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Rockefeller Heads West

Mar. 27, 1963 - New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller will head West next week in quest of support for his 1964 Presidential candidacy. As he moves into the old Republican heartland of Kansas and Nebraska, the tireless, debonair Governor will attempt to impress upon party leaders the fact that he is the one man who can defeat John F. Kennedy in next year’s Presidential election. He will contend that Mr. Kennedy is vulnerable on both the domestic and international fronts and that the President has, in fact, failed disastrously in his effort to deliver on his multitude of 1960 campaign promises. The Governor will not yet declare himself a candidate. But he will travel extensively across the nation in the coming months, talking about the problems of America in the cold war and the backwash of recession. For anyone with an eye to events of the recent political past, Mr. Rockefeller talking about President Kennedy in 1963-64 is likely to sound startlingly similar to Mr. Kennedy talking about President Eisenhower in 1959-60. In short, he will declare that Mr. Kennedy has not achieved the high goals he set for himself and that the timidity of the President’s approach to the great issues of government belies the boldness of his public statements.


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