Politics: On the Rim

• Share

Richard Nixon's well-worn hat settled gently last week on the rim of the 1968 presidential ring. In Bonn, West Germany, shortly after beginning a 21-month world tour, he acknowledged establishment of a national "Nixon for President Committee" headed by California's former Republican State Chairman Gaylord Parkinson.

Between calls on Britain's Prime Minister Harold Wilson, West Germany's Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger and Foreign Minister Willy Brandt, and Pope Paul VI, Nixon took time out to explain that the formation of the committee was not a formal announcement of his candidacy. "I have made no decision with regard to my own political activities," he said, "and would not make one in the foreseeable future."

Parkinson, 48, the man who got California's Republicans to stop feuding and help elect Reagan Governor, retired as state chairman when his two-year term ended in January. An obstetrician who delivers more votes than babies, Parkinson has been an admirer of Nixon's for nearly two decades. "He is the man most eminently qualified as a national leader," says Parkinson. "He's respected everywhere around the world."