Monday, October 29, 1984
Daily Nebraskan
Pago 5
Modale d
stresses s
ebate performance
trength, knowledge
In my disgracefully check
ered past I was, briefly, a
professor of political sci
ence. The profession was, and
doubtless still b, infested with
persons who were happy only
when counting things. Some per
sons practiced "content analysis "
whereby they would read, say,
the works of Lenin and count the
number of times and the spirit in
which he used the word "im
perialism." Then they would come
to the thunderous conclusion that
Lenin talked a lot about imperial
ism and did not approve of it.
(25 ' George
k& win
Applying that scalpel of scholar
ship to Walter Mondale's debate
performance reveals are you
sitting down? that he likes
strength and knowledge. Subtract
the questioners' time from the 90
minutes, and divide by two: Mon
dale probably spoke for 40 min
utes. Into those minutes he
crammed at least (I may have
missed some) 39 uses of the words
"strength" and "strong" and 21
uses of the words "knowledge"
and "know."
Early on he said: "Strength re
quires knowledge." In his closing
statement he referred to strength
and knowledge 14 times. He
understands this about com
municating to the masses: Keep
the message simple ("Coke is it!")
and repeat it relentlessry.
But the remarkable discipline
he brought to the debate was not
sufficient to solve his problem. He
reached age 58 md the October
of his longed-for campaign with
problems that were too numer
ous and too intractable to solve.
Ronald Reagan went to Kansas
City the scene of his heart
breaking but toughening near
miss at the Republican conven
tion eight years earlier with
the support of more than one
fifth of registered Democrats.
These include a high proportion
of conservative, blue-collar Demo
crats who helped elect him. Mon
dale had to try to pry a lot of
them loose by convincing them
that he is personally strong, that
he understands national strength,
and that Reagan lacks the know
ledge to make his instincts and
values safe and effective. But
Mondale's checkered past caught
up with him mildly, because
Reagan referred only briefly to
Mondale's Senate record.
When I quit being a professor I
worked on the Senate staff, where
I watched Mondale and kindred
spirits having fun and it Was
jolly fun for them voting against
the military systems that today
are the sinews of America's
strength. The Mondale who was
senator from Minnesota was the
Mondale who reportedly resisted
Jimmy Carter's conversion when
Soviet behavior convinced even
Carter of the need for rearma
ment. And that was the Mondale on
display from January through
June this year, competing with
Gary Hart to see who could seem
most indiscriminately ardent for
arms-control agreements and
most reluctant to contemplate
the use of force. As Mondale says,
he has a long record in public life.
It is too long to erase, even with
39 incantations of the words
"strong" and "strength."
Reagan made a hash of some
answers and statements in this
year's debates, but he botched
nothing as badly (and nothing as
important) as Mondale did when
asked by two questioners to ex
plain what would be frozen and
how verification would work
under the "mutual and verifiable
freeze" that is the centerpiece of
his campaign. He implied that
"we have an arms race under
way" because Reagan is President,
an interpretation of postwar his
tory too perverse to merit confu
tation. In Kansas City, yet again, he
said, in effect, "we have a runa
way arms race" because Reagan
will not agree with the Russians.
Mondale could have said "strength"
1,000,039 times and his clear
message still would have been
one identified by Jeane Kirkpa
trick in Dallas, in the best speech
of this campaign: Democrats al
ways blame America first.
Reagan, for"his part, said "we
seek no (military) superiority,"
thereby repudiating, again, an
important part of his 1980 plat
form. And he said of the Soviets,
"We're not going to change their
system." This recurring theme of
his administration (last week
Secretary of State Shultz said,
"We mean no threat to the secur
ity of the Soviet Union") raises
this question: Why are we partic
ipating in the "Helsinki process,"
given. that compliance with the
Helsinki agreements on human
rights would require fundamen
tal change in the Soviet system,
and would mean fundamental
insecurity for the Soviet elite?
And if Reagan means what he
recently has said about restoring
"full independence" to Eastern
European nations, his aim is in
compatible with what the Krem
lin considers its essential security
interests. Someday someone
should ask him about this.
1834, Washington Pott Writers Group
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