For the Record

At year’s end, where was the Democratic presidential field? In motion, moving right. Fritz Mondale was deeply hurt that his announcement (about two seconds after Teddy pulled out) that he planned to be “a centrist” candidate was taken to mean that he “had reshaped his liberal principles.” All he wanted was to fit his policies to what polltakers say is “today’s more conservative mood.” . . . Sen. Alan Cranston, in hasty bid to line up Kennedy supporters, indicated he was closest to Kennedy politically but perhaps an itsy-bitsy bit more moderate. . . . Democratic pollster Dick Wirthlin thinks John Glenn may be the one because he a) is perceived as a moderate and b) has a Midwestern base. The Republicans, says Wirthlin, will again in 1984 base their strategy on the Sunbelt. . . . John Glenn himself was delighted: “Any time anyone ahead of you in the polls drops out, that’s a plus.” . . . Rep. Morris Udall won the wriest-comment award going away: “I am authorizing an exploratory committee to investigate whether I should think about running in case there is a spontaneous draft.” . . . Washington Post’s astute David Broder wonders whether a non-racist Southerner (Askew, Hollings) won’t end up being the Jimmy Carter of the ’84 primary season. … At Ladbroke’s they’re making book on when Teddy Kennedy will have pulled out of as many presidential races as Harold Stassen has entered.

Coming up: In the 98th Congress Majority Leader Howard Baker will again be quarterbacking for Reagan in the Senate; he and all other Republican senatorial leaders were re-elected, but one: Robert Packwood, who lost to Richard Lugar as head of National Republican Senatorial Committee. Among the things Packwood was not forgiven: labeling Phyllis Schlafly the “General Cornwallis of the [ERA] movement” after ERA’s defeat. . . . Howard Baker, by the way, placed first in Washington newspapermen’s poll of best senators. . . . Henry Steele Commager, looking over the Senate and bemoaning the loss in recent years of many flaming liberals, suggests a constitutional amendment permitting people to run in states where they don’t live, his version of the British safe constituencies. … In the House, Minority Leader Robert Michel is going to have his problems: 83 per cent of the new House Democrats want to slash the defense budget; 58 per cent object to any new cuts in domestic spending. . . . The media made loud noises about Jesse Helms’s defeat on the social issues last fall, but a late Gallup shows they are still popular. The people favor: school prayer, 73 to 27 per cent; the death penalty, 72 to 28 per cent; the new federalism, 62 to 38; only noncoercive busing, 72 to 28; a balancedbudget amendment, 75 to 25 per cent.

Featured Tags

Equal Rights Amendment

At year’s end, where was the Democratic presidential field? In motion, moving right. Fritz Mondale was deeply hurt that his announcement (about two seconds after Teddy pulled out) that he planned to be “a centrist” candidate was taken to mean that he “had reshaped his liberal principles.” All he wanted was to fit his policies to what polltakers say is “today’s more conservative mood.” . . . Sen. Alan Cranston, in hasty bid to line up Kennedy supporters, indicated he was closest to Kennedy politically but perhaps an itsy-bitsy bit more moderate. . . . Democratic pollster Dick Wirthlin thinks John Glenn may be the one because he a) is perceived as a moderate and b) has a Midwestern base. The Republicans, says Wirthlin, will again in 1984 base their strategy on the Sunbelt. . . . John Glenn himself was delighted: “Any time anyone ahead of you in the polls drops out, that’s a plus.” . . . Rep. Morris Udall won the wriest-comment award going away: “I am authorizing an exploratory committee to investigate whether I should think about running in case there is a spontaneous draft.” . . . Washington Post’s astute David Broder wonders whether a non-racist Southerner (Askew, Hollings) won’t end up being the Jimmy Carter of the ’84 primary season. … At Ladbroke’s they’re making book on when Teddy Kennedy will have pulled out of as many presidential races as Harold Stassen has entered.

Coming up: In the 98th Congress Majority Leader Howard Baker will again be quarterbacking for Reagan in the Senate; he and all other Republican senatorial leaders were re-elected, but one: Robert Packwood, who lost to Richard Lugar as head of National Republican Senatorial Committee. Among the things Packwood was not forgiven: labeling Phyllis Schlafly the “General Cornwallis of the [ERA] movement” after ERA’s defeat. . . . Howard Baker, by the way, placed first in Washington newspapermen’s poll of best senators. . . . Henry Steele Commager, looking over the Senate and bemoaning the loss in recent years of many flaming liberals, suggests a constitutional amendment permitting people to run in states where they don’t live, his version of the British safe constituencies. … In the House, Minority Leader Robert Michel is going to have his problems: 83 per cent of the new House Democrats want to slash the defense budget; 58 per cent object to any new cuts in domestic spending. . . . The media made loud noises about Jesse Helms’s defeat on the social issues last fall, but a late Gallup shows they are still popular. The people favor: school prayer, 73 to 27 per cent; the death penalty, 72 to 28 per cent; the new federalism, 62 to 38; only noncoercive busing, 72 to 28; a balancedbudget amendment, 75 to 25 per cent.