Looking Out for No. 2

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Three men stand out as Mondale's most serious vice-presidential prospects. None is widely known. If winning Texas is paramount, Senator Lloyd Bentsen Jr. would be the reliable bet. Bentsen, 63, is a tried-and-true organization man and very conservative for a Democrat: the liberal Americans for Democratic Action gives him a 40 rating, which is in the Republican range. Indeed, Bentsen's political differences with Mondale may be too big to gloss over gracefully. His views on U.S. policy in Central America—he has supported CIA aid for the contra guerrillas in Nicaragua and does not rule out U.S. combat intervention in El Salvador—are not unlike the Reagan Administration's.

A bomber pilot in World War II, Bentsen strongly supports the MX missile and the B-l bomber, both of which Mondale opposes. Bentsen opposes a nuclear freeze, which Mondale firmly favors. Bentsen is against the protectionist domestic-content legislation; passage of the bill is a top priority with Mondale. Despite the differences, Bentsen would be comfortable running with Mondale. A President, he says, should not be surrounded by yes men.

Heir to an enormous South Texas real estate fortune, Bentsen was elected county judge at age 25, and to Congress at 27. In 1954, when he was 33, he went back home to build up his own business and did not return to Washington until 1971, as a Senator. Five years later, he ran for the Democratic presidential nomination. Hardly anyone noticed, and he dropped out of the race after a year. In the Senate, he is a leading member of the Finance Committee, and also acutely attuned to the complexities of immigration. As head of the Senate Democrats' re-election apparatus, he seems to revel in the prosaic details of fund raising, telephone banks and tracking surveys.

Bentsen's manner is patrician and somber, his speaking style stolid, less rousing even than Mondale's. According to Dallas Times Herald Columnist Molly Ivins, Bentsen "has the charisma of a dead catfish." But he is nonetheless popular with both Republicans and Democrats in Texas and has a loyal following among Mexican Americans, who appreciate his fluency in Spanish. He won re-election in 1982 with 59% of the vote, the highest plurality in a Texas Senate race since 1958. Bentsen, however, might exacerbate Mondale's single biggest campaign embarrassment so far: the Texan gets more Political Action Committee contributions than any other Senate Democrat.

Senator Dale Bumpers, 58, of Arkansas has lots of natural pizazz and down-home charm. A Marine sergeant in World War II, he practiced law and ran a hardware store in Charleston, Ark. (pop. 1,748), before he decided to try for political office. In 1970 he won the governorship. After a second term, he was elected to the Senate. "Dale is a cross between John F. Kennedy and a Methodist minister," ventures Little Rock Attorney Robert Brown, a former Bumpers aide. "He really turns on a crowd."