Republicans: Anchors Aweigh

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Aboard the S.S. Independence this week in Manhattan, a bulwark-bulging guest list checked in for a voyage into 1968. As the Governors of 42 American states—21 Democrats, 21 Republicans—and 700 aides and journalists sailed off on an eight-day cruise to the Virgin Islands, it was not the wide blue Caribbean that absorbed their attention but the political waves back home that may well sweep a Republican President into the White House next year.

With the notable exceptions of Richard Nixon and Illinois' Senator Charles Percy, the leading contenders for the G.O.P. nomination were all ticketed for the trip—New York's Nelson Rockefeller, Michigan's George Romney and California's Ronald Reagan. And there were enough potential vice-presidential candidates to create a traffic jam on the promenade deck. Among them: Massachusetts' John Volpe, Rhode Island's John Chafee, Ohio's James Rhodes, Wisconsin's Warren Knowles, Colorado's John Love, New Mexico's David Cargo, Washington's Daniel Evans, even Nelson's younger brother, Arkansas' Winthrop Rockefeller.

One of the Fellas. With the G.O.P. convention less than ten months away, the field is more crowded with presidential contenders than at any comparable time in a generation. Not since 1940, when 13 men won votes on the first ballot and Wendell Willkie only managed to nail down the nomination on the sixth, have Republicans been confronted with so wide open a race. Moreover, when the convention comes to order in Miami Beach on Aug. 5, the field may well remain as crowded as it is right now. The likelihood then is for a "brokered" convention—one in which nobody has enough strength to win until after protracted private horse trading. "Nobody is so far ahead that he can't be beaten," said a Republican state chairman from New England. Nor is anybody so far behind that he can't catch up—unless it is George Romney.

"Romney's dead," says Indiana's Republican state treasurer, John Snyder. "The 'brainwash' remark didn't make all that much difference. People were already looking for a reason to turn away." Most other G.O.P. strategists agree. From a commanding lead in the polls right after his impressive re-election victory in 1966, Michigan's Governor has reached a nadir; he is unlikely even to control the entire delegation from his own state. But Romney has been counted out before, only to stage a winning campaign. He seems determined to do so again in the primaries, and is already taking steps to soften the stiff, sanctimonious impression that he too often conveys. "He's sure trying to be one of the fellas," says an aide. "He's even using a lot more hells and damns than he used to." Even so, the newsmen who cover Romney still refer to him as "Super Square."