ED MUSKIE practices putting with Goofy and braces the wind in a swamp buggy. Scoop Jackson Indian-wrestles a brewery worker. Hubert Humphrey bobs and waves from a merry-go-round. George McGovern presses the flesh in a beauty parlor. John Lindsay savors the pure air of the scuba diver. On a loftier plane, the once and future candidate, Richard Nixon, meets the folks in China—and that momentous event, too, has its political significance. The great quadrennial callithump of politics, American style, is under way.
The President faces two challengers, Pete McCloskey on the left and John Ashbrook on the right, but no real challenge to his renomination. But the opposition camp is alive, in the best brawling tradition of the party of Andrew Jackson, with the sound of head-butting. A baker's dozen candidates are vying for the Democratic nomination under the stimulus of new party reforms that will take them more places than ever before.
The road to the Democratic National Convention at Miami in July is paved with a record 24 primary elections and a bewildering array of state caucuses, conventions and diverse devices to elicit grass-roots participation. No Democrat has the resources or the stamina to contest in each of the 50 states; picking and choosing where to run—and how hard—is all-important. Here, in brief, are the principal game plans:
For Edmund Muskie, the leader, the name of the game is momentum. He is doing his best to sweep the first four primaries in New Hampshire, Florida, Illinois and Wisconsin. He is most vulnerable in Florida; if he should stumble, he still stands a good chance to win in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Should he take the first four, or six out of the first seven, the Democratic race will probably be over. Hubert Humphrey hopes to spoil that strategy with his scenario: best Muskie in Florida even if George Wallace beats them both, stay a close second to Muskie in Wisconsin, then win in Pennsylvania. The odds are currently against Humphrey.
For a time, Henry ("Scoop") Jackson had the Democratic right to himself, talking defense up and radicals down, backing Nixon on Viet Nam and antibusing. Then along came George Wallace to steal his constituency and any chance Scoop had of taking Florida. Now Jackson is concentrating on Tennessee, and plans to challenge the bantam Southerner in his home state of Alabama. An upset win there could carry Jackson to the later primaries out West, where he is better known. Wallace figures to win Florida and stay in the race all the way, then come into Miami with as many as 250 delegates and in a position to bargain on issues like busing.