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Part of the professionals' disgruntlement may, of course, be only temporary. Observes Nelson Rising, a young Los Angeles attorney and McGovern supporter: "It's natural when power is shifting hands that there is going to be some distress and disenchantment." The realities of power may reconcile many. McGovern's primary triumphs were not merely legerdemain but solid electoral victories as well. Last week, for the first time, a Gallup poll showed McGovern as the first presidential choice among rank-and-file Democrats—with 46% v. 43% for Humphrey. Where the pros fear a Nixon landslide, McGovern's legions are planning a massive youth registration drive, aimed at signing up some 18 million of the 25 million newly enfranchised young. That drive, if pursued with the same efficiency as McGovern's primary campaign, might offset the anticipated defections to Nixon. Connecticut Senator Abraham Ribicoff describes McGovern's organization as already "better than any of the Kennedys ever had."
Virtuous. Nor will McGovern necessarily be perceived as the radical that his image and some of his own supporters have made him seem. Says one Democratic Senator: "Some of the pros are worried about losing the old American Virtue vote. But after all, he's the son of a Methodist minister, a decorated bomber pilot from as middle American a state as South Dakota. I can't see why that fellow can't be a pretty virtuous soul." Adds Illinois Senator Adlai Stevenson III: "The contest could just become a contest of character, and to many Richard Nixon is a caricature of a politician."
With the primaries behind him, McGovern last week was laying plans to try to calm his party, to reassure those who are trumpeting disaster. It will be an intricate job, for McGovern must accommodate himself to the rest of the party without abusing his own zealous followers. For the moment, McGovern left the delegate-hunting to his aides and drove to his rambling white frame farmhouse on Maryland's Eastern Shore. There, after more than a year on the campaign, he relaxed with his wife Eleanor and his house guests, Actress Julie Christie and Actor Warren Beatty, walking on the beach by Chesapeake Bay in the rainy aftermath of tropical storm Agnes, playing records and reading The Brothers Karamazov.