For the Record

Good-bye wimp: When the smoke cleared, George Bush had swept the board, moving from triumph in South Carolina to carnage on Super Tuesday: a clean sweep of the 16 Super Tuesday states holding primaries, racking up 578 delegates for a total of 705, which puts him past the halfway mark. . . . ABC exit polls showed him sweeping by Bob Dole and Pat Robertson with every category of voters. . . . “It’s one of the great wipeouts of all time,” commented CBS’s Bob Schieffer. . . . New York’s Alfonse D’Amato, a Dole supporter, put as good a face on the Dole debacle as he could: “It’s not over until the fat lady sings,” he commented, but the barometer was falling. . . . Last-minute endorsement by conservative heavyweights Jeane Kirkpatrick and Strom Thurmond helped Dole not a bit with Southern voters, who trooped to the polls to support Ronald Reagan’s faithful lieutenant. . . . Ahead for Dole, this week’s Illinois primary, where, even before Super Tuesday, he trailed Bush by 12 points. Bush has the support of Gov. James Thompson’s organization. . . . Scratch Jack Kemp and Pat Robertson. Says Republican consultant Eddie Mahe, the first Republican to take Robertson seriously: “[Robertson’s] come and gone.”

On the Democratic side, scratch Simon and Hart, and very possibly Gephardt; move Albert Gore back into contention. Gore, with some important last-minute endorsements from white Southern Democratic establishment figures (former Gov. Charles Robb of Virginia, Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia, Gov.-elect Buddy Roemer of Louisiana, former Attorney General Griffin Bell, Sen. Howell Heflin of Alabama—Heflin was the fink in Bork hearings), took six Deep South states. Jesse Jackson won five, as did Michael Dukakis, but the two Southern states Dukakis got—Florida and Texas —are far from typically Southern. . . . Democratic National Chairman Robert Strauss thinks Dick Gephardt is “in deep trouble,” but refuses to predict who will be the Democratic nominee. “I don’t play guessing games at this stage. I’m not that foolish.” Strauss points out that there will be six hundred uncommitted “super-delegates” in Atlanta, and that they may hold the decisive votes. The super-delegates are Democratic Party officials with assured seats in Atlanta under this year’s convention ground rules, which are designed to prevent the special interests from taking over the convention as they have since 1972. . . . With Jackson assured a prominent role in Atlanta, he’s proving a magnet to fringe groups. The Greater Boston Lesbian and Gay Political Alliance has endorsed him over Dukakis, who has a record of favoring gay rights. William Sloane Coffin, head of the merged SANE/Freeze, has endorsed him: “[Jackson] best represents the demands of the U.S. peace movement.” Amy Carter has endorsed him because he is the only candidate who is “good on women’s issues,” “supports gay rights,” and “talks about justice for the Palestinians and justice in Nicaragua.”

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Presidential Election

Good-bye wimp: When the smoke cleared, George Bush had swept the board, moving from triumph in South Carolina to carnage on Super Tuesday: a clean sweep of the 16 Super Tuesday states holding primaries, racking up 578 delegates for a total of 705, which puts him past the halfway mark. . . . ABC exit polls showed him sweeping by Bob Dole and Pat Robertson with every category of voters. . . . “It’s one of the great wipeouts of all time,” commented CBS’s Bob Schieffer. . . . New York’s Alfonse D’Amato, a Dole supporter, put as good a face on the Dole debacle as he could: “It’s not over until the fat lady sings,” he commented, but the barometer was falling. . . . Last-minute endorsement by conservative heavyweights Jeane Kirkpatrick and Strom Thurmond helped Dole not a bit with Southern voters, who trooped to the polls to support Ronald Reagan’s faithful lieutenant. . . . Ahead for Dole, this week’s Illinois primary, where, even before Super Tuesday, he trailed Bush by 12 points. Bush has the support of Gov. James Thompson’s organization. . . . Scratch Jack Kemp and Pat Robertson. Says Republican consultant Eddie Mahe, the first Republican to take Robertson seriously: “[Robertson’s] come and gone.”

On the Democratic side, scratch Simon and Hart, and very possibly Gephardt; move Albert Gore back into contention. Gore, with some important last-minute endorsements from white Southern Democratic establishment figures (former Gov. Charles Robb of Virginia, Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia, Gov.-elect Buddy Roemer of Louisiana, former Attorney General Griffin Bell, Sen. Howell Heflin of Alabama—Heflin was the fink in Bork hearings), took six Deep South states. Jesse Jackson won five, as did Michael Dukakis, but the two Southern states Dukakis got—Florida and Texas —are far from typically Southern. . . . Democratic National Chairman Robert Strauss thinks Dick Gephardt is “in deep trouble,” but refuses to predict who will be the Democratic nominee. “I don’t play guessing games at this stage. I’m not that foolish.” Strauss points out that there will be six hundred uncommitted “super-delegates” in Atlanta, and that they may hold the decisive votes. The super-delegates are Democratic Party officials with assured seats in Atlanta under this year’s convention ground rules, which are designed to prevent the special interests from taking over the convention as they have since 1972. . . . With Jackson assured a prominent role in Atlanta, he’s proving a magnet to fringe groups. The Greater Boston Lesbian and Gay Political Alliance has endorsed him over Dukakis, who has a record of favoring gay rights. William Sloane Coffin, head of the merged SANE/Freeze, has endorsed him: “[Jackson] best represents the demands of the U.S. peace movement.” Amy Carter has endorsed him because he is the only candidate who is “good on women’s issues,” “supports gay rights,” and “talks about justice for the Palestinians and justice in Nicaragua.”