Sacramento, Calif.—Senator Alan Cranston of California, at age 68 embarking on his first quest for the Presidency, had been excoriating Ronald Reagan and massaging the various components of the Democratic Party’s coalition for half an hour when he hit his stride. “Every Soviet infant, child, woman, and man is targeted by American missiles,” he orated; in an attempt at balance, he added that “every American, in turn, is targeted and held hostage by Soviet missiles.”
Cranston’s audience had been drifting away, but now he ensured its attention by bringing up the issue of the hour. Addressing the plenary session of the Democratic Senate Central Committee of California, he said: “I went to Moscow a short time ago because of my concern over this sorry state of affairs.” As Cranston spoke, I could not help being reminded of Senator Fred Van Ackerman’s words in Allen Drury’s Advise and Consent a generation ago: “I would rather crawl to Moscow than die under a bomb.”
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