Down to the Tallest Tree

At first, backers of Arizona's Republican Senator Barry Goldwater figured that he had at least a 4-to-l lead in New Hampshire over New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller. But ever since, they have watched that margin melt away. First came the attrition caused by President Kennedy's assassination. Then more avowed and write-in candidates got into the race. Then Barry dispersed slapdash political ideas in a lackluster campaign. Now, with the presidential primary coming up next week, Senator Norris Cotton, who is Goldwater's New Hampshire manager, admitted that "anything above 40% of the vote will be a victory."

Downgrading New Hampshire. Barry himself thought it would be even thinner. He said last week that he would be happy to get out of New Hampshire with 35% of 100,000 expected votes and with seven of the state's 14 G.O.P. Convention delegates. He was also downgrading the importance of the New Hampshire primary with its crowd of contenders. Filing for the June 2 California primary, he said, "California, I think, is the important one. I think the person who wins in California will be the party nominee."

Rockefeller, obviously buoyed up by a feeling that he is gaining on Goldwater, last week campaigned hard in New Hampshire with his expectant wife. In a tough statement issued at Keene, Rocky hit again at Goldwater's scheme to make social security a voluntary program. Said Rockefeller: "It would bankrupt the social security system and be a personal disaster to millions of senior citizens and their families." Despite zero temperatures, Rocky clutched hundreds of hands and rattled off a spate of quick speeches to shivering but receptive crowds. Always easygoing and folksy, Rockefeller engaged a platoon of little boys in a snowball fight in Jaffrey, and that same night wound up straddling an onstage chair to hear the Keene Lion's Club chorus rehearse. The Lions roared Brotherhood of Man, and Rocky cracked: "You ought to go down to Washington and sing it." As far as winning in New Hampshire was concerned, Rockefeller refused to make a prediction, said that he just wanted "at least one vote and one delegate more than anyone else."

How to Vote. One major worry to both Goldwater and Rockefeller in New Hampshire was a hyped-up write-in campaign for Henry Cabot Lodge, U.S. Ambassador to South Viet Nam. In Sai gon, Lodge dodged questions about it by claiming that his diplomatic position did not allow him to discuss politics. But he refused to call off the campaign. His eager New Hampshire workers were busily buying television time for a five-minute Lodge campaign film that was made in 1960--and narrated by Dwight Eisenhower. Besides that, Lodge people planned to mail out 94,000 sample ballots this week, showing voters how to write in Lodge's name and how to vote for his delegates. With heady optimism, they predicted he would get 27,000 votes.

A write-in campaign for Richard Nixon--headed by New Hampshire's former Governor Wesley Powell--rolled along too. Maine's Senator Margaret Chase Smith, pleased by a warm reception two weeks ago, said she hoped to return to campaign shortly before the election on March 10. And longtime loser Harold Stassen of Philadelphia managed to add a little something to the campaign by running newspaper ads claiming that "in our forest of presidential timber, Harold Stassen is the tallest tree of all."

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