Stokes: Wooing Willkie among Dewey’s chief projects
Candidate disregards personal feelings
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Albany, New York –
The wooing of Wendell Willkie has become a major project with Governor Thomas E. Dewey and the managers of his campaign for the Presidency.
Just what is Mr. Willkie’s political value to the Republican Party, measured in influence and votes, is a matter for argument. But the Dewey forces would rather have him on their side, plugging for the ticket, than outside, either in a passive or an actively belligerent role.
Governor Dewey is trying to become President and he’s going about it in a very businesslike manner, without emotion, and without regard for personal feelings. It’s no secret that the two men don’t care much for each other, which is not unusual between politicians who are rivals for public favor.
Score about even
The 1940 candidate got quite a shoving around at Chicago, or rather he was just locked out coldly, but he did a little shoving around on his own when he issued his rather caustic statement about the foreign affairs plank in the platform. The party and Mr. Willkie are about even now.
But Governor Dewey, since his nomination, has made several gestures in Mr. Willkie’s direction which are plain enough in their intent. At his first press conference in Chicago, he announced that he expected to consult Mr. Willkie along with other party leaders about his campaign. And now two of the Willkie satellites, National Committeeman Ralph H. Cake of Oregon, his pre-convention campaign manager, and Sinclair Weeks of Massachusetts have been included on the newly-appointed executive committee selected by Governor Dewey and National Chairman Herbert Brownell Jr.
Willkie’s future in doubt
Mr. Weeks, likewise, was among the first invited here to confer with the candidate, as a member of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation which will see Governor Dewey here Monday. Indirect overtures through go-betweens are also now going on.
Involved basically in Mr. Willkie’s decision as to his course is whether he wants to continue in politics. This raises another question: What is Mr. Willkie’s political future? Some count him out as far as actual public office is concerned. Some think he may yet come into his own. Most agree that he is likely to keep his hand in.
Whatever are his political prospects, it also seems agreed that he probably would improve his positions with the politicians by getting into the game actively, that is, by seeking some public office below the Presidency. If he should be successful, he would have an advantageous position from which to try to advance himself to his heart’s desire, the Presidency.
May run for Senate
There is a good deal of talk about the possibility of him seeking the Republican nomination for the Senate from New York to run against Senator Robert Wagner in November.
This would offer an avenue of rapprochement with Governor Dewey and the party, and his presence on the ticket might help Republicans to swing this state against Mr. Roosevelt, with Mr. Willkie’s appeal to liberals Republicans, some Democrats, and to left-wing elements, particularly on the score of foreign policy.
Mr. Willkie has made his fight on principle on the question of international collaboration. For that reason, he attacked the platform plank. But that plank, in the end, will mean what Governor Dewey says it means, and if he satisfies Mr. Willkie, this would clear the way for the latter’s acceptance of the ticket and its program, foreign and domestic.