Potpourri week: Although they tend to spend like there’s no tomorrow once they make it into the White House, Republicans still think of inflation as their very own issue, and inflation was the subject for a gaggle of would-be GOP presidential nominees at the series of dinners last week honoring the 25th anniversary of the inauguration of Dwight Eisenhower. John Connally and Gerald Ford both did their thing on closed-circuit TV, with Ford edging ever closer to an announcement of his candidacy. But the only speaker to bring the Republican faithful to their feet was Ronald Reagan, who told a crowd at Chicago’s Palmer House that the Carter Administration was, among other things, deficient in developing an energy policy; it was weakening our national defense; debasing the dollar; and driving us toward doubledigit inflation. Said Reagan: “Pretty soon it will be cheaper to eat money than to buy food with it.”
■ Also talking up inflation in Illinois is quadrennial near-candidate Charles Percy, who was asked last week if he might try another almost-campaign in 1980. Said Percy: “Everyone ought to take a new look at it [the presidential situation] after the 1978 elections and see where we stand for 1980. I don’t see any decision as being irrevocable.” Which means, in Percyish politicalese, that he’s thinking about thinking about trying again.
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