■ Frustrated Democratic candidates have been laying off Reagan himself. Question: Should they also lay off Reaganomics? Two indications that President is not blamed for present state of the economy: 1) August poll of “institutional decision-makers” released by Bache shows they place blame in this order: on past Congresses (87.7 per cent), past Presidents (41), present Congress (27.4), past Federal Reserve Boards (24), and, finally, on Ronald Reagan —6 per cent. 2) Mid-September Los Angeles Times poll on who’s responsible for the state of the economy brought this response, in order: OPEC, Japan, Congress, business, labor, Federal Reserve, Democratic Party, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan… Of interest to Jerry Falwell et al.: How dangerous does the general public perceive the Moral Majority to be? Not very. Seventy per cent of those questioned in Washington Post / NBC poll didn’t even know what it was.
■ With four weeks to go, it’s a toss-up in California and Virginia, two states in which the incumbent senators (Ha- yakawa and Byrd) are retiring; but Republican Millicent Fenwick leads in the third, New Jersey. … In other senatorial races, Melcher (D., Mont.), Weicker (R., Conn.), and Hatch (R., Utah) could be in trouble; as are Democratic Sens. Cannon (Nev.) and possibly Stennis (Miss.), because of age.
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