POLITICAL NOTES: Straws in the Wind

¶ The campaign strategy of Adlai Stevenson, phantom candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination (TIME, Oct. 5), was sadly reaffirmed by another Democratic hopeful, who went to Stevenson to ask for his endorsement and anonymously told about the outcome last week. Adlai replied that 1) he would endorse no one, at least not until after the presidential primaries; 2) he will not withdraw his own name from speculation, but 3) he will make no overt effort to obtain the Democratic nomination. In Cheyenne, Wyo., Democratic Pacemaker John Kennedy tut-tutted such coy stratagems. Said he: “The primaries are going to be decisive next year. Anyone who wants to be a candidate for President ought to run.”

¶ For the past two months Senator Lyndon Johnson has galloped relentlessly and restlessly around his native Texas, officially campaigning only to retain his aisle seat in the Senate. But “Johnson for President” clubs have sprouted in his tracks like mushrooms in a meadow. This week Johnson, already proclaimed a candidate by Fellow Texan Sam Rayburn, let his true love show, saddled up for a fast political shivaree in four nearby states. Quipped a Dallas wag: “He’s just campaigning for re-election in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Arizona.”

¶Indiana’s Congressman Charles Halleck, who has been busy on the West Coast and elsewhere promoting Charlie Halleck as the G.O.P.’s most promising vice-presidential bet, suddenly called off the campaign. Reason: the folks at home have that neglected feeling, are wondering whether Charlie has been taking them for granted. Result: from now on, 13-termer Halleck will concentrate on wooing the Hoosiers in Indiana’s Second Congressional District (which gave him a none too solid plurality of 6,000 in the 1958 elections), will bide his time until next July’s Republican Convention, when he will be as available as ever.

¶Missouri’s Democratic entry, Stuart Symington, got some loud huzzahs from Kansas City, where the official “Symington for President” club launched its national campaign. A branch will open in Jefferson City next week, and his backers are working to see that the movement will then spread out nationally. In Columbia, 600 students from the University of Missouri, Christian and Stephens Colleges formed the first “Youth for Symington” club, planned to spread the word when they scatter to their homes in 28 states during the Christmas holidays.

¶ Arriving in White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. for a Governors’ meeting, Governor Nelson Rockefeller announced that he has extended his mid-December Midwest speaking tour to include stops at Dallas, Houston, Tulsa, St. Louis and Miami. Rocky, who has already covered nearly 8,000 miles testing the sentiments of both professionals and amateurs, told a “background” session of reporters that he now regards the contest for the G.O.P. presidential nomination as a campaign of the “pros against the people.” In other words, he must beguile the Republican-in-the-street—and the independent voter —in order to win over the professional Republicans, now massively lined up behind Vice President Richard Nixon. Although Rockefeller is still officially undecided whether to run, the word in Washington is that he is already too deeply committed to his new staffers and political supporters to back away from a fight.