On the Record

■ Gloomier and gloomier: Only 8 per cent of Democratic governors favor fellow Gov. Mario Cuomo as 1992 Democratic presidential candidate; 21 per cent like Sen. Al Gore, but Gore bombed in recent appearances before moderate Democratic Leadership Council and more liberal National Democratic Party conference. . . . Emerging as favorite of Democratic Left is Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, who says he can beat George Bush if only he can get the nomination. Bush’s support, says Harkin, “is a mile wide, and an inch deep.” . . . On other hand, Des Moines Register finds 44 per cent of Harkin’s fellow lowans don’t think he should run for President. . . . Jesse Jackson, suddenly back on front page, not abashed about his lack of political experience, which he feels is on a par with that of Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel, and Nelson Mandela. . . . Things are so dismal that Boston Mayor Raymond Flynn says he might just run for President. “As far as I’m concerned it’s a wide-open playing field,” Flynn said at U.S. Conference of Mayors. . . . Looking to ’92: Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd could be in trouble. Hartford Courant shows his approval rating ten points below that of junior Sen. Joseph Lieberman (58 to 45 per cent). Possible contenders for Dodd seat: Rep. Nancy Johnson, a moderate Republican, and conservative Rep. John Rowland. Then again, Rowland could wait till ’94 and take on the increasingly unpopular Gov. Lowell Weicker. … In California, Field po11 shows liberal Republican Rep. Tom Campbell and conservative Bruce Herschensohn running neck and neck (21 to 20) in primary for seat Sen. Alan Cranston is relinquishing. . . . Texas political manners are something else again. At recent Harkin fund-raiser, Texas Gov. Ann Richards commented about fellow attendee Sen. Wyche Fowler (D., Ga.): “I never heard of him until tonight.” She added, “but they could have sent Sam Nunn”—not known as a galvanizing public speaker.

■ Is the U.S. economy down and out, as evening TV shows would have us believe? The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 1991 report on its 24 member nations (including all the major industrial democracies) is just out. In the early 1980s, says the OECD, the per-capita GNP of the combined OECD economies amounted to 75 per cent of the per-capita GNP of the United States. At the end of the decade, the figures were the same. The U.S. has lost no ground. . . . The Age of Greed hasn’t affected America’s charitable instincts. Charitable donations in 1990 topped $122 billion, up 5.8 per cent over 1989. . . . Daily News Digest maintains that of $666 billion Americans will spend on health care by year’s end, $166.5 billion will have been spent on paperwork. . . . Washington University’s Center for the Study of American Business says it will cost an estimated $13 billion to run the federal regulatory machine in 1992. Sharp staff reductions in the early Reagan years have gradually been reversed; the number of regulatory employees will top 122,000 in 1992 for the first time since 1980.

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■ Gloomier and gloomier: Only 8 per cent of Democratic governors favor fellow Gov. Mario Cuomo as 1992 Democratic presidential candidate; 21 per cent like Sen. Al Gore, but Gore bombed in recent appearances before moderate Democratic Leadership Council and more liberal National Democratic Party conference. . . . Emerging as favorite of Democratic Left is Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, who says he can beat George Bush if only he can get the nomination. Bush’s support, says Harkin, “is a mile wide, and an inch deep.” . . . On other hand, Des Moines Register finds 44 per cent of Harkin’s fellow lowans don’t think he should run for President. . . . Jesse Jackson, suddenly back on front page, not abashed about his lack of political experience, which he feels is on a par with that of Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel, and Nelson Mandela. . . . Things are so dismal that Boston Mayor Raymond Flynn says he might just run for President. “As far as I’m concerned it’s a wide-open playing field,” Flynn said at U.S. Conference of Mayors. . . . Looking to ’92: Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd could be in trouble. Hartford Courant shows his approval rating ten points below that of junior Sen. Joseph Lieberman (58 to 45 per cent). Possible contenders for Dodd seat: Rep. Nancy Johnson, a moderate Republican, and conservative Rep. John Rowland. Then again, Rowland could wait till ’94 and take on the increasingly unpopular Gov. Lowell Weicker. … In California, Field po11 shows liberal Republican Rep. Tom Campbell and conservative Bruce Herschensohn running neck and neck (21 to 20) in primary for seat Sen. Alan Cranston is relinquishing. . . . Texas political manners are something else again. At recent Harkin fund-raiser, Texas Gov. Ann Richards commented about fellow attendee Sen. Wyche Fowler (D., Ga.): “I never heard of him until tonight.” She added, “but they could have sent Sam Nunn”—not known as a galvanizing public speaker.

■ Is the U.S. economy down and out, as evening TV shows would have us believe? The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 1991 report on its 24 member nations (including all the major industrial democracies) is just out. In the early 1980s, says the OECD, the per-capita GNP of the combined OECD economies amounted to 75 per cent of the per-capita GNP of the United States. At the end of the decade, the figures were the same. The U.S. has lost no ground. . . . The Age of Greed hasn’t affected America’s charitable instincts. Charitable donations in 1990 topped $122 billion, up 5.8 per cent over 1989. . . . Daily News Digest maintains that of $666 billion Americans will spend on health care by year’s end, $166.5 billion will have been spent on paperwork. . . . Washington University’s Center for the Study of American Business says it will cost an estimated $13 billion to run the federal regulatory machine in 1992. Sharp staff reductions in the early Reagan years have gradually been reversed; the number of regulatory employees will top 122,000 in 1992 for the first time since 1980.