Oldal 3 [3]
— page threef = "
is perfectly clear, The whole strategy is to hold fim during the
first two ballotis, to permit Taft to spend his strength, and then
Slowly to draw ahead, Everything is based on this consideration,
It is likely to succeed, unless = and herein lies the great danger
for Bisenhower = Taft is able to put up such a show of strength on
the first ballott, that he is able to start the bandwaggon rolling
and that on the second he will thus gain fence=sitters, who normally
wogid go to Eisenhower. It is this position which explains the ob=
vious effort of the Taft forces to overestimate their own voting
strength in public, so as to gain waverers. These exaggerated .
Clains are likely to increase in the next few hourse
ae The fifth point is - and it is most important -bthat the
Eisenhower campaign has infinitely more financial resources that
the Taft forces, This can be of decisive influence on certain Dele¬
The sixth point is, that the decision of the Republican
National Committee to decide itself on the question of the con=
tested Delegations, is a move for inner pacificatione While it is
not yet certain, this move might lead eventually to a fair come
promise, which, in satisfying somehow both claims, would permit
to solve this question more easily. If this is done so, it would
be a value for both sides - since the Taft forces winning with the
help of the contested Delegations would have given the Democrats
more than ample ammunition to defeat them in the campaign.
; The seventh point is, that in the opinion of this obser-~
ver, in the fight for the unpledged Delegates, both sides have made
some headway. Eisenhower is Paining ground in Pennsylvania, and
Governor Fine seems now more favourably inclined towards the Gene=
ral. On the other hand Taft seems to have made some inroads into
fhe Calaformia Delegation despite the fact that Governor Warren
seems disposed at holding out as long as possible, in the hope of
himself in the forefront as a compromise Candidate in case of a ded=
lock, While this is in the mind of the Governor, it should not
be forgotten, that Warren is not very popular with the Party,
ince he made a poor show during the 1948 campaign, when he was
ewey's Vice=Presidential aspirant. Furthermore never forget, that
in the recent Califomia primaries Warren polied much less votes
then Knowlandse And Taft at the present moment is teying very hard
to gain Knowland to accept the Vice-Presidential position on a
Tatt-ticket, Kndwlend has as yet not said "no" but has also not
yet said “yes",_
Thig is therefore the position as the Delegates go to
Chicago. Indeed there rarely was a Convention, where the situation
was less clear than at the present one, The only way to keep a