Facing the Fatigue Factor

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Jackson fell asleep during two recent interviews. When he is groggy he tends to mix up his trademark parallel constructions. "Jails at their worst," he proclaimed in Ference, Ala., "are better than schools at their best." Hart last week mistakenly referred to his "19-year-old son"; John Hart is 18. The Senator (who seems to have a knack for muffing ages) made an odd joke last week about how old he feels. "When we started, I was 20," he told a little girl who asked if it was difficult running for President. "Now I feel like I'm 95."

Hart, perhaps the most driven of the three, has probably committed more serious tactical blunders because of exhaustion. "Gary Hart has been suffering from extreme fatigue since Super Tuesday," contends McGovern. "The errors he made during the Illinois primary were a direct result of fatigue." In Illinois, Hart looked foolish when he accused Mondale of broadcasting unfair advertisements, which, it turned out, did not exist; a Hart commercial attacking a powerful local Democrat aired for two days even after Hart had disclaimed it. Said Press Secretary Kathy Bushkin at the time: "Gary's fatigued now and he's delegating decisions that he used to make before."

Hart and Mondale smoke cigars, but none of the candidates admit to any special relaxation techniques. Indeed, Jackson seems determined to stay cranked up. "I have never known him to rest," says Frank Watkins, his press secretary, "except when he was ordered by the doctor to go to the hospital [for exhaustion, hi 1979]." Mondale, before his defeat hi New Hampshire, could afford three quiet hours a day in his hotel room; now he relies on naps in transit. Lately, Hart's handlers have tried to schedule only three major campaign events a day. "It's surprising to me," says Henkel, "that Gary is holding up so well, that his psyche is largely intact after this roller-coaster ride."

Roller-coaster ride, shooting the rapids, demolition derby—almost any metaphor involving gut-churning ups and downs or collisions is apt. Candidates seem to think the electorate wants to see them endure incredible campaign pressures. Yet it is unclear whether surviving such a regimen is a measure of presidential mettle. Henkel, new to national politics, thinks not. "The Democratic Party has to face up to the punishment this process inflicts on its people," he says. "These four or five months of extremely intense activity are not the best test of a candidate's ability." Hart, however, has no real complaints. And Mondale, who quit a presidential candidacy once before, approves of the campaign's intensity. "I think it tests much of the same qualities needed in a President," he says, such as "decision making under fire, the ability to unify and persuade."