FOR THE RECORD

Heading into big Eastern and Midwestern caucuses and primaries, the talk in Democratic camp is “super-delegates,” that is: Who can line up the most influential of the 646 elite delegates (members of the National Committee, local and congressional party leaders) who will automatically be seated in Atlanta? (In the GOP camp the talk was: Who would be George Bush’s running-mate?)… Michael Dukakis is focusing on the superdelegates. He won over Michigan Sen. Don Riegle by a flip-flop in his trade position. He now favors the trade bill, having blasted it for months, in what Dick Gephardt, the authentic protectionist candidate, calls a “battlefield conversion.” Above all, he told Michigan autoworkers, he endorses the Riegle amendment…. Other new Dukakis endorsers last week: top-ranking Connecticut Democrats, Sen. Christopher Dodd and Gov. William O’Neill, plus Sens. Barbara Mikulski (Md.) and Patrick Leahy (Vt.). Major coup of the week was Dukakis endorsement by New Jersey’s Sen. Bill Bradley, who thus takes himself out of contention should it come to a brokered convention in Atlanta. . . . Through February, Dukakis had spent nearly twice as much ($11.4 million) as Albert Gore ($6 million), Dick Gephardt ($5.6 million), and Paul Simon ($5.3 million). How much has Jesse Jackson spent? No one knows. He has yet to file a report with the Federal Election Commission. . . . According to recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, Jackson’s name-recognition is high: 90 per cent.

So who will be George Bush’s running-mate? Washington Post reports Richard Nixon will urge Bush to name chief of staff and former Sen. Howard Baker, a Border Stater (Tennessee) and a man who knows his way around Congress. . . . The (Republican) Western States Political Caucus is pushing hard for a Westerner, and nominates as possible running-mates Interior Secretary Don Hodel (Ore.); Sens. James McClure (Idaho), Orrin Hatch (Utah), and John McCain (Ariz.); and former Sen. Paul Laxalt (Nev.). The group likes California Gov. George Deukmejian but feels that with reapportionment in 1990 it’s best not to endanger that statehouse. . . . Political analyst Stephen Hess of Brookings suggests Bush might do well to nominate Sen. Nancy Kassebaum (Kan.), a moderate (ACU 51 per cent; ADA 30 per cent). . . . Coming out of Super Tuesday, USA Today and other polls had Bush leading Dukakis, but narrowly. Last week, a New York poll showed Dukakis beating Bush 47 to 41 per cent. . . . Even before Super Tuesday, an NBC/ WSJ poll found that 64 per cent of Americans felt Bush “would be tough enough to be a good President,” up from 46 per cent in January. … A Bush aide, responding to complaints that the Vice President talks in generalities, promised: “We’re going to heavy-up the speeches.” Commented columnist George Will, not known as a Bush fan, “Aides come to talk like their bosses.” . . . Now that he’s gone, Jack Kemp is coming in for kudos from the toughest critics in the business, the press. Says Democratic analyst and commentator Mark Shields: “What is true of sports is also true of political campaigns. They don’t build character, but they do reveal it. . . . Along the way [Jack Kemp] has made more than a few admirers on the press bus.”

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Presidential Election

Heading into big Eastern and Midwestern caucuses and primaries, the talk in Democratic camp is “super-delegates,” that is: Who can line up the most influential of the 646 elite delegates (members of the National Committee, local and congressional party leaders) who will automatically be seated in Atlanta? (In the GOP camp the talk was: Who would be George Bush’s running-mate?)… Michael Dukakis is focusing on the superdelegates. He won over Michigan Sen. Don Riegle by a flip-flop in his trade position. He now favors the trade bill, having blasted it for months, in what Dick Gephardt, the authentic protectionist candidate, calls a “battlefield conversion.” Above all, he told Michigan autoworkers, he endorses the Riegle amendment…. Other new Dukakis endorsers last week: top-ranking Connecticut Democrats, Sen. Christopher Dodd and Gov. William O’Neill, plus Sens. Barbara Mikulski (Md.) and Patrick Leahy (Vt.). Major coup of the week was Dukakis endorsement by New Jersey’s Sen. Bill Bradley, who thus takes himself out of contention should it come to a brokered convention in Atlanta. . . . Through February, Dukakis had spent nearly twice as much ($11.4 million) as Albert Gore ($6 million), Dick Gephardt ($5.6 million), and Paul Simon ($5.3 million). How much has Jesse Jackson spent? No one knows. He has yet to file a report with the Federal Election Commission. . . . According to recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, Jackson’s name-recognition is high: 90 per cent.

So who will be George Bush’s running-mate? Washington Post reports Richard Nixon will urge Bush to name chief of staff and former Sen. Howard Baker, a Border Stater (Tennessee) and a man who knows his way around Congress. . . . The (Republican) Western States Political Caucus is pushing hard for a Westerner, and nominates as possible running-mates Interior Secretary Don Hodel (Ore.); Sens. James McClure (Idaho), Orrin Hatch (Utah), and John McCain (Ariz.); and former Sen. Paul Laxalt (Nev.). The group likes California Gov. George Deukmejian but feels that with reapportionment in 1990 it’s best not to endanger that statehouse. . . . Political analyst Stephen Hess of Brookings suggests Bush might do well to nominate Sen. Nancy Kassebaum (Kan.), a moderate (ACU 51 per cent; ADA 30 per cent). . . . Coming out of Super Tuesday, USA Today and other polls had Bush leading Dukakis, but narrowly. Last week, a New York poll showed Dukakis beating Bush 47 to 41 per cent. . . . Even before Super Tuesday, an NBC/ WSJ poll found that 64 per cent of Americans felt Bush “would be tough enough to be a good President,” up from 46 per cent in January. … A Bush aide, responding to complaints that the Vice President talks in generalities, promised: “We’re going to heavy-up the speeches.” Commented columnist George Will, not known as a Bush fan, “Aides come to talk like their bosses.” . . . Now that he’s gone, Jack Kemp is coming in for kudos from the toughest critics in the business, the press. Says Democratic analyst and commentator Mark Shields: “What is true of sports is also true of political campaigns. They don’t build character, but they do reveal it. . . . Along the way [Jack Kemp] has made more than a few admirers on the press bus.”