National Affairs: Protected Rear

Minnesota’s smart, purposeful Hubert Humphrey last week cleared up a home front problem that had plagued him for months. The problem: if his 1960 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination collapses, as his vice-presidency bid did in 1956, will he have time to campaign for re-election to the Senate? Solution: Humphrey got a flat commitment from Minnesota’s ambitious but loyal Democrat-Farmer-Labor comrade, Governor Orville Freeman, that no D.F.L. competition for Humphrey’s seat will be tolerated until Humphrey gives the word that the presidency situation is settled.

The agreement left Humphrey free and clear to set up the best-bet strategy for stopping the Democratic presidential frontrunner, Massachusetts Senator Jack Kennedy. That best bet: 1) get himself identified in the Senate and on the stump as the favorite son of Midwestern Democrats; 2) challenge and beat Jack Kennedy in the Midwest in the important Wisconsin presidential primary; 3) fight hard for the well-heeled support of the strongest anti-Kennedy forces, those still hoping against hope for Adlai Stevenson.