Born-Again Bradley?

William Warren Bradley, the senior senator from New Jersey, is not running for President, but not for lack of urging. The New Republic gets a buzz on in his presence. run, bill, run was the sober headline of a paean their political reporter, Fred Barnes, wrote last summer. “Bradley,” said Barnes, “is a liberal who can win.” Albert Hunt, the Wall Street Journal’s Washington bureau chief, thinks he’s “more ready to govern” than any of the present hopefuls. Bradley, says Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, “is talking about the issues that are 1988 issues.”

Bradley’s fans have not been seduced by style. “Great mind. Joe Palooka voice,” was how one Senate aide expressed the common verdict. Bradley would never be mugged, his Knicks teammates used to say, because he looked as if he’d been mugged already. Bradley, I wrote when he first ran for office in 1978, “has the presence of a gaffed fish.”

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

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William Warren Bradley, the senior senator from New Jersey, is not running for President, but not for lack of urging. The New Republic gets a buzz on in his presence. run, bill, run was the sober headline of a paean their political reporter, Fred Barnes, wrote last summer. “Bradley,” said Barnes, “is a liberal who can win.” Albert Hunt, the Wall Street Journal’s Washington bureau chief, thinks he’s “more ready to govern” than any of the present hopefuls. Bradley, says Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, “is talking about the issues that are 1988 issues.”

Bradley’s fans have not been seduced by style. “Great mind. Joe Palooka voice,” was how one Senate aide expressed the common verdict. Bradley would never be mugged, his Knicks teammates used to say, because he looked as if he’d been mugged already. Bradley, I wrote when he first ran for office in 1978, “has the presence of a gaffed fish.”