ALL AS BEFORE
BY RICHARD H. ROVERE New York THE suspense. which was not very great in the first place, was broken last week, and Mr. Eisenhower will be an enthusiastic candidate to succeed himself. As in the case of his February 29 announcement, in which he let it be known that he did not consider his heart condition an adequate reason for relinquishing his leadership, there were signs and portents for several days. Quite a bit was made of his taking up putting again on the Fourth of July. Then Mr. Hagerty, his press secretary, held a number of meetings with reporters in which his smile was a large feature. Whenever he said any- thing, he made a point of looking happy. This meant a rather special effort for Mr. Hagerty because he has one of those faces that have been formed by nature into a smile. At any rate, he conveyed the idea of satisfaction, and it was promptly explained to the public that Mr. Eisenhower must be going to run again, because Mr. Hagerty was smiling extra-large smiles, and Mr. Hagerty certainly wouldn't be going around looking pleased if he had been hearing disappointing things from Mr. Eisenhower. Then, on Tuesday of this week, Senator Knowland was chosen the spokesman of a group of Republi- can Congressmen who visited the President. and in that capacity he made the big announcement. The only surprise. really, was the casualness of it all. Most people had supposed that a big production would be made of announcing the deci- sion—huge press conferences, television speeches, and the like. But the President, who evidently never regarded the ileitis as in any way disabling, brought the whole thing off with very little fuss.
So that is that. He will run, and Vice-President Nixon will run with him. For a while, the old doubts about Nixon cropped up again, and there has been much talk of his Asian itinerary being all part of a plan to get him out of the country so that mean things affecting his future could be done behind his back. It is Said he had some sense of this himself and quite forcefully resisted tke idea of going away. But Mr. Dulles appealed to his sense of duty ana patriotism, and off he went. If there is any plotting against him, it probably won't succeed. Everything else is as before as far as anyone knows. Collier's magazine has just run a big survey of how people feel about the President's health now that he has had a second illness. A fair capsule statement of this survey could be that while quite a number of voters are alarmed about Mr. Eisenhower's condition, only a few of his admirers will express their alarm by voting against him. Their number will be just about balanced by those who are not necessarily his political admirers but who will vote for him because they have deep sympathies with a man in his present position. It is said, for example. that his popularity has of late increased greatly among elderly people, who are coming to feel that he is the symbol of their. own determination to lead useful lives. And all those who have had similar afflictions, either themselves or in the family, are heartened by his example. I know of no reason to suppose that there have been any shifts of opinion that will affect the out- come in any Serious way.
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