Charting the Big Shift

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In late February a CBS News poll found that Hart had the support of 7% of Democrats for the nomination; by last week that figure had shot up to 38%. A Gallup poll completed last Tuesday, ages ago by the speed-of-light standards of this race, found that among all American voters, Gary Hart was preferred over Ronald Reagan by 52% to 43%. In the same Gallup sampling, Reagan beat Mondale (50% to 45%) and Senator John Glenn (52% to 41%). Of course, the voters scrambling to support Hart might leave him tomorrow, or next week in the important Illinois primary. Indeed, most polls showed that his following was not deeply committed. Hart must be concerned that his support is faddish and could collapse.

But for the moment Hartmania infused the campaign. Newspaper pundits and political analysts, professional know-it-alls caught knowing almost nothing, chased after the phenomenon. Their continuing embarrassing bewilderment made many of them uneasy. "You can feel a terrible shaking of the earth," said New Republic Editor Hendrik Hertzberg, "as new conventional wisdom struggles to be born." New York Times Columnist Tom Wicker observed that "the publicity that the press gave to the 'upset' of its own erroneous expectations" was responsible for Hart's sudden, starry prominence.

Hart himself ventured a pretty good explanation last week. "What I think I may have tapped," he said, "is a reservoir much vaster than anyone ever contemplated, [a reservoir of] that pent-up, latent need to reidentify with national purpose." Hart, a canny political tactician, has taken full advantage of the gusher. He knew the media, eager for a loner-strikes-it-rich drama, would devote columns of type and hours of television air time to him. "It's like riding the wave," says Kathy Bushkin, his press secretary. "There's not much we can do to direct it."

Not much, perhaps, but Hart skillfully exploited the burst of TV exposure. His elaborate policy prescriptions were distilled to catch phrases such as "new leadership" and "move into the future." His adoption of John F. Kennedy's mannerisms became more blatant. Addressing the Alabama legislature, Hart chopped the air in J.F.K. style and recapitulated the 1961 Inaugural Address. Said Hart: "We must once again have Presidents...who ask what we can do for our country and not what our country can do for us."

Hart had been the campaign's cold, hopeless egghead; now he was confident and beaming. Hart had used Mondale's pile of endorsements to make the former Vice President look beholden and dull. Last week, however, when Hart was endorsed by disparate bigwigs—South Carolina Senator Ernest Rollings, former House Speaker Carl Albert, a trio of liberal Los Angeles Congressmen—Mondale could only joke about the irony.