Nation: LURCHING OFF TO A SHAKY START

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IN Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon, the U.S. has two presidential candidates of proven competence, extraordinary experience in affairs of state and irreproachable private lives. Though neither has the particular panache or grace that commends one to a style-conscious age, each is nonetheless a man of some substance who, at least on paper, seems well qualified for the nation's highest office. Yet both have lurched off on their campaigns with so uncertain and uninspiring a beginning that the electorate may justly wonder whether either can bring any illumination or imagination to the serious problems that face the nation.

In Humphrey's case, the desperation of the underdog accounted for part of the poor performance. Uncertain of his flanks, overeager to please often-hostile audiences and skeptical fellow Democrats, the Vice President stumbled through a ghastly week, reviving an old concern that he may lack sufficient internal discipline for the White House. Nixon's campaign, on the other hand, was dominated by the overcautious approach of a man determined to preserve a long lead by avoiding errors. While Humphrey reeled garrulously from one position to another, Nixon glided over issues with skillfully pleonastic evasions, often taking no stand at all. A whole generation of under-35 voters in the U.S. knows little and cares less about the old "Tricky Dick" label that Nixon has sought so hard to shed. Yet the image could well be revived if Nixon does not demonstrate that he has some guiding principles and that his positions are not entirely dictated by the latest polls of the public's mood.

Bogging Down. Both Nixon and Humphrey are bedeviled by the third-party candidacy of George Wallace, who has read the polls every bit as carefully as they have but has gone considerably further in tailoring his campaign to suit the fears and angers of a disturbed country. Both men are apprehensive about what Wallace might do to them on election day. Yet neither has had the political courage to take on the pugnacious little Alabamian by condemning him for what he is—a demagogue who has touched a nerve with his "law and order" theme.

In his first full week of campaigning, Humphrey managed to summon up every demon that has beset him this year: his inability to focus on the essential, his failure to re-establish his independence of Lyndon Johnson, his lack of an efficient campaign organization, his troubles with the dissident Democratic left. Though not really prepared to mount a major campaign swing—Larry O'Brien had barely taken over as manager of a badly disorganized Democratic machine—Humphrey was dispatched willy-nilly to Pennsylvania, Colorado, California, Texas, Louisiana, Michigan, Delaware and New Jersey. Tired when he started, he made as many as nine speeches a day. Advance arrangements were sketchy, crowds at some major stops thin or indifferent. In Philadelphia, the sparse crowd gave a bigger hand to Comedian Joey Bishop, a home-town boy who was traveling with Humphrey, than it gave to the candidate. Hecklers turned up at most stops, toting anti-Viet Nam placards ("SHHHAME," said one) and catcalling. Humphrey gamely quipped that "boo" means "I'm for you" in the Sioux language, "but somehow I don't sense it that way today."