Politics: The Issue at Issue

“John Kennedy can be beaten,” a top Democratic Party strategist said recently. “But in my opinion he can be beaten only on one issue—civil rights.”

At the opposite extreme of judgment was the statement made in Cleveland last week by Republican Richard Nixon, who said that civil rights should not be a presidential campaign issue in 1964. In fact, he added that if the Republicans did make it an issue, “I don’t think they could win.”

The fact is that Kennedy could lose —or win—for any of several reasons, including civil rights. And Nixon to the contrary, civil rights will and should be a key issue.

It already is. This weekend the Gallup poll reported that President Kennedy had slipped to his lowest level of popularity since taking office—57% as against 61% last June—and that the major reason was his handling of the civil rights situation. Some thought he had moved too fast; others thought he had moved too slowly.

The blade of the civil rights issue cuts in many directions, particularly in the South. It is expected that thousands of Negroes, allowed to register and vote for the first time because of legal and legislative actions supported by the Kennedy Administration, will cast their ballots for their sponsors.

But at the same time, and for the same reason, the once-solid Democratic South has been turned into a region in which anti-Kennedy whites may well vote Republican.

And in the Northern and border states, there is a strong suspicion that many whites blame incumbent Democratic officeholders for espousing or at least giving in to Negro demands that have gone too far, too fast.

Thus many astute political observers are looking with keen interest toward at least two elections coming up next month (see following stories).