Nation: HUBERT'S PROBLEM & GENE'S PROGRESS

THE next President of the United States," grinned Hubert Humphrey before a partisan audience in St. Paul last week, "is going to be a Democrat from Minnesota. And whoever he is, I'm going to support him." Beneath the familiar air of cheer, however, the Vice President was a troubled man. He retains a long lead in delegate strength over the other Democrat from Minnesota (see box). But as he emerged from a fortnight of seclusion and contemplation following Robert Kennedy's assassination, he faced a thicket-of intangible and all-too-tangible brambles.

The Democratic Party is seriously divided, and some members profess a sense of...