Republicans: The Lodge Phenomenon

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About a third of the Lodge campaign budget goes into mail solicitation of voting pledges, another third into a TV campaign showing a 1960 film with Eisenhower extolling Lodge; the last is spent for miscellaneous items—and with a miscellaneous organization, there are plenty of these. Money is so scarce that when the girls forget to stuff an envelope, they carefully pry it open, insert the literature quickly, sit on the envelope to make it stick again. Yet the whole thing is done in a blithe-spirit fashion. Among Grindle's instructions to volunteer helpers: "It is a happy campaign. Smile and be pleasant. We think that's terribly important—that we not be grim."

Considering such dedicated workers, such widespread popularity, such pollster and primary election evidences of strength, why is there so much doubt that Henry Cabot Lodge will be the Republican presidential nominee? One reason is that Lodge's popularity with the Republican rank and file—which is the political phenomenon of 1964—is matched by his unpopularity with G.O.P. professionals, the people who go to conventions.

The Air. Among regular Republicans, Lodge has never been one of the boys. There is about him a sort of above-it-all air that for years made him an object of suspicion in many party circles. This feeling came to a climax during the 1960 campaign, when Lodge was Nixon's running mate. Even while conceding that Nixon did almost everything possible to bollix it up, many Republicans still believe that Lodge added the last losing touches.

They recall his reluctance to make more than one big speech a day, insist that he spent too much of his time napping in hotel suites. They contend that national Republican campaign managers had to cut his appearance schedule in half, that he often refused to share either cocktails or dinner with local hosts, whisking onto the scene only to deliver his speech and then disappearing. They say he even declined to ride in cars with lesser candidates, declaring: "I ride only with my wife."

Most of the complaints come, of course, from Republican leaders already committed to other 1964 possibilities. But they are a significant factor in the campaign.

Says Arizona's Governor Paul Fannin, a true-blue Goldwater man for obvious reasons: "If Lodge had bestirred himself even one-half as hard as Goldwater did, or even one-half as hard as Rockefeller did, Nixon would be in the White House today." Declares Nevada's Lieutenant Governor Paul Laxalt: "We don't want a guy who is going to sit on his big fat duff like he did in 1960." Says one of Nixon's top 1960 aides, a Californian: "I don't know any politician anywhere who worked in the 1960 campaign who isn't bitter about Lodge."

In Virginia, Richmond Republican Leader Richard Poage charges that Lodge "was lazy as hell during the campaign—he helped defeat the ticket." Recalls a Western manager for the 1960 ticket: "We had a big event scheduled for Lodge in Albuquerque. He got as far as St. Louis, then had to turn back home as his nerves were frazzled and he was worn out physically." New York State Chairman Fred Young calls Lodge "a tea-and-crumpets candidate."