FOR THE RECORD

The morning after Mario Cuomo’s blockbusting keynoter, Washington Post columnist Haynes Johnson reported widespread feeling on floor that delegates would rather have Cuomo than Mondale as their candidate. “It’s a good thing for Mondale,” one delegate commented, “that Cuomo’s getting out of town or the ticket might wind up being Cuomo and Ferraro.” . . . Unease about Mondale’s adequacy pervaded the atmosphere. . . . Take the Bert Lance-Charles Manatt flap: The feeling was that Mondale’s timing was terrible; he read his cards wrong in the first place, and when challenged he couldn’t stand his ground. Commented Rep. James Florio (N.J.): “It was like a bucket of cold water after every one of us were [sic] soaring at the choice of Ferraro”; Gov. Robert Graham (Fla.): “[He] took what had been a steaming kettle and moved it down to simmer”; former Democratic National Chairman Robert Strauss: “It was inelegantly done”; New Republic editor Hendrik Hertzberg: “There was only one more idiotic thing to do about the Manatt morass, and they did it,” i.e., they (meaning Mondale) backtracked on decision. Commented Pamela Harriman (Mrs. Averell): “I think the new chairman [Manatt] will be as good as the old chairman [Manatt].”

Was the Ferraro choice a big plus? Yes, say the pols. Alabama Lt. Gov. Bill Baxley: “She has what Ronald Reagan has but George Bush and, unfortunately, Fritz Mondale don’t have. She can appeal to you on a warm, person-to-person level.” Virginia Gov. Charles Robb: “Mondale is a nice, sincere man, but he needs a little pizzazz. She [Mrs. Ferraro] gives it to him.” . . . No, say the analysts. Jimmy Carter pollster Pat Caddell feels a Yuppie Veep would have been a better choice. “The Democrats,” he told Time magazine, “are engaged in a march of folly. . . . They are ignoring the key democratic battleground [youth].” And Democratic analyst Alan Baron, in his insider’s newsletter a week before the convention (BF—Before Ferraro), felt a Mondale cave-in to feminist pressures on this point would “go down in history as the classic case of ‘shooting yourself in the foot.’ ” It would be perceived, he thought, as yet another example of Mondale’s pandering to special-interest groups. . . . How does the public at large see it? It doesn’t seem to be much affected one way or t’other. An ABC News poll convention week saw Mrs. Ferraro as 3 per cent gain for Mondale ticket, but CBS/New York Times poll, same week, indicated she would mean 5-point loss for Democratic ticket.

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The morning after Mario Cuomo’s blockbusting keynoter, Washington Post columnist Haynes Johnson reported widespread feeling on floor that delegates would rather have Cuomo than Mondale as their candidate. “It’s a good thing for Mondale,” one delegate commented, “that Cuomo’s getting out of town or the ticket might wind up being Cuomo and Ferraro.” . . . Unease about Mondale’s adequacy pervaded the atmosphere. . . . Take the Bert Lance-Charles Manatt flap: The feeling was that Mondale’s timing was terrible; he read his cards wrong in the first place, and when challenged he couldn’t stand his ground. Commented Rep. James Florio (N.J.): “It was like a bucket of cold water after every one of us were [sic] soaring at the choice of Ferraro”; Gov. Robert Graham (Fla.): “[He] took what had been a steaming kettle and moved it down to simmer”; former Democratic National Chairman Robert Strauss: “It was inelegantly done”; New Republic editor Hendrik Hertzberg: “There was only one more idiotic thing to do about the Manatt morass, and they did it,” i.e., they (meaning Mondale) backtracked on decision. Commented Pamela Harriman (Mrs. Averell): “I think the new chairman [Manatt] will be as good as the old chairman [Manatt].”

Was the Ferraro choice a big plus? Yes, say the pols. Alabama Lt. Gov. Bill Baxley: “She has what Ronald Reagan has but George Bush and, unfortunately, Fritz Mondale don’t have. She can appeal to you on a warm, person-to-person level.” Virginia Gov. Charles Robb: “Mondale is a nice, sincere man, but he needs a little pizzazz. She [Mrs. Ferraro] gives it to him.” . . . No, say the analysts. Jimmy Carter pollster Pat Caddell feels a Yuppie Veep would have been a better choice. “The Democrats,” he told Time magazine, “are engaged in a march of folly. . . . They are ignoring the key democratic battleground [youth].” And Democratic analyst Alan Baron, in his insider’s newsletter a week before the convention (BF—Before Ferraro), felt a Mondale cave-in to feminist pressures on this point would “go down in history as the classic case of ‘shooting yourself in the foot.’ ” It would be perceived, he thought, as yet another example of Mondale’s pandering to special-interest groups. . . . How does the public at large see it? It doesn’t seem to be much affected one way or t’other. An ABC News poll convention week saw Mrs. Ferraro as 3 per cent gain for Mondale ticket, but CBS/New York Times poll, same week, indicated she would mean 5-point loss for Democratic ticket.