Insiders here, including Democrats, are quietly using the word “invincible” to describe Ronald Reagan’s campaign status, but the White House continues to eye the radar screen for storm clouds and political warheads on the horizon. “The atmosphere is not tense,” says a Reagan official, “it’s watchful—like waiting for the other shoe to drop. Things look so good that people here are wondering whether we’re missing something.”
As soon as the Democratic Convention is over, Congress will be back in town, and the Democratic platform is shaping up to be the big kicker for a legislative drive to convert planks into statutes. “They’ve scripted the platform down to a play that’ll run for three weeks,” says a Reaganite congressman, “but only in the House.” Before the recess, the Democrats had a three-ring circus, notes this representative, with the White House in the center ring, and the House and Senate flanking it as sideshows. During the between-conventions run (July 23 through August 10) the Democrats will have only one ring in which to stage their high political drama, since neither the Republican Senate nor the Reagan White House will build the stagecraft by acting in it. Like the nation at large, they’ll be looking on as the Democratic summer stock does its thing.
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