For the Record

New York Times front-pager morning of Bentsen-Quayle debate indicates Bush still ahead but Dukakis narrowing gap. But certain findings in same poll indicate major Dukakis problems. His unfavorable rating is now 35 per cent, the highest ever on an NYT/CBS News sounding. Poll shows 43 per cent of voters now consider Dukakis a liberal—up from 27 per cent in May. And the much-ballyhooed gender gap has disappeared: 45 per cent of women favored Bush in poll, 43 per cent Dukakis. . . . Recent USA Today/ CNN poll confirms this. It found 47 per cent of women in Dukakis’s camp, 45 per cent in Bush’s. . . . Latest Time magazine poll has one fascinating figure. While voters over 35 divide evenly between Bush and Dukakis, those between 18 and 34 go for Bush 60 per cent, as against 33 for Dukakis. Explains Time: these voters know only two Presidents, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. . . . Former Democratic National Chairman Robert Strauss (who can be as frank as Barry Goldwater) says the Democrats have been outslicked. “The Republicans seem to have had the ability since 1980 to press a button and bring out the old pros who are good, who know what they are doing,” says Strauss. “The Democrats press the button, and we re-invent the wheel.” . . . Stuart Rothenberg of The Political Report feels Governor Dukakis “is still running a brie-and-chablis campaign when he should be running a lunch-basket campaign.” . . . Everett C. Ladd of Roper Center asks: “Whatever the source of their views, do Americans think it is time for a change? In mid September the answer is No.” He predicts a Bush victory unless Dukakis can “beat Bush decisively in personal terms, leadership, character, etc.” . . . Recent polls show Bush well ahead in South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, and Texas, and it is rumored that Dukakis strategists are considering writing off the South. . . . Texans apparently would like to keep Lloyd Bentsen in the Senate. Polls show him twenty points ahead of Republican opponent, Representative Beau Boulter, but they also show Dukakis-Bentsen trailing Bush-Quayle by ten points. … In New York—which had been conceded to Democrats—Arthur Finkelstein poll finds Bush and Dukakis less than one point apart. “We’re not seeing a surge to Bush,” he says, “we’re seeing an absolute bottom-fall-out of Michael Dukakis.” Finkelstein says Dukakis’s negatives have tripled since Atlanta.

“Oh no! I’ve just been sent an obscene fax!”

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Presidential Election

New York Times front-pager morning of Bentsen-Quayle debate indicates Bush still ahead but Dukakis narrowing gap. But certain findings in same poll indicate major Dukakis problems. His unfavorable rating is now 35 per cent, the highest ever on an NYT/CBS News sounding. Poll shows 43 per cent of voters now consider Dukakis a liberal—up from 27 per cent in May. And the much-ballyhooed gender gap has disappeared: 45 per cent of women favored Bush in poll, 43 per cent Dukakis. . . . Recent USA Today/ CNN poll confirms this. It found 47 per cent of women in Dukakis’s camp, 45 per cent in Bush’s. . . . Latest Time magazine poll has one fascinating figure. While voters over 35 divide evenly between Bush and Dukakis, those between 18 and 34 go for Bush 60 per cent, as against 33 for Dukakis. Explains Time: these voters know only two Presidents, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. . . . Former Democratic National Chairman Robert Strauss (who can be as frank as Barry Goldwater) says the Democrats have been outslicked. “The Republicans seem to have had the ability since 1980 to press a button and bring out the old pros who are good, who know what they are doing,” says Strauss. “The Democrats press the button, and we re-invent the wheel.” . . . Stuart Rothenberg of The Political Report feels Governor Dukakis “is still running a brie-and-chablis campaign when he should be running a lunch-basket campaign.” . . . Everett C. Ladd of Roper Center asks: “Whatever the source of their views, do Americans think it is time for a change? In mid September the answer is No.” He predicts a Bush victory unless Dukakis can “beat Bush decisively in personal terms, leadership, character, etc.” . . . Recent polls show Bush well ahead in South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, and Texas, and it is rumored that Dukakis strategists are considering writing off the South. . . . Texans apparently would like to keep Lloyd Bentsen in the Senate. Polls show him twenty points ahead of Republican opponent, Representative Beau Boulter, but they also show Dukakis-Bentsen trailing Bush-Quayle by ten points. … In New York—which had been conceded to Democrats—Arthur Finkelstein poll finds Bush and Dukakis less than one point apart. “We’re not seeing a surge to Bush,” he says, “we’re seeing an absolute bottom-fall-out of Michael Dukakis.” Finkelstein says Dukakis’s negatives have tripled since Atlanta.

“Oh no! I’ve just been sent an obscene fax!”