European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 22, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes wednesday april 22, 1987 columns James Kilpatrick Simon intending to be breakaway candidate we Are about to have More fun political Tun that is Han we be had since 1972. By i mean 10 embrace All those who love the Gaudy game of presiden tial politics. Us Campaign of 1988 promises to be a Lulu. We now have formal announcements from Gary Hart of Colorado and Paul Simon of Illinois Albert Gore of Tennessee has either announced or announced that he. Would announce. Dick Gephardt of Missouri and Bruce Babbitt of Arizona announce some Lime ago. We arc wailing to hear from Joe Biden of Delaware Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts Handbill Clinion of Arkansas. Sam Nunn of Georgia May yet came to life Charles Robb of Virginia and Bill Bradley of new Jersey have their names on the Possi ble list. Jesse l. Jackson runs All the time. What a Field fifteen years have passed since we saw such scramble. The big fight in 1972 was Between George Mcgovern and Ruben Humphrey but the Field was crowded de music Henry Jackson and George Wal lace ran respectable campaigns. Sam Yony Wilbur Mills Vance Hartke John Lindsay Shirley Chisholm palsy Mink and Terry Sanford also ran. Fifteen Candi dates All told got pieces of the primary vote. The conventional Wisdom is int Gary Hart will be helped by the proliferation and the conventional wis Dom is probably right. Hart clearly is the front runner now and front runners generally stay that Way. But not always. Robert Tad out posted Dwight Eisen Hower in 1932, but Eisenhower got the Republican Nomi nation. In that same year Estes Kefauver was clearly the democratic front runner Adlai Stevenson won the nod. In 968, Eugene Mccarthy led the pack Hubert Humphrey walked off with the prize. It is far from certain that Han can hold onto his Lead this time around. We can expect ganging up for Ash anybody but Hart. Assume for the moment that Hart come sin first in he Iowa caucuses next january. Someone will have to be second. Paul Simon the Junior senator from Illinois made it Clear that in this event he in tends to be no 2. Whoever is no 2 in Iowa he believes will have a Good Chance at becoming no. I in new Hampshire a month later. With his picture on the covers of time and Newsweek the breakaway Candi Date would Hud for super tuesday in March with air Mcclous wave of publicity. Simon just might be the one to break out of Thefield. At. A breakfast recently with senior coir Epson do nth he was asked about his political liabilities. The name of Paul Simon he said is not exactly a House hold word then he added a bit ruefully and i Don exactly look like a in was a fair assessment on both counts. Simon James Reston senator Paul Simon greatest hits Bridge Over troubled a Bercic mra Roosevelt the sound of still Liberal after i these Ara me Aid Goepf aft served for 10 years in the House of representative from a downstate District of Illinois before winning his Senate Seal in 1986. In the House he established Liberal record wild scarcely a conservative blemish. In the 9slh Congress be voted Only once against a Posi Tion favored by the american civil liberties Union. He was Igo percent with the civil rights outfits Zero with the right to lifers. Sin labor unions gave him perfect scores id the 99th Congress. On the other hand heated Zero in 1983 with the american conservative Union Only 18 with the . Chamber of Commerce Only 13 with the american Security Council. The National taxpayers Union classed him As a big Simon himself refuses classification. He say she is a Liberal an social issues a conservative on fiscal that s what they All say. He regards the Federal deficit As the country s no. T problem. As president he would work toward a balanced budget Over a four Yea period partly by restraining outgo and partly by in creasing taxes. He would Stan with an increase of 10cents a pack in the lax on cigarettes a measure calculated to deter teen age smoking and to bring in 12,3billion a year in new revenues his principal Plank will Deal with welfare Reform he would create something Akin to the old spa works Progress administration of the 1930$, by which a Job would be guaranteed to any person after five weeks of unemployment. Such jobs would pay$464 a month with no loss of medicaid benefits. He reckons the Cost at 18 billion a year net. Simon does t have to worry about his looks. He is abit on the owlish Side but except for Hart who looks More like the Marlboro Man than the Marlboro Man none of the democratic hopefuls could be classed As a handsome Dawg. At this remove nine months fro Iowa his chances look middling Good. All he needs is $8 million and lie s on his Way san xau a .-soviet agreement could be historic break history May As so Many cynics have said be merely a record of the crimes follies and misfortunes of Man kind but it also has its miracles. We have endured for so Long the conflict Between Moscow and Washington and Between capitalism and communism democracy and dictatorship that most people can scarcely believe that re Lief from these tensions is within the Range of the possible. Vet Here is Secretary of stole Sultzback from Moscow in holy week like an answer to the world s prayers for peace speaking about a break in he tension and a realistic Contra of nuclear weapons. Is it a Mirage or a Miracle nobody knows but for once during tie festival of easter and the passover even unbelievers were beginning to Hope. Not All of them of course. Suppose some say Mikhail Gorbachev does agree to get rid of All medium Range missiles i Europe what about the Short Range mis Siles even suppose he makes a verifiable Deal on Short Range missiles would t this leave Europe vulnerable to mos cow s massive conventional armies an split the Western Alliance in any event what about Afghanistan and Nicaragua and the jews behind the Iron curtain these arc relevant questions and leave much to be negotiated As Shult has conceded but what has already been achieved would obviously have been regarded a year or so ago As a minor Mira arc Only at the beginning of the beginning of the most complicated set of negotiations in the history of Modem diplomacy but we Are a Long Way from the Days when president Reagan was talking about the Folly of doing business with the evil Empire we Are Wen a Long Way from the Las Summit meeting in Iceland where the president made alarming offers without consultation with the allies or even with his own military chiefs of administration is Ai last proceed ing cautiously seeking one verifiable Compromise at a time with the full knowledge of the Cabinet. I in join chiefs and the allies. In so doing it will be reasonably sure thai whatever treaties it signs will have the Advance knowledge of the Congress and the allies and in support of the people. Obviously the fundamental Politi Cal and philosophical differences be tween these two Continental nuclear giants will remain. Even if they agreed on everything thai Shultz and Gorbachev discussed in Moscow both still would be left with enough nuclear weapons roblow up the world. But they have made a Start toward limitation and verification which if continued May build Confidence for other Steps toward a safer world at least they have made us see not the reality but the possibility of better relations. This in itself is something. For Bot sides had been Drifting into a kind of hopeless acceptance of inevitable tension if not War. Now however we have a Chance to recall that there Haw Bee similar conflicts Between mutually exclusive systems in the past that Ici Nicit absolute and inescapable but finally were temper cd if not resolved. Toward the end of the last Century the tension Between France and Britain provided the most imminent threat to euro Pean peace. Yet within a few years alarmed by Germany they were signing he entente cordiale. In our own Lime Franklin Roosevelt was imploring us to remember Pearl Harbor but now we Are silting around in our Toyota hearing on our Sony that the Only thing we have o fear is japanese Trade. Perhaps it is Only by doing hard thing with our minds that we can imagine Lite religious deadlock and wars of the 16thand 17th centuries that ended after unspeakable carnage Only through acceptance of the principle of toleration and religious Freedom. But miracles do happen occasionally. General Washington thought our own Constitution was a Miracle 200years ago and Ben Franklin regarded it with both scepticism and confess that there Are several parts of this Constitution which i do not a present approve he said in the dosing speech a Philadelphia. But i am not sure 1 shall never approve them. For hav ing lived Long he was k2 at the time have of Park Jyh i in Many instances of being obliged by belter information or Fuller consideration to change Opin a few Yak Timot new St Firica
