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George Romney evidently thinks so. As the current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, with only Richard Nixon a serious rival, he has embraced Javits with a degree of ardor that some party pros consider unwise so early in the game. For, though Romney and Javits may look to many Midwestern Republicans like Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Romney is well aware that he enjoys nowhere near as progressive a reputation as Javits does in the populous East. "Romney's got to get that Eastern liberal-Establishment to win," one of his aides admits candidly. "Javits is the key to that. Javits can bring in that vote."
Two-Year Mission. Much as he craves the chance, New York's senior Senator will not be seriously hurt if he never gets it. The important thing to him is to help the G.O.P.'s moderates and liberals hold their own for a few more years. By then, a whole crop of bright young Republicans will have matured—Oregon's Mark Hatfield, Rhode Island's John Chafee, Ohio's Robert A. Taft Jr., Washington's Daniel Evans, and Illinois' Chuck Percy, to name a few—and be ready to take over. "My political mission for the next two years is clear," he says. Win or lose, that mission is to hold in trust for tomorrow those ideals that in Jacob Javits' view can revivify the Republican Party and return its candidate to the White House.
— Her latest fad, shared by TIME Cover Artist Robert Vickrey, who painted her husband against a background of black and white squares, with an X in each white square to symbolize the ballot, Jack Javits' favorite art form.