Democrats: Bobby's Groove

They screamed. They applauded wildly on and off cue. They tore off his cuff links and nearly toppled him from the podium. They waved signs proclaim ing KISS ME BOBBY, BOBBY IS GROOVY, 'BAMA FOR BOBBY. They showed that, given the right audience, Robert Kennedy can turn on the cus tomers like none of his competitors.

In his first week as a presidential candidate, Kennedy shrewdly chose four university campuses as his major stops. The greetings he received ranged from unbridled ecstasy at the University of Kansas and Kansas State, to enthusiasm at Vanderbilt in Nashville, to friendly acceptance in the potentially hostile territory of the University of Al abama at Tuscaloosa. It was a double demonstration: Eugene McCarthy has no monopoly on collegiate affection; Kennedy can still wow 'em.

Sophocles & White. Kennedy also showed that he will yield to no Republican in being beastly to Lyndon Johnson. In some of the strongest political invective yet heard this year, he harpooned the President for almost every problem facing modern America, from Viet Nam to water pollution, from urban riots to the suicide rate among American Indians. He paraphrased Sophocles on the sin of pride that inhibits a strong man from admitting his mistakes. In Kansas, he evoked the late William Allen White ("The more riots that come on college campuses, the better world for tomorrow"*) to show that someone past 30, or even 42, can indeed understand the alienation of the young. In Alabama, he condemned "anarchy" and "those who burn and loot"; in Tennessee, he lamented that "machine guns have fired at American children" (his aides said he was referring to the Detroit riot).

Kennedy, the man who not only challenged an incumbent President of his own party but also split the Democrats' anti-Johnson faction, gloried in his wide-swinging dissent. But, he said, it is members of the national leadership who "divide us." Though he used the plural, the only divider he named was "the President of the United States, President Johnson." Could he reconcile with Johnson, perhaps become his running mate? "A coalition government is possible in Viet Nam," cracked Kennedy. "But I don't think it is possible here."

George & Martha. In a formal statement, Kennedy accused the White House of lying about the proposed deal whereby Kennedy would have remained out of the race if Johnson appointed a high-level commission to revise Viet Nam policy. The Senator confirmed that he discussed such a plan with De-fensejSecretary Clark Clifford and went ahead with his candidacy only after Johnson rejected the idea. However, Kennedy said, the commission plan was not originally his nor first advanced by him; Johnson, in a conversation with Kennedy Aide Theodore Sorensen had "welcomed" the notion of a commission and asked Sorensen for specific suggestions. The White House remained officially silent, but aides regarded the scheme as an ultimatum, or blackmail. That, Kennedy said, was an "incredible distortion."