(9 of 9)
The question about Richard M. Nixon − in fact, the question that would be asked of any man about to be tested in the White House—is whether he is capable of coming close to that ideal. He faces the immensely difficult problem of reconciling an alienated left and an uneasy right, of bringing together Negroes and young people, Wallace followers and middle-class Americans who feel an ever more crushing burden of taxes. He has yet to persuade a great number of citizens that he is wholly to be trusted. His narrow victory may complicate the task. "The problem will not be easy," he acknowledged this week. "We are confronted with the generation gap; we are confronted also with a racial gap. But I am going to try to establish communications with every one of the dissenting groups."
Communications is indeed the key element—a capacity, as Nixon himself put it in his speech on the presidency, "to rally the people, to define those moral imperatives which are the cement of a civilized society, to point the ways in which the energies of the people can be enlisted to serve the ideals of the people." Nixon has amply proved that he can improvise, tinker, administer, manage—and think. Now the nation, by its choice, has given him the opportunity to demonstrate whether he can pass the ultimate test of a President in this complex age: Can he lead?