Letter from Washington

By ending his candidacy, Gary Hart did the Democrats a big favor, political soothsayers here aver. Without Snow White, the door is now open for one of the Seven Dwarfs to emerge from the Democratic convention at the head of a party united in the belief that its nominee is heir to a generational mantle that Hart had spuriously claimed for himself. (Hart is older than all of the remaining candidates save Dukakis and Simon.)

“The youth and freshness of the new Democratic nominee,” notes a DNC senior staffer, “will strike the same chord of optimism that the Hart campaign strove for in 1984.” Because of Ronald Reagan’s eight-year dominance of his party, the Republicans are an election away from developing their own group of under-fifty candidates. Meanwhile, the likely nomination of an old-school, sixtyish Bush or Dole will make the contrast between the past (Republicans) and the future (Democrats) that much starker.

By ending his candidacy, Gary Hart did the Democrats a big favor, political soothsayers here aver. Without Snow White, the door is now open for one of the Seven Dwarfs to emerge from the Democratic convention at the head of a party united in the belief that its nominee is heir to a generational mantle that Hart had spuriously claimed for himself. (Hart is older than all of the remaining candidates save Dukakis and Simon.)

“The youth and freshness of the new Democratic nominee,” notes a DNC senior staffer, “will strike the same chord of optimism that the Hart campaign strove for in 1984.” Because of Ronald Reagan’s eight-year dominance of his party, the Republicans are an election away from developing their own group of under-fifty candidates. Meanwhile, the likely nomination of an old-school, sixtyish Bush or Dole will make the contrast between the past (Republicans) and the future (Democrats) that much starker.