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After Ike's intestinal operation, Harold Stassen had some second mental rum blings, ordered his private popularity poll of vice-presidential candidates. Armed with the poll's statistics, Stassen told President Eisenhower of his decision to support Herter. In a 15-minute confer ence Stassen got neither a yes nor a no from Ike, in keeping with Eisenhower's view that the Vice President should be nominated at the convention, not in the White House. Both before and after his conversation with Ike, Stassen talked by telephone to Herter. Stassen was neither encouraged nor rebuffed; high-minded Chris Herter held to his intention of do ing whatever his party and his President wanted him to do. Having carried out his inconclusive reconnaissance. Stassen called his press conference and leaped into headlines.
Next morning Stassen and other top Republicans gathered at Washington's National Airport to welcome the President back from Panama. Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield and White House Aide Jerry Persons walked out of their way to avoid him. Massachusetts' Senator Lev Saltonstall bumped into Stassen, reacted as though he had come nose to nose with a spoiled cod. Thirty feet away, Dick Nixon seemed oblivious to Stassen's presence. Only at the very end of the airport interlude did Stassen walk over to Nixon and say, "Good morning." The two shook hands briefly, while news photographers clicked away.
Although Ike had scrupulously avoided heading Stassen off, he was angered because he thought Stassen had gone too far in hurling darts at another member of the Eisenhower team. At the airport he went out of his way to wring Nixon's hand and engage him in private conversation. Moving down the line, he came to Stassen, shook hands routinely, uttered a brief "hello." Bubbled Harold, "Congratulations, Mr. President, you did a wonderful job . . ." His lips were still wagging when the President moved on.
The Booby Trap. That afternoon, Childe Harold's anti-Nixon campaign blew up right in his face. He had walked into his own political booby trap. Long before Stassen brought his dump-Nixon move into the open, Nixon and Chairman Len Hall had learned what was up. Nixon himself called Herter to ask that Herter place Nixon in nomination at the Republican convention. Herter did not give an immediate answer. But after Stassen's first public statement. Herter was again asked to nominate Nixon. This time he agreed. In an instant Stassen became a manager without a candidate.
But Harold Stassen is not easily embarrassed, and he is an expert at prolonging a story that keeps his name in print. Throughout the week he piled on new copy, calling on the President to express his attitude in unmistakable terms, accusing Len Hall of trying to ram through Nixon's nomination, arranging for still another vice-presidential poll. This weekend, on Face the Nation. Stassen said he was "foreclosing any consideration" for President or Vice President in order to bring about an "open" 1956 convention. "Forever?" asked a reporter. Said Harold Stassen: "Yes."