European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 19, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes saturday december 19,1987 comments George will suppose Hart causes Cuomo to reconsider. If America has a Middle aisle americans would be rolling in it their ribs squeaking from laughter. The other in arc not after All to be the Only onions in the democratic slew which is like Irish slew in that Al most anything tossed in just makes it More Savory. It is hilarious unless you do not find amusing the trivialization of the world s oldest political party and most important political process. Chortling republicans should remember that cynicism is an acid that cannot be hermetically scaled on one Side of the parti san Divide the political vocation generally is being devalued. Gary Hart is Back and standing tall because he says of his ideas such As strategic investment economics which other candidates have inexplicably neglected and because other National leaders have not entered the race since May but who is Hart to be so dismissive of the other six three of whom Jackson Dukakis Simon have much More support than he had at this Point in the 1984 contest. Four years ago he was Al three percent about where Gephardt and Gore Are. Sometimes said Hart in new Hampshire the Best thing to do is what you feel you must must. Like Martin Luther Al he diet of Worms Hart says Khz Kann Nicht he cannot do otherwise be cause of the lash of necessity duty. And what words Are emblazoned on his Banner smaller aircraft carriers stand Back so you do not get trampled in the Stampede to enlist in what he Calls his cause Hart has ideas but so do the sin Simi Lar ideas. What nowadays distinguish chartism is generational vanity on the part of people like Hart who claim As Hart put it in his gaseous speech to the 1984 democratic National convention that people who were Young in the 1960s have a unique Bond of trag Edy and seriously folks looked Al it from his Vantage Point from to till Cabin in troublesome Gulch Colo Rado what is the Downside to his decision he is not giving up a Senate scat or anything else. He wants a forum and the lecture circuit has been lukewarm. He May get some Federal Money and May shed his reputation As a Welsher on i debts. Having been restlessly moving around the country for 16 years he must have suffered an excruciating Case or Cabin fever and decided to write a different end to the Gary Hart Story. And peaking of writing per haps he has writer s Block. You May remember that he said he had a hankering to Hole up in Humble surroundings and write novels. Anyway Hart is running because aside from he literary life running is what he docs. Bui. You say he May be humiliated How by More stories about assignation you have not been listening to him. The democratic party has found us Spiro Agnew. Hart s newest new Ilea is to run against the press. But he is a deep somewhat soulful intellectual snore in sorrow than anger Agnew. Sad because the press is insufficiently interested in the there is one More reason Why he is running. He thinks he can be president. There already have been three front runners in Iowa so who can say that Light Ning will not strike. Put Hart in a debate with the other six and he will look impressive enough. He has the almost manic composure of a person completely obsessed by a quest. Hart s support should be construed As 2 percent an endorsement of smaller aircraft carriers and strategic investment economic Sand 98 percent 3 vote for anybody but any of the a collective repudiation of he six. The pressure will now mount for Mario Cuomo to say i said and meant that the six Are embryonic lincolns but Han should not be the head of the party therefore. Hart could also injure the democratic party by helping Robert Dole. Dole has needed a Strong democratic front runner to make his Case for being More Csc Cable than George Bush. Suppose some polls show Hart beating Bush. Suppose Hart causes Cuomo to reconsider. A a recent poll. Dole had a higher favourable rat ing among democratic voters than any of the announced democratic candidates. Although Dole is sometimes portrayed As the Doberman pins Char of the gop Bush is More polarizing his favourable unfavourable rating reverses when democrats rather than re publicans arc polled. However republicans laughing today May not laugh last. The commotion Hart has caused docs dramatize the none of the above mood that could produce a brokered convention in Atlanta. If the democrats go marching out of Georgia behind sen. Sam Nunn. They win. A a Talon Pott a Slura group Tom Wicker Harf challenges press democratic six pack stifle that impulse to laugh about Gary Hart s re Emry into the presidential Campaign. That was my instinct too. Bui on second thought he might win in new Hampshire. He won there in 1984 and went on to numerous bigger Kiaie primary triumphs. That made him far and away he Best known of the democrats who started the presidential race this year. The Well publicised scandal that drove him to sus Pend his Campaign seven months ago Only made his name and face the More recognizable. Don t underestimate that name recognition in the Early tests even though much of it May be unfavourable. The first opinion Check i saw a Cable news network Usa. Today poll taken Over night following Han s self resurrection gave him 19 percent of respondents in new Hampshire compared with 16 for gov. Michael Dukakis of neighbouring Masuch skiis. With All others trailing. For once a Democrat even ran ahead of undecided. On third thought having suffered his ordeal of last win Ter Hart Muy now he better Uhle to live with it politically. Undoubtedly some in the press will devote their energies to unearthing every past scandal thai can be sniffed out. But he can now reply per haps with Public understanding i be faced Hal Issue. The Public knows about it. No one is being deceived. So i m not going to answer any More questions about the past. I m looking to the future and i believe the voters arc thai would not be appropriate in response to any revelations about future behaviour. But continuing focus on the past could create sympathy for a Man the press appeared to be hounding. On fourth thought Gary Hart has transformed the race for the democratic nomination whether for belter or worse remains to be seen. If he defeats Dukakis in new Hampshire for instance the governor would be badly damaged perhaps eliminated but that would not necessarily mean that Hart could win the nomination himself. His re entry dramatizes More Over the inability of any of the other democratic candidates to break out of inc so called six pack sometimes More cruelly termed the car none of them has scored As Well in National polls As Hart regularly did before he fall and none of them has demonstrated a world View and a National or International program As considered and detailed As he had developed. That s Why democrats have been so widely unsatisfied with the six official candidates and so doggedly hopeful that someone else would enter. Few had Gary Hart in mind it s True there was no de Mand for his return. But in failing to Lake advantage of he Opportunity his departure gave them the six opened fur ther Opportunity for somebody even if that Opportunity proves nol to be for Han the putative weakness of the other candidates will have been con firmed if after his earlier downfall he can defeat or run on relatively equal terms Wilh them in the Early . That could push some other late Staner into the race. On fifth thought such a later entrant Hart or anyone else might be Able to overcome the difficulty of getting Delegate slates on the bal lot in various states by the simple but not easy expedient of winning the Beauty contest the popular vote in those states. A Laie Comdr who came in first in new York Pennsylvania Ohio Illinois and California would go to the convention perhaps without delegates but with a Strong National and Papular base. He or she might help thai Prospect by slaying out of those dreary televised de Bates that have reduced the current candidates to six nearly indistinguishable men on sixth thought whatever else he s done Gary Hart now offers a real Challenge to the press he has so strongly criticized. If As he promises he goes for Ward with a son of one Man Campaign of ideas Basing his prospects on tar pro visas he makes and the vision he owners will the press including television and radio report his efforts in the same spirit or will it focus so strongly on his past behaviour and work so hard to develop new details about it Hal the sub Siam Ive Content of his Campaign would be last Hart deserves no Szmul treatment either Way. I does deserve to be heard which is a responsibility of the press As a Cave As any further exploration of his
