Nation: Pressure, Pressure ...

"This is Ted Kennedy," said the voice over the telephone.

"No, it isn't," replied the female delegate to Massachusetts' Democratic convention.

"Yes, it is."

"If you are, then tell me the date of the President's birthday."

With that, the voice, which was indeed Ted Kennedy's, whispered in a frantic aside to aides standing near by: "When's the President's birthday? Is it the 27th or the 29th?"

Said an aide: "I don't remember."

Said the voice to the woman delegate: "May 27th."

"No, it isn't," said she, and slammed the receiver down.

That was one vote that Teddy Kennedy presumably lost in his effort to win endorsement by Massachusetts Democrats convening in Springfield last week. But he won enough to force Attorney General Edward McCormack Jr. to concede midway through the first ballot when trailing 691-360. Just a few weeks ago, Eddie figured he was well ahead. Both through his own record as a regular Massachusetts Democrat and as House Speaker John McCormack's nephew, Eddie commanded the loyalties of the state's party pros. But those pros proved loyal only up to the point where they came into conflict with the techniques and power of a Kennedy.

Real Shaked. Even before the balloting began, the McCormack men could see defeat in the offing. Eddie's dad, "Knocko" McCormack, sat sadly in the Cheddar Cheese Room, an eatery in the bowels of Springfield's Sheraton-Kimball Hotel, and spoke darkly about the Kennedy lieutenants. "They're cold, they're cold," said old Knocko. "I got here at 12:30 last night, and I got in the elevator with an old friend from Northampton. He's been in the American Legion with me for years, and I say, 'Hello.

Commander. And he hangs his head, and he says, 'I can't be with you. Knocko.' 'What do you mean?' says I. 'I've been offered a good federal job if I go with Kennedy,' says he.

"And over in Worcester there's another guy. He's like a first cousin to me for 40 years. How would you like to be shaked like that when he comes and says he's not with you? How do you like that? He says they promised him the postmastership in Worcester." Concluded Knocko: "It's pressure, pressure, pressure, post office, post office, post office."

12-to-1. Even the candidates' arrivals in town were significantly different. Eddie came quietly and went to work in a modest Sheraton-Kimball headquarters suite.

Teddy blared into town behind a crack brass band to find a prearranged crowd, replete with pretty girl workers, awaiting him outside the hotel. Pulled up on a sound truck, Teddy began to speak—and his chopping gestures, his thrust-out chin, his flat inflections and staccato cadences were more than slightly familiar.