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Excitement & Responsibility. Yet Cabot Lodge is a man with a strong sense of mission. Said he in a recent moment of reflection about his present job: "Sometimes I wonder how I ever got here. Then I remember that I'm no youngster any more, that I'm a grandfather many times over, and I've been a very fortunate man. I've had a life full of great excitement and great responsibility, and it's the combination of those two that makes life worth living, gives it its flavor. You take those things into account, and you understand that I felt that if there were any way in which I could invest what's left of my life in doing something my country needed, then that's what I should do, whatever the price.
"If you can do something that's worthwhile, that contributes, however little, to your country, and if you can have some fun while you're doing it—why, only a fool would choose to play it safe."
The Dream. This feeling presumably extends to Lodge's sentiments about actively seeking the Republican nomination. He is known to believe that Barry Goldwater would be a disaster to the G.O.P. if nominated, and to the U.S. if elected. Those closest to him say that the only thing that would get him back to the U.S. before the July 13 San Francisco convention would be an effort to stop Goldwater.
For that, it may already be too late. By most counts, Goldwater already has at least 550 of the 655 delegates needed for a first ballot nomination, could sew up the rest by convention time. The dynamics—or lack of them—of the Republican Party so far this year have favored the man who is out collecting delegates, not the man who is winning the polls and primaries. One reason is that many Republicans feel that nobody, not even a vote getter like Lodge, can beat Democrat Johnson in November.
But this defeatist attitude is pretty silly. Sure as his political moves have been, Johnson could still stumble politically. And healthy as the President may seem, there is always that dread possibility of disablement or worse. The Republican nomination is therefore nothing to give away for the mere asking.
Lodge's backers hope for a big Oregon win, are moving to stop Goldwater by backing Rockefeller in the June 2 winner-take-all primary in California, where Lodge is not on the ballot, write-ins are not allowed, and 86 delegates are at stake.
But most of all, the Lodgemen have a dream, and it goes something like this: