Slouch
by Jim Earle
“It would be nice if we could, but it’s just not possible to
apply any extra points to the Tech and Houston scores, even
though there are plenty of points left over.”
Opinion
College students
"shortchanged’
Growing up, we college students were taught to always
wear clean underwear: “You never know when you’ll be in a
car wreck. ”
And that was all we knew or wanted to know about un
derwear. Girls had the option of wearing the days of the
week or a pastel floral print. Boys didn’t even have that.
But now — thanks to modern merchandizing — that has
changed. Underwear in sizes 2-16 is fun.
Union Underwear Co., the same firm that makes Fruit of
the Loom and B. V. D. underclothes, is marketing the popu
lar, brightly colored sets — a T-shirt with a cartoon character
printed on the front and briefs. Boys can choose from
Spider-Man, Superman, the Incredible Hulk and others.
Girls can be Wonder Woman, Superwoman, Bat Girl or
Spiderwoman under their clothes.
A company spokesman expressed surprise about the
boom in underwear. The firm has already had inquiries from
foreign countries and sees several other companies prepar
ing takeoffs.
“Underwear was always something that was just there,’’
he said. “You put it on and once in awhile you found new
ones in your drawer.
“Now these kids are ripping off their clothes at parties to
show their friends and relations.’’
And we thought underwear was just supposed to be clean.
the small society by Brickman
PF rtoriz.
MAK^A LiViK^
HA^
PA IP R3f2--
The Battalion
U S P S 045 360
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MEMBER
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congress
Editor Liz Newlin
Managing Editor Andy Williams
Asst. Managing Editor Dillard Stone
News Editors Karen Cornelison
and Michelle Burrowes
Sports Editor Sean Petty
City Editor Roy Bragg
Campus Editor Keith Taylor
Focus Editors Beth Calhoun
Staff Writers Meril Edwards, Nancy
Andersen, Louie Arthur, Richard Oliver,
Mark Patterson, Carolyn Blosser, Kurt
Allen, Debbie Nelson, Rhonda Watters
Photo Editor Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
Photographers Lynn Blanco, Sam
Stroder, Ken Herrera
Cartoonist Doug Graham
Opinions expressed in The Battalion are
those of the editor or of the writer of the
article and are not necessarily those of the
University administration or the Board of
Regents. The Battalion is a non-profit, self-
supporting enterprise operated by students
as a university and community newspaper.
Editorial policy is determined by the editor.
Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Tuesday
November 6, 1979
WJ a CTJ'TXTC' , 'T'/ r ATVT George Bush shows its honorably®
W A 5 HUM Ur 1 UlJ\l f 0 i over-achieve , in political racalfl
By ARNOLD SAWISLAK
United Press International
WASHINGTON — In 1935, Russian
miner Aleksei Stakhanov did such a great
job digging coal that the authorities en
shrined his name. Since then, over
achievers in the Soviet Union have been
given the honored title of Stakhanovite.
Now, George Bush, without giving it a
name, is applying the same concept to
American presidential politics.
According to the former U.S. ambas
sador to the United Nations, the big thing
in the first primaries and other early tests is
not whether you win but whether you do
better than expected.
Talking to reporters recently about the
January precinct caucuses in Iowa, Repub
lican candidate Bush said, “My goal, obvi
ously, would be to win,” but added, “I’ve
got to come out of Iowa so that people like
yourselves ... say He did better than I
thought he woidd do. ”
Bush thus put in words what has been
the observed truth for some time. Political
trivia buffs often win drinks by asking,
“Who won the Democratic presidential
primary in New Hampshire in 1968?”
The correct answer is Lyndon Johnson,
but Eugene McCarthy was so close that the
former Minnesota senator was perceived as
the winner. And it wasn’t only the press
that thought so: Johnson withdrew before
the next set of primaries.
McCarthy didn’t win the nomination,
but New Hampshire’s next political
Stakhanovite, Sen. George McGovern,
did. Sen. Edmund Muskie beat
McGovern, 41,325 to 33,007.
In the New Hampshire primary Muskie
was such a favorite and McGovern such an
underdog that it was the South Dakotan
who was seen as the big winner.
There was something of the same effect
in the 1976 New Hampshire vitories of both
Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. Again,
lx)th men did better than expected and
gained more from narrow victories than the
perceived favorites would have from land-
sides.
Naturally, Bush intends to use the
Stakhanovite effect to his own advantage.
Republicans Ronald Reagan and John Con-
nally are so better known than he that Bush
believes finishing ahead of or close to them
in the early delegate selection caucuses and
primaries will give him a huge boost toward
the GOP nc mrination.
It is hard to say whether itv
way for Bush, but he ought!
sured of credit for identifying
phenomenon! that he hopes!
After all. Rep. Morris
best in the 1976 primaries!
his fame by coining the ter
Mentioner for the anonyt,
quoted in political stories thats
has been mentioned” asH
date.
However, it seems unlfli
sian term “Stakanovite” wr.
United States as a desriptionohj
who comes out of nowhere tot
favorites. Perhaps "Bushwh
do letter.
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Broder
Focus moving from Carter, Kennedy+0**
to Republican candidates this month
By DAVID S. BRODER
WASHINGTON — October belonged to
the Democrats, in terms of political head
lines, but November should be the Repub
licans’ month. Last month, it was Jimmy
Carter and Ted Kennedy, waging proxy
war in the Florida caucuses, and then com
ing together, briefly but dramatically, at
the John F. Kennedy Library dedication in
Boston.
But this month will see the campaign
kickoffs of the last two major entrants in the
Republican race. Sen. Howard H. Baker
Jr. (R-Tenn.) and Ronald Reagan. So the
spotlight will swing back to the GOP.
What it will reveal is that the year of
preliminary activity has produced a two-
fight competition for the Republican nomi
nation. In the championship bracket, in
terms of money, organization and support,
are Reagan, John B. Connally, Baker and
George Bush.
Obviously, the rankings are far from
rigid at this stage, and a lesser known can
didate could move up, particularly if
Reagan stumbled.
Howard Baker is an interesting case — in
two respects. He is a political pro in a
period when people have been conditioned
to believe that amateurism is somehow
equivalent to virtue in government.
Baker’s father, mother and father-in-law
served in the Congress, and he himself has
13 years of Senate service behind him —
including three as Republican minority
leader.
Since he cannot deny his profes
sionalism, he has taken the risk of proclaim
ing it, arguing that Carter is a case study in
the costliness of amateurism.
But Baker’s professionalism is of a variety
that has not proved popular in presidential
nominating contests, even in times when
the voters were less skeptical of politics
than they are today.
Baker is a serious — and competent —
legislator, skillful in gaining his own objec
tions and skillful in welding others in his
party into an effective legislative force. He
is in the tradition of Robert A. Taft, Richard
B. Russell, Lyndon B. Johnson, Edmund
S. Muskie, and Henry M. Jackson — all
highly effective senators and all losers in
the presidential nomination game, which
requires different skills than the substan
tive knowledge and manipulative abilities
that are important on the Senate floor.
Baker is a more personable television
performer than any of those men. But he
shares with them a certain naivete about,
and a certain distain for, the grubby work of
organizing turnouts for caucuses and
primaries. He has hired a set of Young Re
publicans alumni to do the organizing for
him, but it remains to be seen how well
they will work with a man who personally
has always been a bit aloof from that kind of
nitty-gritty politics.
What is more predicatable is that Baker’s
television skills, displayed most promi
nently during the Watergate hearings, will
be marketed effectively by the firm of
Douglas Bailey and John Dearfburff, who
have won campaigns with candidates far
less adept at playing to the camera than is
Baker. But in Connally and Reagan, Baker
faces two men who are not merely good at
political television — but superb. So the
other aspect of his candidacy is likely to be
more determinative than his skill as a tele
vision performer.
I hat is the question he imp
to Republicans al>out what din
will fact in 1980 — toward thej
ward the future? Baker is the)
the Big Four Republicansconteil
While all of his rivals can tel
impressive young supporters,!
point, can match the quality oftl<|
figures who have come Inwardf
Howard Baker.
That may be counted heavily:
or may just confirm what Bon^
and John Connally say—tlril
Baker would make a fine vice-p
candidate.
In 1976, that offer might havei|
him. But he s playing for biggerst
and posing a more interestingql
his party: does it count much, ini
selection system, to be compel
young and allied with the futur(|
just a question of who can tumo
for caucuses and primaries?
(c) 1979, The Washing
Post Company
Letters
Student’s nausea stems from letter
complaining of ‘vile items’ at Sbisa
4
T
B
Editor:
Pepto Bismol distributors in the College
Station area must be reporting booming
business. Each of the 456 signatures on
Friday’s letter to the editor claimed to have
emptied many bottles of the peppermint
nausea chaser.
I, too, became nauseated upon reading
Mr. Cormier’s account of the food in Sbisa.
However, Skagg s was fresh out of P. B., so
I had to survive without.
I think it is disgusting for citizens of the
United States to be “forced” to eat those
“vile items” so described. My reply bor
ders on the same line as the bumper stic
kers which proclaim, “Don’t talk about
farmers with your mouth full.”
I have never been hungry in my 22 years;
hungry as the rest of the world sees it, not
as we in the U.S. of A. do. A nation faces
extermination in the Far East due to, not
the lack of food, but to having no food at all.
Sure, I could argue myself blue in the
face about feeding the poor and starving
nations. But no, I will not. For in my time
at A&M I too have eaten a few bad meals in
Sbisa. I have also eaten a good many of the
good meals.
I have not, nor will I ever eat a “home-
cooked meal” in a restaurant such as Sbisa.
I have stuffed myself full of good of
Thanksgiving and Christmas turkey along
with the other various foods at family
homecoming meals. These meals are defi
nitely superior to those in the Sbisas and
Luby’s.
My point is that a restaurant prepares
food (not fast food) for a good many people
without the knowledge of each person’s
particular eating habits. Home-cooked
meals are prepared by those with that
knowledge.
Granted, in a college situation where we
must eat and run so often, the food should
be acceptable. Also, if you do not like what
hot meal is being served a particular night,
you have many other choices (i.e. chicken,
hamburgers). You could even skip a meal
being under no obligation to eat it in the
first place and eat out at your own expense.
(You could simply do without for about five
hours and probably crack under the “threat
of starvation.“)
Or, you might remember W
food is, save your money at m
and buy all the Pepto Bismol H
survive the off-campus foodjoW
of these offers a solution, then o']
should go home and eat with Mo]
Daddy. j
— Russ]
Mathematics Gradual!
THOTZ
by Doug Gram
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