Charting the Big Shift

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Three weeks ago, Mondale seemed to be sauntering directly toward the nomination. He smiled always and stayed above the fray. His campaign logistics, from scheduling to delegate counting, were said to be unprecedented in sophistication. Suddenly cracks began to appear. In Birmingham he showed up to shake hands at the wrong factory gate; in Florida reporters covering him had to pile into taxis—the press bus had disappeared. By the middle of last week he looked desperate ("I'm in trouble, I need your help"), making lame excuses for losing primaries ("We didn't really contest Vermont") and attacking Hart for petty deviations from liberal doctrine.

Maine may have been the most telling display of Hart's strength and Mondale's weakness. Mondale had tried hard there, outspending Hart $400,000 to $40,000. Perhaps a third of the Democrats were from union households, Mondale's supposed mainstays. And voters chose delegates at caucuses, the system that favors Mondale's efficient organization. In Vermont, Hart campaigned extensively and was given the edge in the final week. But the dimensions of his victory—51,703 votes to 14,896—were stunning.

The political fight promptly turned mean. First Hart gloated, but after he was booed by an audience of Democratic regulars in Boston, he tried to be a graceful winner—at least on network TV and in interviews with national journalists. "Walter Mondale and I share a deep and abiding commitment to the values of the Democratic Party," he said, looking relaxed. "Our values are very similar, and that's why we're both Democrats." Mondale, however, would not play along. "For a Democrat," Mondale said, Hart's "concern expressed for people who are suffering the most is pretty limited." Hart slashed back. "Compassion is not just getting red in the face and waving the arms," he said.

Mondale was suddenly deriding Hart as if Hart were Reagan and not a kindred Democrat. The former Vice President accused his opponent of declining to fight for the nuclear freeze. Mondale made a tub-thumping speech in Tampa suggesting that Hart is for "Big Oil" and "the hospital lobby," that he "attacks entitlements" and that he would force "working families to pay more taxes." (At a 1979 Senate campaign fund raiser for Hart, Mondale had extravagantly praised the Coloradan. "Gary Hart is one of the most decent and compassionate public servants I have ever known in my life. He is brilliant...thoughtful and perceptive.")