The Dodo's Dance

First [the Dodo] marked out a racecourse, in a sort of circle ("the exact shape doesn't matter," it said), and then all the party were placed along the course here and there. There was no "One, two, three, and away!" but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over.

--Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

With the dominant figure in U.S. politics forced to the sidelines for--perhaps--the rest of the year, the national political situation last week began to take on the unreal air of the Dodo's caucus race. No one announced that anyone was running, but there was a persistent clatter of hurrying feet in a sort of circle.

Most Republican leaders refused to talk politics in public until the President is heard from. But wherever Republicans gathered, the conversation was bound to be urgent. Obviously, plans of attack were being drawn, and just as obviously the figure of Vice President Richard Nixon was growing larger and clearer in the G.O.P. picture.

On the Democratic track there was a good deal of joggling, which gave the situation its most unreal quality. From the Orient, Tennessee's Estes Kefauver sent back word that he had not yet made up his mind--an announcement that most observers took as another indication that he is already racing. Adlai Stevenson, continuing to insist that he has not decided whether to run, stepped out and made his first major political speech of the season. Averell Harriman, who has said that he is not running, was the guest of honor at a big political rally in his own back yard at Albany. At that rally Harry Truman, who said he was not ready to announce his choice, slyly intimated that he liked Ave better than he liked Adlai. With that, Averell Harriman loomed larger than ever on the Democratic horizon.

Amidst the confusion, each party has a stabilizing factor. In the G.O.P. Dwight Eisenhower could--if he would--be an important force in selecting the nominee. Among Democrats, Harry Truman can--and he will--exert considerable influence. No matter what either man does, the prospect for the U.S. is a yearlong, two-ring political circus that may well be the greatest show of its kind in U.S. history.

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