Washington Reporters Reston, White Declare President in Deep Trouble

Two gloomy analyses of President Kennedy's political position, written by Washington columnists James Reston and William S. White, appeared in yesterday's press.

In an article headed "Doubt and Drift Grip Washington," Reston reported: "A strange kind of malaise now pervades Washington. Not only at the top of the Administration, but down through the Congress as well, there is a feeling that something is seriously wrong."

Citing the Presidential frustrations created by de Gaulle's policy abroad and by tax, education, and agriculture problems at home, Reston wrote that "Wherever the President turns, he seems to be blocked," and characterized Kennedy as a "moderate confronted by radical facts," who "tries to compromise with everybody."

"The result," Reston concluded, "is that he may well come up to the 1964 election without having achieved any of the objectives he dramatized so confidently before he knew how complicated the big world was."

Analyzing the domestic political situation, White wrote that for the first time since taking office President Kennedy has been "thrown upon the defensive by the Republican opposition."

Arthur E. Sutherland, Bussey Professor of Law, commented yesterday that newspaper columnists have an excessive tendency to perceive "pervading attitudes" and "dramatic shifts" in day-to-day political affairs. He said that he is skeptical of the fluctuations reported.