R. Kennedy "Running Hard"

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31057, 12 May 1966, Page 19

R. Kennedy "Running Hard"

CN.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) NEW YORK, May 11.

Keeping up with Senator Robert Kennedy these days is quite a job, according to James Reston, associate editor of the “New York Times.”

He was running hard, a little left of President Johnson and he had clearly transformed and improved his political base in New York, Reston wrote. Reston said: Part of this has been good luck. He established himself here just at the time the Democratic Party in New York was falling apart. But mainly he is stronger now because he has analysed his political problem with geometrical accuracy and attacked the Administration where it was weak. He was in trouble with the liberals in New York when he ran for the Senate two

years ago. In spite of his stout defence of civil liberties when he was AttorneyGeneral, the old shadow of his association with Joe McCarthy still rankled, and he was weak both with the liberal politician and the liberal newspapers. This he has corrected. He has appealed to the disenchanted opponents of President Johnson’s Vietnam policy. He has gone out of his way to keep in touch with the restless and articulate young people on the college campuses. He has protested against cuts in the Administration’s Great Society programmes at home and that is not all.

Wherever any sizeable group of liberal critics has appeared whether on China policy or South African policy, or Latin American policy —he has taken up their cause and now he has even gone boldly beyond many members of his own Roman Catholic Church to advocate a bolder programme of birth control in the overpopulated and underdeveloped countries. "We cannot compel Latin

Americans to practise birth control,” he told the Senate, almost as if he would like to if he could, “this would only inflame suspicions that

make themselves more aware of their problem . . . and we should help them make the decision that is truly in the interest of their people and serves the goals of the alliance . . .”

His strategy is now fairly clear—and each major speech fits into the prearranged pattern. He differs with the Administration just enough to establish an independent position that strengthens him where the President is weak, but praises the President just enough to avoid an open break.

The public relations aspects of this exercise are very similar to the techniques established, with his help, during the period when John F. Kennedy was mounting his campaign for the Presidency after the 1956 election. Once the areas of political opportunity are identified, the scholars are mobilised. The evening seminars continue at his country home in Virginia. The writers arc brought in and the speech is finally launched with all the care of a major advertising I campaign.