The Revised Conclusion of James Reston

On April 12 James Reston, chief of the Washington Bureau of the New York Times, reported in his column, with obvious irritation, that New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller had made some inexcusably un-Liberal remarks to a news conference in Washington a couple of days earlier. The remarks, Reston pointed out, were all the more offensive because they were unnecessary: Rockefeller, quoth he, “has about as much chance of losing the Republican [Presidential] nomination as he has of going broke,” and therefore had no need to curry favor with the party’s reactionaries.

Just three weeks later, however, the percipient Mr. Reston had dramatically changed his mind. “The Republican nominating race,” he advised his breathless readers on May 3, “is up for grabs”—presumably leaving the more literal-minded among them to wonder if Rockefeller was now also in danger of going broke.

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Philip R. Bushnell

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On April 12 James Reston, chief of the Washington Bureau of the New York Times, reported in his column, with obvious irritation, that New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller had made some inexcusably un-Liberal remarks to a news conference in Washington a couple of days earlier. The remarks, Reston pointed out, were all the more offensive because they were unnecessary: Rockefeller, quoth he, “has about as much chance of losing the Republican [Presidential] nomination as he has of going broke,” and therefore had no need to curry favor with the party’s reactionaries.

Just three weeks later, however, the percipient Mr. Reston had dramatically changed his mind. “The Republican nominating race,” he advised his breathless readers on May 3, “is up for grabs”—presumably leaving the more literal-minded among them to wonder if Rockefeller was now also in danger of going broke.