po-
litical myth is that you must not
toss your hat into the ring too
soon lest it give the opposition,
and the public, time to kill you off.
But there is two-man contest
in G. o. P. ranks and you'd have
to look long and far to find a
political observer who would deny
it. Until last week. perhaps. the
contest had mostly been behind
scenes planning and jockeying.
although recent actions on the
part of Mr.. Rockefeller spoke
louder than his words asserting
that he had not yet made up
his mind.
If there is any question con-
cerning the Governors intentions
it was not whether he would enter
the race but, rather, will he stay
in it till the end?
Last week, as Mr.. Nixon left
Washington for a two-week vaca-
ton in Palm Beach, Fla. the New
York Golden Boy took big step
in the direction of finding the
answer to this question himself.
He announced that he had ac-
cepted invitations to make two
speeches in California, Mr.. Nixon's'
home State, early next month.
This was Immediately inter-
preted in many circles as direct
challenge to the Vice President,
perhaps a portent of battle with
Mr.. Nixon in the California pl1-s
mary next June. That comes
scarcely six weeks before the
opening of the Republican con-
vention in Chicago on July 25.
Gov. Rockefeller did not pre-
tend that his visit to California
and also to Oregon, where the
1948 primary sped Thomas E.
Dewey, another New York Gov
.ernor, to a presidential nomina-
tion-was non-political.
It don't see how they can help
but give me a broader UNDER
standing of the political situation
in the country" he told reporters.
Translated, this means he expects
to take the pulse of the West
Coast public on his own candi-
dacy.
At the same time Rockefeller
boosters at home were charging
that Mr.. Nixon is violating pro
tocol" by activities in his behalf
in New York. Leonard W. Hall,
former G.. o. P. National Chair
man, who lost to Mr.. Rockefeller
in bid for the gubernatorial
nomination last year, repeatedly
is promoting Mr.. Nixon's pre-
convention interests in New York.
On the Democratic front, the
consensus at the Southern Gov
ernors' Conference in Asheville,
N. c., last week was that the
South is keenly anxious to avert
any bolt" of the national party
next year.
Only Gov. Ernest F. Hollings of
South Carolina suggested that If
a civil rights radical" got the
Democratic nomination his State.
and perhaps others in the South.
might swing to an independent"
candidate. He made it plain, how
ever, that neither Mr.. Nixon nor
Mr.. Rockefeller would be accept
able.
One of the Democratic aspirants
who is considered radical" by
many Southerners is Senator
Humphrey of Minnesota. Last
week he addressed the United
Auto Workers convention in At
lantic City. He lauded the unions
political goals as a magnificent
forward-looking program" and
added: I'VE must have meaning
full civil rights program"