Four days before the debate, the last of the major polls (ABC/Washington Post) agreed with other leading pollsters (CBS/NYT, NBC/Wall Street Journal, Gallup) that Bush now leads Dukakis by four to eight points. All polls agree Bush has won back lots of wavering Reagan Democrats. Explains West Coast pollster Mervin Field, before Atlanta what we had was a referendum on Bush, and people were not “enthralled” with him. “The Dukakis page was unwritten and, unfortunately for Dukakis, since the Democratic convention the entries have been more negative than positive.” Field says Bush is now ahead in 19 states with 156 electoral votes, Dukakis in 14, with 132 electoral votes. A month earlier, Dukakis led in 24 states with 353 electoral votes—enough to win…. Dukakis has insisted that the campaign is about “competence.” CBS/ NYT poll indicates 51 per cent of voters perceive Bush as more competent, to 32 per cent for Dukakis…. That M-l tank ride didn’t help. Columnist Don Feder calls that episode “Pee Wee’s armored adventure.” (It has become this campaign’s killer rabbit.) Boston Herald finds 25 per cent less likely to vote for Dukakis on account of M-l incident…. One reason Dukakis didn’t join in early Quayle-bashing: Quayle and Bentsen have voted same way more than 50 per cent of the time, says Congressional Quarterly.
Other races: In Wisconsin, Susan Engeleiter beat out conservative Stephen King to win GOP senatorial nomination for Proxmire seat. She will face industrialist Herbert Kohl. Miss Engeleiter is only woman nominated thus far for Senate; the only black senatorial nominees, Alan Keyes (Md.) and Maurice Dawkins (Va.), are also Republicans—so much for party of intolerance… Conservatives took another beating in Vermont, where Rep. James M. Jeffords won GOP nomination for Robert Stafford’s seat…. It was cliffhanger in Delaware, where Democratic Lieut. Gov. S. B. Woo was first declared loser, then winner in tight primary. He is not given much chance against Republican incumbent William Roth….Campaign is getting rough in Nebraska, where Democratic senatorial contender Bob Kerrey is refusing to share a debate platform with Ernie Chambers of radical New Alliance Party (“I have said that a party of 14 members that holds its nominating convention in Booth No. 2 at Denny’s restaurant should not be included”). Kerrey now leads Republican Sen. David Karnes 51 to 33 per cent. Chambers, a state senator, clocks in with 4 per cent. His rhetoric tends to extremism. Ronald Reagan “is a Rambo-esque character in the last stages of senility.”
Comments