With the Wisconsin primary less than a week away, the candidates have continued slugging in their efforts to determine who will be their party's nominee for 1968. New York Senator Robert Kennedy spoke at Idaho State University yesterday and said, "I have nothing against him (Richard Nixon), but if anybody can tell me if he has had a new idea, I'd like to hear it," going so far as to allege the election of Nixon would mean "more of the same" in Vietnam. Kennedy, who entered the race after Senator Eugene McCarthy nearly upset President Lyndon Johnson in the New Hampshire primary, has found rough sledding in his efforts to draw McCarthy's supporters to his own candidacy. The general consensus among McCarthy's young supporters is that Kennedy is the surer bet to win the fall election, but they are sticking with McCarthy. Kennedy is not on the ballot in Wisconsin, and he has asked his supporters in the state to support McCarthy's candidacy against President Johnson.
The Johnson administration dispatched Postmaster General Lawrence O'Brien to Wisconsin to attempt a late organization of Johnson's voters for the upcoming April 2 primary. O'Brien warns of the possibility that Johnson would lose the primary due to crossover voting, McCarthy's superior in-state organization, and the lack of a Republican contest. The McCarthy campaign was rocked earlier this week by the resignation of two aides, but McCarthy spokesman Richard N. Goodwin declared that the rumors of an internal rift are "a tempest in a teapot" and that the aides would "be back on the job in the week."
New York's state GOP has nudged New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, endorsing a "favorite son" candidacy in the hopes of nominating Rockefeller at the Convention. Former Senator Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican nominee, said that he does not believe that the Republican National Convention later this summer will draft Rockefeller as the party's nominee for the fall election. Stating that "drafts just don't happen...one is possible only if there's a deadlock in the convention," Goldwater said that he expects former Vice-President Richard Nixon to be the Republican nominee, although Goldwater cautioned that Nixon may not prevail on the first ballot. Asked further about the war in Vietnam, Goldwater said the war "would probably be over" by the November election. Goldwater, always good for the amusing quote, was asked further if Senator Robert Kennedy's candidacy carried much weight for the Democrats and replied, "What weight? He has a lot of hair but no weight. He is the only candidate who travels backwards because he can't see for the hair in front of him. He reminds me of a needle in a haystack."
As for Nixon, he won a straw poll of 1,295 voters in Tucson, Arizona against Kennedy over the weekend by a 2-1 margin.
SOURCES
"Barry Says Rocky Draft Improbable," United Press International, Kittanning Simpson Leader Times, March 27, 1968, 1.
"Bobby Ribs Nixon Lack of Ideas," Ibid., 2.
"Key Johnson Man Goes to Wisconsin," Ibid., 2.
"RFK Booms Political Guns from Johnson to Nixon in Idaho Talk," Associated Press, Austin Daily Herald, March 27, 1968, 1.
"Rift in McCarthy Team Called 'Tempest in a Teapot,'" Harry Kelley, Associated Press, Ibid.
"Nixon By A Landslide! Kennedy Second In Tucson Poll," by Dick Casey, Tucson Daily Citizen, March 27, 1968, 1.
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