THE ADMINISTRATION: A Sure Touch in Ford's Second Week

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"Like President Truman and President Lincoln before him, I found on my desk, where the buck stops, the urgent problem of how to bind up the nation's wounds. And I intend to do that."

With those words, President Gerald Ford last week reaffirmed his promise to restore a sense of national unity and purpose—to replace, as his friend and adviser Bryce Harlow expresses it, a national frown with a national smile. To that end, Ford maintained a headlong pace throughout the second full week of his presidency.

He nominated former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller as Vice President. He declared a policy of leniency toward Viet Nam War-era draft evaders and deserters. He let it be known that he "probably" will run for President in 1976. He worked from early morning to late at night, signing bills, giving speeches, issuing proclamations, and meeting with an enormous number of people in the White House and on Capitol Hill.

The activity was calculated to project an image of a Chief Executive who was firmly in command and to diminish whatever doubts might still linger over the transition from Richard Nixon to a new and untested President. Much as Lyndon Johnson did in the weeks after John F. Kennedy's assassination, Ford was reaching out for a national consensus, a show of bipartisan support—and he was doing it with a sure touch. Declared Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy of Ford's first days as President: "It's been excellent. I don't think he's missed a beat."

After a last, 20-lap swim in the pool of his Alexandria, Va., home on Monday morning—soon afterward, the Fords moved into the White House—the President began his exhausting week. He flew to Chicago aboard Air Force One to address the Veterans of Foreign Wars. It was Ford's first out-of-town trip as President, and he and his wife Betty were greeted at Chicago's O'Hare Airport with a flubbed announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen," a voice intoned over the airport's loudspeakers, "the President of the United States and Mrs. Nixon."

Mussed Hair. Along the city's most stylish street, North Michigan Avenue, the Fords were greeted by moderate-sized but enthusiastic crowds. The President stood in the open limousine, waving both hands and clasping them like a victorious prizefighter. At one point, he plunged into the crowd, shaking hands and grinning as young girls stood on tiptoe to kiss him and muss his hair. The only discordant note was sounded by several thousand Greek Americans who were demonstrating in Grant Park across the street from the V.F.W. convention in the Conrad Hilton hotel. They were protesting U.S. policy in Cyprus, but their principal target was Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, not Ford. Demanded one placard: FORD, FIRE KISSINGER.