THE VICE PRESIDENCY: Delicate Balancing Act

The guest of honor at the head table had barely finished his spareribs when he was introduced by Republican Congressman Tim Lee Carter with a ringing declaration: "I shall work for his nomination in 1976 with all my strength!" The audience responded with applause and cheers at last week's Lincoln Day Dinner held in the Laurel County High School gym at London, Ky. As he rose to speak, the object of the Republicans' affection smiled modestly and let the pledge and its portents go by without comment. Vice President Gerald Ford was much too careful to start his own bandwagon rolling at this early date, yet the fact that it was already moving showed how prized he is by the Republicans.

As a politician who projects complete sincerity, Ford has rapidly become the hottest G.O.P. property in the era of Watergate. He is now the ceremonial head of the party; Republicans want him, not Nixon, as the keynote speaker at their fund-raising dinners. And despite his devout denials of any higher ambitions, Ford looms as the leading Republican candidate for 1976. In conversation, the President usually leads off his private list of possible Republican standard-bearers with his deputy's name. In the Harris poll, the Vice President leads the Democratic front runners for 1976, Senators Edward Kennedy (48%-44%) and Henry ("Scoop") Jackson (43%-41%). "Ford's different, refreshing, new," says Kentucky's Republican Senator Marlow W. Cook.

"That's what the American people are looking for."

Rescue Effort. Ford's popularity is largely due to his success as the Mr. Outside of the White House, the link between the besieged Nixon presidency and the people. He also serves as a special White House emissary to a hostile Congress. For the first time in history, a President needs his Vice President more than, well, vice versa. Ford recognizes the pitfalls and anomalies of this situation, not the least of which is a Gallup poll finding that Americans, by a margin of 46% to 32%, would like him to finish out Richard Nixon's term. For the good of both the party and himself, Ford must back up the man who selected him—yet he cannot become his puppet. Last month he made the mistake of letting his loyalties as a team player overcome his instincts as a politician. He delivered a speech drafted by the White House charging that a "relatively small group of political partisans" was dragging out Watergate to cripple the President.

On Capitol Hill, Ford was severely criticized not only by liberal Democrats but by conservative Republicans. "The conservatives understand his need to support the President," says Congressman John Anderson, a House Republican leader, "but they are definitely opposed to his plunging in up to his elbows in the rescue effort." While he still staunchly defends the President, Ford now avoids attacking Nixon's critics.

Ford claims that he has ready access to the President. "I talk to him or see him almost every day," he says. In fact, Nixon has given his Vice President an unusually broad scope of action, making him part of meetings with the Cabinet, the energy emergency action group, the Domestic Council and the congressional leadership. His relations with Henry Kissinger are carefully cultivated —by both men. Kissinger briefs Ford on foreign affairs every other week.