As he campaigned yesterday in 13 New Hampshire towns, less than a week after a woman pointed a loaded pistol at him in California, reporters felt sure he was wearing a protective vest.
He plunged at random into overwhelmingly friendly crowds.
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White House and Secret Service officials declined to comment whether Ford was wearing a vest under his white shirt but Ford aides later confirmed that he was.
A line across the back through his jacket and under his shirt was unusually tight on him.
Secret Service agents surrounded the president at all times and there was strict police control of the large lines of people out to greet him.
But to the casual observer the security forces were no more in evidence than in the past.
Ford seemed to be determined to follow through on his pledge, made immediately after the gun incident last Friday in Sacramento, to meet openly and freely with as many persons as possible. He shook hundreds of outstretched hands in his daylong motorcade tour.
His object was to help Republicans senatorial candidate Louis C. Wyman in the special rerun contest with Democrat John A. Durkin.
The route across southern New Hampshire, through predominantly Republican towns where the GOP vote fell off noticeably in the first Wyman-Durkin race last November, was selected in the hope Ford's appearance would generate enthusiasm and get out the party vote for Wyman next Tuesday.
The lengthy motorcade in search of votes for Wyman, who was at his side constantly, was a rare stumping effort by a president on behalf of someone else.
At the same time, the day set the stage for Ford's own entry early next year into New Hampshire's first-in-the nation presidential primary.
Asked in an outdoor interview on the lawn of a radio station in Peterborough whether the vote for Wyman Tuesday would be a test of his own strength, the president said:
"I intend to be up here next March. I like the people of New Hampshire. I'll probably ask you for your support then."
The remark was the closest Ford has yet come to saying he will enter the New Hampshire primary, though he has said he plans to compete in the 1976 primaries.
The man who is expected to challenge the president for the Republican nomination, former California Gov. Ronald Reagan, left New Hampshire shortly after Ford's arrival. Reagan spoke at a large rally for Wyman in Manchester Wednesday night.
Ford and Reagan did not beet, but the president said at the start of the motorcade he was "delighted" that Reagan had been in New Hampshire to help Wyman because his presence showed "the common front of a united party."
But Reagan, while preaching party unity, left little doubt he plans to contest the New Hampshire primary, and to get moving shortly after Tuesday's Senate election.
In a press conference before the rally, Reagan reiterated that he will decide definitely whether to be a candidate by mid or late November and added:
"I would think that anyone who is a candidate would the New Hampshire is a must."
Tuesday's election was set after the U.S. Senate refused to declare either Wyman or Durkin the winner in last fall's election and vacated the seat.
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