Ike & Dick

At the President's press conference came the inevitable death-watch question: Had Vice President Richard Nixon yet told Ike whether he wanted to run again? Replied President Eisenhower: "No." But the President did not have long to wait. Next day Dick Nixon made what was—despite volumes of editorial cliff-hanging—the most predictable announcement of the year.

Nixon slipped into the White House by a side door at about 3 p.m., conferred briefly with the President, later faced newsmen with Press Secretary James Hagerty at his side. Said Nixon: "I informed the President that in the event the President and the delegates to the convention reached the decision that it was their desire for me to serve as the nominee of the Republican Party for Vice President, I would be honored to accept that nomination . . ." Added Hagerty: "The President has asked me to tell you gentlemen that he was delighted . . . "

Reaction in both parties was as predictable as the announcement itself. G.O.P. Chairman Leonard Hall, who has been predicting an Eisenhower-Nixon ticket almost every hour on the hour for months, described Eisenhower and Nixon as "the greatest pair of candidates ever presented to the American people." The Eisenhower Cabinet applauded when State Secretary Dulles expressed "the gratification I know my colleagues feel that the team this year is again going to be Ike and Dick." The Democrats, who mortally hate and fear Nixon, hoped mightily that his name would hurt the Republicans with independent voters. Democratic National Chairman Paul Butler warned that President Eisenhower must stand responsible for "the type of campaign" that Nixon conducts. The fairdealing New York Post editorialized: "One might almost say this is a national emergency." And Oklahoma's Senator Robert Kerr, the nation's windiest master of the last word, proclaimed: "Unless the President's got a stronger back and a stouter heart than I think he has, that load, i.e., Nixon, will get awful heavy before November."