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"We Owe It . . ." Since Ike's return to work came against the fascinating political backdrop of his Key West news conference (TIME, Jan. 16), it was only natural that there should be a freshening tide of interest in his political plans. This began, inevitably, on the floors of Congress. New York's Republican Representative W. Sterling ("Stub") Cole, one of the staunchest Ikemen on Capitol Hill, handed Republican Leader Joe Martin a four-page speech and asked Martin to have it inserted in the Congressional Record. Martin did so without reading Cole's remarks. If he had looked at them, he would certainly have hesitated, for Stub Cole was saying what Republicans like to hear least: that four more years in office might very well kill Dwight Eisenhower. Said Cole: "As a partisan, it would serve the short-term interest of my party to have our , great leader once again at the head of the ticket. But as a Republican, it would be to substitute expediency for right, politics for principle. We owe it to Dwight Eisenhower, we owe it to ourselves, and we owe it to our country so to comport ourselves in compassion and understanding that in fulfillment of his highest duty he may relinquish with honor the heavy burdens of his office."
Republican leaders were still trying to figure out an answer to Cole when attention was distracted by some sneering remarks made by Oklahoma's Democratic Senator Robert Kerr in a newsletter to constituents. Wrote Kerr, referring to the fact that the President's State of the Union message had been read for him: "The fact that he was physically unable to deliver it in person is evidence that it was either much too long or that those so urgently pushing him . . . should take warning lest they put too great a burden on his physical reserve. However, these Republicans are so alarmed about their own low political reserve they plan to bring Ike to the G.O.P. Convention [in San Francisco] even if he has to stay in Letterman General Hospital, which reportedly is preparing a suite for him." Republicans said the hospital had received no such request, and they loudly cried foul at Kerr.
Assent or Dissent? Meanwhile, the relentless timetable of an election year moved on, and it had a direct bearing on Ike and Republicans.
New Hampshire's Governor Lane Dwinell entered his name in his state's March 13 primary as a delegate favorable to Eisenhower, said he would put Ike in the New Hampshire popularity poll (which is separate from the delegate contest), and that he looked for White House sanction for the move. But before Dwinell could get around to it, a car dealer named Maurice Grant rushed in and entered Eisenhower in the popularity poll. Informed of the New Hampshire developments, Press
Secretary Hagerty commented, "I would suspect that when . . . notification arrives from the secretary of state of New Hampshire . . . that notification will be answered by the President."