Battling to take on Reagan

• Share

(5 of 7)

Long range, some Democrats fear that Mondale would be too beholden to interest groups to govern effectively as President. More immediately, they fear that he is setting himself up as the oldfashioned, free-spending, solve-every-problem-with-a-new-Government-program liberal that Ronald Reagan eats for breakfast. Talking to the party faithful in Maine, Mondale was asked at almost every stop if he could win. Clearly nettled, he ended one talk with this line: "And if nominated, I can be elected."

Mondale's weakness plays directly into Glenn's strength: an appeal that cuts across class and interest-group lines, based on his days as an astronaut, which will be celebrated again in the upcoming movie of Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff. Crowds pack around to stare at the first American to orbit the earth, fondly remembering a time when the nation seemed more united and the future more full of hope. One telling incident: when New York Governor Mario Cuomo played host to a Democratic forum at which Glenn spoke, Cuomo's secretary begged the Governor to get her Glenn's autograph.

Glenn plays this patriotic feeling for all it is worth, and perhaps more. Rain streaming down his face at an outdoor rally in Birmingham, he recited an expanded version of the Pledge of Allegiance: " 'One nation, under God.' It doesn't say North or South or East or West... 'Under God.' It doesn't say under a despot or a monarch or a Politburo." Reporters noted that the wording was taken almost verbatim from an old speech by, of all people, Mondale's mentor, Hubert Humphrey, but the crowd was thrilled. Face flushed with ex- citement, Hollis Hill, a Birmingham chemist, exclaimed: "He appeals to everything—the American flag, apple pie!"

Politically, Glenn presents himself as an independent attuned to the centrist mood of the country and unafraid to ask for sacrifices as well as promises. For example, he stresses the need for big tax increases to reduce budget deficits. "I don't like to say it in the middle of a political campaign, but it's a fact," he says. "We've got to face up to it." Mondale speaks of raising taxes too, but with a very different political spin: he says the rich were unduly favored by Reagan's tax cuts, and pledges to make them pay their "fair share."

Glenn has talked so little about issues, however, that many hero worshipers confess they do not know where he stands. Advisers concede he must spell out a policy if he is to convert adulation into votes, and are feverishly writing position papers. He has a skilled media man in David Sawyer, who plans a heavy schedule of TV spots after Jan. 1 .