European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 5, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Patricia Schraeder checked out her support in a s7-Alate canvassing tour. Democratic candidates would be should be or cd uld be by Maureen Dowd new York times he vote for president the experts say. Is the most personal one cast so it is Only natural that americans want to Tail in love a Little bit with the Leader they Send to the White House. This summer judging by the amount of time spent chasing moonbeams and rumours and would be and should be and might be candidates the democrats Are longing for the perfect prom Dale. The democratic candidates Are the Good steady fellas your Mother told you to look Lor the Good providers you la learn to love Ann f. Lewis a democratic strategist said wistfully. But nobody Here leads with or to put it less delicately As a Republican consultant Roger Ailes. Did "11 these Guys were All on the dating game nobody would get picked you Don t get the feeling anybody s hanging Loose and having fun. Even Jesse Jackson has slopped rhyming this May explain Why the locus of the Campaign so tar not Only among those actively involved in the race but also among interested politicians and other observers has stayed to a remarkable degree on no candidates such As Sam Nunn and Bill Bradley and Mario m. Cuomo. They sit on the Side of the Slage like hamlets bathed in flattering baby spots and brooding about whether their ambitions Are rips. Or. In the Case of Gary Hart sarcastically dubbed the dark Prince by Pat Schroeder s staffers Rotten. In this year of unrequited yearning elusive princes Are More intriguing than Earnest suitors. The candidates problems Are underscored by the belittling nickname that lingers on. Even though they Hale it the seven dwarfs. As the race is increasingly described in the imagery of Romance it is dear that the dwarfs May have been cute but they never got to go out with Snow White. When they Are asked about this problem of seeming presidential which is another Way of saying princely and larger than Lite the cd Dales snap As rep Richard a. Gephardt of Missouri recently did. Jack Kwh tuna photo Kennedy was seen As a lightweight when he was Bui while some May have considered him too Young too Catholic and too tousled the tall handsome Kennedy always had the fairytale Glamour and the romantic flair that Many voters crave. Many reporters who have followed the democratic candidates have remarked on the Lac thai in private they Are As policy minded and colourless in their conversation As they Are in Public. They May idolize Kennedy but they Are More Likely to talk about a subject such As the general agreement on tariffs and Trade or not to talk at All ignoring their companions in the car or the plane and pulling out abstruse articles on foreign policy and economics. They Are candidates who brag that what you see is what you get and who do not cultivate the Talent of gilted conversation marked by simplicity and color that Theodore h. White discerned in both John f. Kennedy and Hubert h. Humphrey when he wrote the making of the Piest Jenl i960. Michael s Dukakis for one. Stays so official Day and night that he makes it a practice never logo off the record at All. The democratic contenders and their starts have a plausible explanation or their failure to Light a in ror Manlic fires and Lor the continued chasing Alto fan As the non Candales Are known. First. They say this wanting what you Don i have syndrome is typical of Alt presidential campaigns. Four years ago the Dorr i ats were called the Somines six said Michael Clurry. To press aide of gov. Bruce Babbitt of Arizona. And every be polls to the years of longing Lor sen Edward w k i Mcdoy to run for president Desonie the Pio Spect that Stor t s about Chappaquiddick Mario Cuomo apply to would cast a deep Shadow Over his candidacy As soon As he declared As in tact Tho did in 1980. And Lihty also argue thai because the democrats have in a senso. Broken their lies with the old candidates and old institutions and Pul Forth a new generation it is taking longer Lor the Voorn to get to know i he players whale Var the reason the phenomenon cd a diminishing and maddening Ono for the extant campaigns which spend a lol of time tracking Down rumours Aboul other candidates. After Patricia Schroeder travelled to 27 slates canvassing frantically to sea what her chances would be if she joined the presidential race she sat Down in Allan a one afternoon Lor a private meeting Wilh Georgia atm Coralic party officials. As Sho emerged she was quizzed by an aide about How the my Elfrig had gone. Well. I asked them what they knew about whether Sam Nunn would run Sho replied and Hoy asked to what i knew about whether Sam Nunn would the Day after the seven candidates Bat Abill Dukakis Gephardt Jackson and Sens Joseph r. Biden of Delaware. Albert Gore or. Of Tennessee and Paul Simon of Illinois debated in Towa Mccurry said thai they were annoyed to see that the news of the debate was reported far Back in the new York times while Cov Mario m Cuomo s foreign policy speech Mada Iho front Page. And while they slaved away in Iowa and new Hampshire recently courting primary voters it was Hart whose picture was smiling from newspapers everywhere As reporters chased flickering rumours that the fallen front runner a Ghl resume his quest we re out there slogging away at stale fairs and beating our Heads against the Wall and people Are More interested in whether Gary Hart s coming Back Early from Ireland said Mccurry the aide to Babbitt. Hart did return Early but Only said hat he would spend some Lime with his family before responding to recent speculation about his plans. Joseph Grandmaison the chairman of the new Hampshire democratic party thinks the group is being unfairly maligned. He says that after Iowa and new Hampshire a Star will emerge. This is a Prelly Good group of he said. This thing called Charisma is in the Eye of the some analysts suggest the Root cause of Iho continued yearning May be Mote Complex than merely wanting Whai you Don t have. As a group Ailes said the democratic candidates have taken on a Bland image that is uncomfortably reminiscent of the sort of Small Shadow cast by Jimmy Carter. They seem like the Middle level bureaucrat comptrollers who ask you if you have your expense account in. These Are the Guys saying watch it you re a Little bit Over " Carter Eskew a democratic Media consultant suggests that americans May subconsciously lose respect for anyone willing to put himself through lha grind of a Campaign. There Are these wonderful towering figures outside the race casting a Shadow on the playing Field Eskew said. But the minute they became a candidate hey would shrink. There is this myth of the Ellor less candidate. Once a Guy starts running he s seen As grubbing for the Best example of that phenomenon May be Gore the freshman senator irom Tennessee who became the Toast of Washington last Winter. The conservative commentator John Mclaughlin called Gore Loo Good lobe the neoliberal Washington monthly Pul Gore on the cover of its Magazine and declared him its Long Long shot candidate and Newsweek announced that the Nalion s capital was in the throes of Gore but now that Gore is a candidate he is Omen treated like a stalking horse for Nunn of Georgia Gore finds himself clenching his Teeth at every Stop and lolling reporters Over and Over again thai he will no get out of the race if his Lesiow southerner gets in the inability of the current Field to keep More contenders out was illustrated again when the Little known rep James a. Traficant or of Ohio an iconoclast who favors Cowboy boots and four letter expletives announced that he was forming an exploratory committee to see if he should run Lor president. Mccurry said he had decided to look on the Bright Side of this development. I m rooting Lor an eighth person to gel in. So we Don t have to be the seven dwarfs he said. Then we could be the eight wonders of the world " but he shudders about what Wim happen in the Field grows even larger saying a larger number evokes images of Bowling pins " saturday septembers 1987 the stabs and stripes Page 17
