European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 22, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes tuesday december 22. 1s87 James Reston demos made nearly every mistake in the Book the Only possible cup Layalion of the democrats Campaign for inc presidency is that somehow it s being run by the republicans. They be made every mistake in the Book except bringing Back sen. Kennedy. Their Best men won t run and their worst won t quit. It would be funny if it weren t so serious. Here is a party that has lost four out of the last five presidential elections. It had a Good Chance of winning in 1988 against a party that has presided Over the most alar nine budget and Trade deficits in the history of the Republic but what docs it do it Fields a team that has not impressed the voters but affronted them with a so Ries of personal monkeys incs that have overshadowed the political issues. Gary Hart is making a laughing Stock of his party. He treats it the Way he treats his wife As a personal convenience. By returning to the race he kicked it when it was Down and proved for the second time that his judgment is As defective As his conduct. Let the people decide he says. But the people have already run him out of town and arc not Likely to Welcome him Back because with his customary modesty he says. I have the Power of ideas and i can govern this  like the boy who murdered his parents and asked for sympathy on the grounds that he was an orphan. Hart s chutzpah hits a new level of political arrogance and inc surprising thing about it is that so Many people arc taking him seriously. Maybe they la keep him on top of the personality polls. The Monkey Shine vote in this country is very Large but when the leaders of his party reflect on what he has done to them they May begin to take a whole new look at this astonishing Campaign. The hard facts arc staring them in the face. In vice president George Bush and Bob Dole the minority Leader of the sen ate the republicans have at least come up with two experienced front runners and while there is some Thunder on the Republican right it is not surprising that Bush and dolt arc leading All the demo cratic candidates. Also since the visit Here of soviet general Secretary Mikhail s. Gorbachev both parties have had a glimpse of the Arnold Sawislak Estt know what this must look Uke to you but i want you to at least apr Aach it with an open mind Energy and intelligence of the soviet Leader that the next president of the United Stales will have to face on the presiding questions of world policy. The question now is not what Gary Hart will do but what his party will do. He says this will not be like any Campaign you have Ever seen because i am going directly to the  this is very ind of him and not an entirely new idea but he May be surprised by the re action. Something happens to a political parly that is out of the White House that Long. For one thing it does t have the Power to put its Young men and women in the executive departments and agencies where they can gain the experience and build the foundation every party needs to survive. Already it is hard to imagine who the democrats would put in the state department and inc other major agencies or government departments if by Chance they were to win next novem Ber. As things now stand their main Hope lies in what the country fears the most that foreign nations will Stop financing the present borrow and spend policy and the Economy will go sour next year. Yet there is still a Chance not much but some that the democrats will come to their senses and insist on considering new candidates not yet in the race. If the democratic voters Don t like the men now seeking their votes All they have to do is express their dissatisfaction by staying Home on primary election Day. Thus making Clear to the convention delegates Hal nobody has enough votes to win the nomination on the first or second ballots. It s an unlikely scenario but not entirely silly unless the democrats have decided As some of them already have Hal the republicans should have four More years in the while House to preside Over the deficits of the last seven years. Gov. Mario m. Cuomo of new York and Sens. Bill Bradley of new Jersey and Sam Nunn of Georgia keep insisting that they won t run. But they Haven t said they can l be drafted. A nominating convention is supposed to be a deliberative body that picks the person Best qualified to govern the coun try and not a rubber Slamp for the win net of a few slate primary elections and  primary and caucus system has Given us Ronald Reagan Jimmy Carter Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson nol among the most illustrious of our presidents and after All of inc stagger my and blundering of the last few years the world if nol inc american voters Are hoping for something belter. The  of Gary Hart on inc scene however has been helpful in Only one resp Cal. He has created such a mess in his party that it will either have to Wake up or give up for another four years. Now York times news service Harf shows lock of concern for democratic forty the giggling you heard last tuesday after Gary Hart returned 19 the presidential race was coming from the Republican National committee. The moan ing was from the democratic National committee. The former senator from Colorado of course has a per Eccl right to resume his Campaign for inc democratic nomination and not even the candidates most Likely to be Hurt by his latest Iso degree turn presumed to say otherwise. But it is hard to think of anything Hal could help the confused Republican presidential picture More than to further confuse the already thoroughly muddled democratic presidential picture. Entirely apart from inc Issue that forced Hart out of the contest last fall in is hard to understand what of her than a desire for vindication at Best or self indulgence at worst motivated Hart to re enter the race. He said himself he has no Money and no Organiza Tion and. As a former candidate and Campaign manager he knows that the Odds against winning a major party nomination without them approach the figures used in expressing the distances Between planets or even inc National debt. Certainly Han can run a visible Campaign in new Hampshire. First the circumstances of his withdrawal and the hunger of the Media especially television for excite ment in what has become a Campaign of god forbid issues guarantees Hart will get a lot of coverage in the crucial first weeks of his renewed Campaign. Second he won the new Hampshire primary in 1984 and has the advantage of better recognition there than any other Democrat save Massachusetts gov. Michael Dukakis. Third if there is any state where a candidate can go it alone it is new Hampshire whose citizens love the quadrennial atle lion they gel from outland cars who would be preside no and inc Media Hal follow them through snowdrifts no Yankee in his right mind would Brave. But despite new Hampshire s boast that no one wins the presidency without winning its primary it also is True that half of inc winners there never move into the White House. Some democrats would take a Hart Victory in new Hampshire As an Omen pointing to a Republican Victory in november. But that in t the reason for the gop glee and the democratic dismay about Hart s decision. More Likely that is the result of inc total Lack of concern for the democratic party both in Hart s decision and his Salem Cal Al Concord. Hart did not say that the other six candidates were failing to Rcpt Escol the democratic Ideal or to propose the kind of solutions to National problems that set their party apart from the gop. He did say the other candidates had failed to offer Gary Hart s ideas and that was one of the reasons he was resuming. He put even More emphasis on his need to avoid the disgrace of quitting. Hart like Robert Bork insisted on playing out a lost cause hand of cards. Forcing the voters to Render the decision that Hart made himself last Spring May be therapeutic for the Man but it does t do much for the political party that embraced him for More than two decades or for the process of selecting a president in 1988. If As some expect. Hart s re entry further complicates the situation in May prove to have been one of the most costly ego trips since Caligula declared himself to be a god and his horse to be a senator. United press