National Affairs: The Word from Ike

With everyone else getting into the act, the Kansas City Star's president and political pundit, Roy A. Roberts, could be expected to trundle his own 250 lbs. onstage. This week he turned up on a network radio program to talk about Dwight Eisenhower as a possible candidate for President. As a longtime Eisenhower backer, Pundit Roberts had some familiar things to say: "Events in Europe will determine if he will run . . . I don't speak for him, but if rearming and rewelding Western Europe together . . . is well along its way, it's my guess and hunch that Ike would accept an honest-to-goodness draft for the presidency—not because he wants it, but on grounds of duty." But Roberts also had a new gem to drop—a straight-from-head-quarters answer to the political question of the year. Said Roberts: "General Eisenhower has told me that he is a good Kansas Republican, like all his forebears."