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Show Our Man Hoppe j Unmaking Of A President e1; By ARTHUR HOPPE San Francisco Chronicle H Herewith is another unwritten chapter in that unpublished refer - ence work, "A History of the h World, 1950 to 1999." The title of Jl.' this chapter is "The Unmaking of a President." The trend, it can be seen now, began with the surprise withdrawal of George Romney from the Presi- dential campaign early in 1968. It built with the surprise sur-prise decision of Nelson Rockefeller Rockefel-ler not to seek that office and snowballed with the surprise announcement an-nouncement b y President John- Poll the following week showed that at last Mr. Nixon had established estab-lished himself as a winner. As long as he didn't run. The public's capacity for surprise sur-prise was by now somewhat strained. strain-ed. There was hardly a ripple when Senator Eugene McCarthy removed re-moved himself from contention, saying he'd never really much wanted to be President anyway and he was looking forward to lecturing lec-turing on poetry appreciation and the works of Thoreau at Bryn Mawr his campaign speeches having prepared him for the role. Senator Robert KeKnnedy, with no one left to run against, unsurprisingly unsur-prisingly quit the race, saying, "It doesn't seem much fun any more." He said he would devote the endless end-less summer instead to ice boating, mano-a-mano lacrosse and acquiring acquir-ing a black belt in karate. The very last candidate, George Wallace, then delivered a diatribe: "If the White House ain't fit for them pseudo-intellectuals," he said, "it ain't fit for me." And he stomped stomp-ed out of the race. Thus it was that the Republicans opened their convention August 5 in Miami without a candidate in sight. A frantic search ensued for someone willing to run. At the last possible minute, an unknown nam ed Calvin Calvin, was found. "Sure," Mr. Calvin allowed to everyone's surprise, "I'd like to be President." At their convention three weeks lafer, the Democrats gave up with hardly a fight and asked the Republicans Re-publicans to "put aside partisanship partisan-ship in this emergency" and allow them to nominate Mr. Calvin, too. And so, for a time, it seemed the nation would go forward united under the only man who wanted to be President. Unfortunately, Mr. Calvin was caught practicing self-flagellation in the men's room of the YWCA and was barred from high office as a felonious masochist. "Who else," he demanded indignantly, indig-nantly, "would want the job?" Thus the country entered 1969 with no leader at the helm of the ship of state. Communist governments, with no American leader to focus their r citizens' hatred upon, quickly collapsed. col-lapsed. An embittered General De-Gaulle De-Gaulle lost his raison d'etre and his will to go on. Harold Wilson said, "the ruddy hell with it." So quickly did the heresy spread that in six months there wasn't a world leader still leading anyone anywhere. And mankind entered an era of peace and contentment it had never known before. Arthur Hoppe son that he would not run for re-election. An uneasy nation awaited the next surprise development. It was not long in coming. On April 18, a Gallup Poll showed Mr. Johnson's popularity had soared to an all-time all-time high of 89.7 per cent. The following day Richard Nixon, the sole GOP candidate for the nomination, nom-ination, took himself out of the race. "I'd rather be popular than President," he said, much to everyone's every-one's surprise. And a Lou Harris |