THROUGH the long hours of the Republican National Convention, the fadeout, fade-in of the television cameras relentlessly followed some part of the action, at times fascinating and at others simply boring. Every day the newspapers rolled out with instant analyses that often had to change in tone from edition to edition. TIME, by its very nature, viewed the scene in deeper perspective. What happened minute by minute and hour by hour was often important. But why did it happen that way, and what did it mean in sum? Twenty-one correspondents from half a dozen TIME bureaus spent the week in San Francisco pursuing the answers. They were joined for part of the week by the staff to whom they were reporting--Nation Editor Champ Clark and twelve writers and researchers, who flew back to New York after the presidential nomination to begin putting together the stories that lead off this week's magazine.

The staffer who had the most inside week was Washington Correspondent Loye Miller, who camped at Barry Goldwater's headquarters on the 15th floor of the Mark Hopkins Hotel and followed the candidate almost everywhere he went, including Phoenix at week's end. Miller has done a major share of the reporting for all five of Goldwater's appearances on TIME'S cover.* Over the years, Miller has traveled some 100,000 miles with Barry, has interviewed him in an Air Force T-39 jet trainer at 45,000 ft. and 450 knots, followed his dog sled in New Hampshire, and discovered that he likes to wear a white nightshirt with the words "Goldwater's Body Shop--24 Hour Service" embroidered in red on the back. So complete is Miller's file of notes and copy on Goldwater that when he packed it all into a suitcase for the trip to the West Coast, he had to pay $34 overweight.

Looking back over what we have said in the last four years about Barry Goldwater's political prospects, we feel that paying close and knowing attention to his situation has been well worth the effort. Reporting on his dramatic popularity at the 1960 G.O.P. National Convention, we pointed out in the Aug. 8, 1960, issue that he would stand in a highly important position in the party if Richard Nixon lost the presidential election. By June 23, 1961, we found him riding a wave of support that could "make him the party's presidential standard-bearer in 1964." Again assaying his position, on June 14, 1963, we concluded that "if the Republican National Convention were to be held today, Goldwater would almost certainly be its presidential nominee." Last May 8, a month before the California primary and more than two months before the nomination, our report was: "Goldwater's almost got it."

As the 1964 political season moves on to its climax, our continuing aim is to keep the reader ahead of up-to-date.

*-The four previous: June 23, 1961; June 14, 1963; June 12, 1964; and July 10 (with Everett Dirksen).

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