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As the tales of the labor hoods unfolded under Bobby's stern questioning, he made loyal friends and mortal enemies. Many of the inner circle of the Kennedy team—O'Donnell, Salinger, Advance Man Walter Sheridan—are veteran staffers of the labor rackets committee and the most loyal supporters of Bobby Kennedy. But the reaction of his adversaries is foaming. Jimmy Hoffa turns purple at the mere mention of the Kennedy name. "Bobby Kennedy," he says, in a compassionate moment, "is a young, dimwitted, curly-headed smart aleck." Says an attorney who opposed him: "I might as well leave town if Jack Kennedy is elected President." Says Bobby: "It was like playing Notre Dame every day."
Like Notre Dame. Bobby got his taste of the political big league in Jack's unsuccessful 1956 bid for the Democratic vice-presidential nomination. Rehashing the hectic scene in Chicago when Jack came within 38½ votes of beating Estes Kefauver, Bobby recalls: "I said right there, we should forget the issues and send Christmas cards next time." Next time was close at hand: two months after the convention, Jack Kennedy began the long buildup for his 1960 campaign. Bobby was ready and willing to try his political stagecraft on a nationwide scale.
As the campaign has developed, the brothers and their trusted aides have worked out a flexible strategy. Their views on specific issues:
THE CHARGE THAT JACK KENNEDY Is IMMATURE. Hours after the TV debate Bobby had the Lou Harris pollsters out measuring the result. The debate, he says, "destroyed the Republicans' major argument. I think that Jack can win this election with or without TV. But this was a step forward in front of more than 70 million people."
FOREIGN POLICY. Bobby believes that the final TV foreign policy debate will be a trap for Nixon—and that G.O.P. Campaign Manager Len Hall has underestimated Jack Kennedy's grasp of foreign policy. "Jack was writing books on it before Nixon ever knew anything about it," he scoffs. "Jack had been to 30 foreign countries before Nixon had been to five."
But the Kennedys know that Khrushchev's presence in the U.S. is helping Nixon and hurting Kennedy—"a slow hurt."
EISENHOWER AND ROCKEFELLER. The Democrats have only Harry Truman and Adlai Stevenson to match against Dick Nixon's high-caliber supporting cast, but, says Bobby, "you can't transfer popularity." Nevertheless, Bobby and his Harris pollsters are tracking Ike's campaign path anxiously. They are also concerned about the popularity of Nixon's running mate Henry Cabot Lodge and the Southern incursions of the G.O.P.'s conservative lead er, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater.
FARM POLICY. "It comes down now to a choice between Ezra Benson and the Pope."
RELIGION. The problem has passed its peak, but, says Bobby, "it could peak again." Hard-boiled Kennedyites run a continual poll on the Catholic vote, know that Jack's confrontation by the Houston Protestant ministers (TIME, Sept. 26) helped them with Nixon-minded Northern Catholics—and know that a fall-off of interest in religion will weaken them in the same area. Bobby plans to show a film of Jack Kennedy's session with the Houston clergy in every state.