Mondale spokemen assert that the question of Senator Glenn's electability is moot because he has a shaky following among the ''real Democrats'' who will decide the nomination. So he is fighting furiously to defend his position as the favorite of the party establishment.
The main loser if this approach catches on will, of course, be Mr. Tsongas of Massachusetts last week was a signal that Democratic liberals might be willing to yield and support Senator Glenn as ''the most electable candidate'' for 1984. The endorsement of Senator Glenn by Senator Paul E. Reagan at his own game in the general election. On the other, they are drawn to him as someone who might beat Mr. On one hand, they regard him as a threat to traditional brokerage arrangements. Mondale for the lead in the public opinion polls, his candidacy is taken more seriously, and it has set up a strong approach-avoidance conflict among party regulars who are uncertain whether it would be a blight or a blessing. But because Senator Glenn is pressing former Vice President Walter F. Hollings of South Carolina, are also defying labor and other Democratic blocs. Reubin Askew of Florida and Senator Ernest F. Two other centrist candidates, former Gov. Conflict for Party Regularsįor Senator Glenn is running for the nomination on the promise to appeal to the ''constituency of the whole,'' rather than to the traditional Democratic special interest groups.
But the question is whether he can get the nomination from a party whose active members are suspicious about his intentions and credentials. So goes the Glenn campaign's argument for him as an ''integrative symbol'' who can bring the Democrats a victory in the general election. I think he's a good candidate to convey that.'' Voters want a leader who can manage change. People think maybe a 61-year-old man with traditional values can figure out where we're going in the future. ''They know John Glenn was in the forefront of the last national commitment we made in the United States. Hamilton, the poll-taker for Senator Glenn. ''People still know Ronald Reagan was on the silver screen all his life,'' said William R. Reagan's language about ''traditional values.'' But, he said pointedly, he would actually practice those American virtues to which the President gave ''lip service.'' Senator Glenn's advisers add that the former astronaut and ace combat pilot has also actually lived the kind of life that Mr. In announcing his candidacy on April 21, Senator Glenn consciously echoed Mr.
Hero image blocs app free#
Reagan, but who is free of the President's baggage on civil rights and issues affecting women and the poor. Glenn strategists view their man as a candidate who, when it comes to image and patriotic appeal, matches the political assets of Mr. Mark Russell, the Washington humorist, jokes that Senator Glenn, with his sturdy appearance of Midwestern rectitude, ''even looks like a Republican.'' But for the Senator's supporters and advisers, it is not simply a matter of a physical resemblance that calls to mind the mild Eisenhower brand of heroism. To them, his is a Democratic candidacy based in large part on the fact that he mirrors the strengths of successful Republican candidates, including President Eisenhower and President Reagan. But if the Senator resorts to humorous evasions on this subject, his supporters and advisers do not. That is the task before Senator Glenn, and talk that he is trying to become a ''Democratic Eisenhower'' is heard often in Washington.įor Senator Glenn, the question of whether he is trying to use Republican-style appeal in a party that already suspects him of excessive conservatism is a sensitive one. Eisenhower was an avuncular, unthreatening leader who was able to transmute the loose change of an heroic image into the hard currency of political support. ''I always thought,'' he announced into a plume of pipe smoke, ''that Ike was a very handsome man. Then his normally squinty eyes narrowed even further with amusement. For a tiny moment, perhaps half a beat of that legendarily slow astronaut's pulse, Senator John Glenn seemed taken aback by the question.