FEW stories that U.S. reporters are ' called upon to cover are as fascinating, as exhausting, as much fun -and as important-as presidential politics. Last week, as the 1964 presidential season opened in earnest, TIME reporters fanned out across the country following candidates and prospective candidates, quizzing professional politicians and talking to just plain voters. They found that 17 months before the next presidential election, the country is unusually involved in the game of candidate watching.

White House Correspondent Hugh Sidey flew west from Washington with John F. Kennedy, and discovered "the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of campaign time," as the President got in some political licks along with his official visits. While the President kept his counsel, it was clear that he was carefully watching all four top Republican presidential prospects-and taking a special new interest in Michigan's Governor George Romney. In Michigan, Governor Romney talked with Detroit Correspondent Ben Cate, and held meticulously to his position that he is not a candidate. But one of his aides, in a moment of enthusiasm, looked at a pen inscribed "Governor George Romney" and cracked to Cate: "At night it lights up and says George Romney for President."

Washington Correspondent Neil MacNeil rode with Pennsylvania's Governor William Scranton on an official visit to a mental institution, and New York Correspondent Nick Thimmesch went aboard a cancerbenefit gambling ship with New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller and his bride. Washington Bureau Chief John Steele drove out to Gettysburg for a two-hour interview with an old friend, Dwight Eisenhower. Reporter Steele found the former President profoundly committed to the proposition that another Republican should move into the White House in 1965, and equally convinced that the contest for the nomi nation should be wide open.

Covering the man who is creating the most new excitement in the Republican Party was the job of Washington Correspondent Loye Miller. It was an active assignment. Reporter Miller sat up with Barry Goldwater until 2 a.m. one night while the Senator talked on his short wave radio to a fellow ham on the Pacific island of Kwajalein, flew to New Mexico with Goldwater at the controls of his own twin-engined Beechcraft Bonanza, went back to Washington with Air Force Reserve General Goldwater piloting an Air Force T-39 jet trainer. It was an interview, Miller said rather proudly, at 45,000 feet and 450 knots. Said Goldwater: "Loye had quite a ride."

All of these correspondents-and many others-sent their reports to New York, where Writer Jesse Birnbaum and Editor Champ Clark turned them into this week's cover story. Opening the season, it is a unique and in many ways an exclusive first chapter in a story that TIME intends to cover with all the intensity at its command until Election Day 1964.

THEN Correspondent Judson "" Gooding was assigned to get a definitive story on France's automaking Citroen company, he got only condolences from fellow journalists in Paris. The reason: Citroen is known for its secrecy, and a reporter trying to get through to the man whose card says "Relations avec la Presse" must give his name to a uniformed guard and be cleared by telephone before he is admitted. But when Gooding telephoned ahead and identified himself as TIME'S man, a spokesman told him: "You may find we can tell you much more than you might expect from our reputation." And so they did-including an interview with the rarely interviewed President Pierre Bercot-for the story on Citroen in WORLD BUSINESS.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.