Politics: Into the Silks

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Worthwhile Prize. For the Republican candidates, announced and otherwise, the 1968 nomination looks more and more like an exceedingly worthwhile prize. Except for a few private polls that were apparently commissioned by Democratic officials and carefully structured to show Johnson in the best possible light, public-opinion sampling was going heavily against the President. A Gallup survey showed that 50% of the electorate disapproves of the way Johnson is doing his job. Another Gallup sampling, commissioned by NBC News, showed that when it comes to the Viet Nam war and the racial crisis, more voters would like to have them handled by Senator Robert Kennedy than by Johnson or, for that matter, any of the Republican contenders.

A Louis Harris Poll showed six Republicans leading Johnson. In order, they are Nelson Rockefeller, Romney, Richard Nixon, Reagan, John Lindsay and Charles Percy. Still another Gallup poll, released this week, shows that for the first time in a decade, the G.O.P. is outrunning the Democrats—52% to 48%—as the party the voters consider best qualified to deal with the nation's most pressing problems.