For the Record

Ronald Reagan’s dazzling performance at Williamsburg was, among other things, say Evans & Novak, result of intensive, well-thought-through White House staff drilling. They credit Bill Clark with orchestrating much of it; others on the scene say Reagan also got great assist in Pershing 11, cruisemissile negotiations from Britain’s Margaret Thatcher. . . . On the retention of Reagan’s third-year 10 per cent tax cut, Robert Dole, chairman of Senate Finance Committee, says it’s the “safest bet in town,” but that it will be a “tough fight.” Reason it will pass could be reflected in recent Heritage Foundation/Sindlinger poll showing 54.9 per cent favor retaining tax cut, 54.2 per cent favor going ahead with planned 1985 indexation of taxes. . . . How’s Reagan doing with blue-collar voters? OK, says GOP pollster Richard Wirthlin, who finds the President getting about same percentage of blue-collar vote now as in Nov. 1980. . . . But Reagan’s standing with women is worrying White House political-affairs aide Ed Rollins. In ’80, Reagan got 48 per cent of women’s vote; that figure is down to 30 per cent today.

Passe, that was feeling at ADA convention, where President the Rev. Robert Drinan commented that this was the worst time “for liberals in the last fifty years,” and the would-be Democratic contenders and their agents failed even to put in an appearance. . . . Other presidential hopefuls not so displeased at John Glenn’s recent surge in the polls at the expense of Walter Mondale. Their reasoning: Mondale’s the big obstacle. He’s got to be knocked out before they have a chance. . . . Mondale’s been getting it in press for what some are now describing as his “Grapes of Wrath” oratory. He’s also been hurt by Sen. Paul Tsongas’s support of Glenn. Tsongas is head of the so-called Atari Democrats, the neoliberals who’ve turned their backs on Hubert Humphrey liberalism. . . . The dream ticket for ’84, says U.S. News, would be a Glenn-Cuomo ticket, which should attract Midwesterners, a certain number of Southerners, plus ethnics, Catholics, Northeastern liberals, and— let’s not forget—patriots. . . . On which score be it noted that all the presidential contenders who voted on MX— Gary Hart, Alan Cranston, and John Glenn—voted against funding it. Fritz Hollings was absent that day. … At the senatorial level, Teddy Kennedy’s Fund for a Democratic Majority is busy raising funds these days to destabilize certain Republican conservative senators: Roger Jepsen (endangered), Jesse Helms (doing better in recent polls), John Tower (Republicans lost the Texas governorship last year, making it harder for Tower), and Gordon Humphrey (way up in recent polls).

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Ronald Reagan’s dazzling performance at Williamsburg was, among other things, say Evans & Novak, result of intensive, well-thought-through White House staff drilling. They credit Bill Clark with orchestrating much of it; others on the scene say Reagan also got great assist in Pershing 11, cruisemissile negotiations from Britain’s Margaret Thatcher. . . . On the retention of Reagan’s third-year 10 per cent tax cut, Robert Dole, chairman of Senate Finance Committee, says it’s the “safest bet in town,” but that it will be a “tough fight.” Reason it will pass could be reflected in recent Heritage Foundation/Sindlinger poll showing 54.9 per cent favor retaining tax cut, 54.2 per cent favor going ahead with planned 1985 indexation of taxes. . . . How’s Reagan doing with blue-collar voters? OK, says GOP pollster Richard Wirthlin, who finds the President getting about same percentage of blue-collar vote now as in Nov. 1980. . . . But Reagan’s standing with women is worrying White House political-affairs aide Ed Rollins. In ’80, Reagan got 48 per cent of women’s vote; that figure is down to 30 per cent today.

Passe, that was feeling at ADA convention, where President the Rev. Robert Drinan commented that this was the worst time “for liberals in the last fifty years,” and the would-be Democratic contenders and their agents failed even to put in an appearance. . . . Other presidential hopefuls not so displeased at John Glenn’s recent surge in the polls at the expense of Walter Mondale. Their reasoning: Mondale’s the big obstacle. He’s got to be knocked out before they have a chance. . . . Mondale’s been getting it in press for what some are now describing as his “Grapes of Wrath” oratory. He’s also been hurt by Sen. Paul Tsongas’s support of Glenn. Tsongas is head of the so-called Atari Democrats, the neoliberals who’ve turned their backs on Hubert Humphrey liberalism. . . . The dream ticket for ’84, says U.S. News, would be a Glenn-Cuomo ticket, which should attract Midwesterners, a certain number of Southerners, plus ethnics, Catholics, Northeastern liberals, and— let’s not forget—patriots. . . . On which score be it noted that all the presidential contenders who voted on MX— Gary Hart, Alan Cranston, and John Glenn—voted against funding it. Fritz Hollings was absent that day. … At the senatorial level, Teddy Kennedy’s Fund for a Democratic Majority is busy raising funds these days to destabilize certain Republican conservative senators: Roger Jepsen (endangered), Jesse Helms (doing better in recent polls), John Tower (Republicans lost the Texas governorship last year, making it harder for Tower), and Gordon Humphrey (way up in recent polls).