Republicans: Lessons from the Lone Ranger

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Battling Nelson did it! Battered, bloodied, beaten, taunted, hooted and laughed at during bitter, frustrating months, Republican Nelson Rockefeller never gave up, never stopped swinging. And last week he flattened five rivals in Oregon's presidential primary. The count: Rockefeller 92,142, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. 77,334, Barry Goldwater 49,197, Richard Nixon 47,078, Margaret Chase Smith 8,142, William Scranton 4,456.

Rocky's smashing upset may not appreciably have changed his chances for this year's Republican nomination. By any reasonable rating, he would still stand behind Goldwater, Nixon, and perhaps Scranton.

But his Oregon triumph was far from meaningless. It gave him increased momentum in his desperate effort to overhaul his only opponent, Goldwater, in California's June 2 primary. It showed once again that if the Republicans nominate Goldwater they will be picking a proven poor vote getter. It all but kayoed Lodge. The big argument in Lodge's favor was that he was unbeatable with rank-and-file Republicans. Well, he wasn't, not by a long shot. Rockefeller's win also fractured the notion that Nixon can get the nomination simply by making a few phone calls.

The Reason Why. Less specifically, but perhaps more importantly, Rockefeller's victory infused drama and excitement into what had become a dull, dreary Republican race. It showed that there is still plenty of life in the Grand Old Party. To those Republicans who think there is no chance of beating Democrat Lyndon Johnson this year, Rocky demonstrated that "where there's life, there's hope" is more an axiom than a maxim. Above all, Rockefeller's Oregon win increased what has been called the "scatteration" of strength in the Republican presidential picture. And in so doing, it greatly increased the possibility that the so-called Republican kingmakers—the amalgam of corporation executives, party professionals and publishers—who have so far been mere spectators at ringside, may yet find it necessary to get in and referee the bout.

Oregon's outcome was obvious from the moment the first votes were counted. Just three minutes after the polls closed, NBC-TV declared Rocky the winner. From there on, it was mostly a matter of pollsters and pundits trying to figure out how they had gone so wrong. One commentator, referring to the supposed political effects of Rocky's divorce and remarriage, lamely concluded that the results might be related to the fact that Oregon's divorce rate is among the highest in the nation.

But there was little excuse for such devious reasoning. For once, a political post-mortem could produce a clear, simple explanation. The reason Rocky won was that of the six contestants in Oregon he alone was there—working, fighting, pleading his case, and showing Oregon that he really cared about the state, its primary and its 18 delegates. And where were the other Republican runners?

Where They Were. Henry Cabot Lodge, the odds-on favorite in Oregon, was still in Saigon, presiding over U.S. efforts to win the war there, consulting with visiting Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and General Maxwell Taylor, taking time for a dip in the pool at the Saigon Sports Club, and staying as silent as any Buddhist idol about his political plans.