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\%>VXVV\V^V^VV>VVVVV’SVS> ». He’s got nothing to lose, plenty to gain Kennedy smart to stay in race by ARNOLD SAWISLAK United Press International WASHINGTON — Ted Kennedy says he still is a candidate for the Democratic presiden tial nomination. Why not? He has nothing more to lose and potentially plenty to gain between now and the party’s national convention in Au gust. It would have been really amazing if Ken nedy had surrendered after winning five of the last eight primaries or at his meeting with Presi dent Carter late that week. It would have thrown away just about any gain he could sal vage from six months of physically and emotion ally exhausting campaigning. Just look at George Bush. He threw in the towel before the last week of primaries and got about 15 seconds on the evening television shows. Hasn’t been heard of since. That won’t happen to Kennedy. He will be in the mind of the president and his campaign staff constantly until the Democratic convention. They will try very hard to keep from offending Kennedy and the sizable bloc of Democrats who support him, and as of now, apparently will be offering the senator some glittering conces sions to get him out of the tree and into the fold. He also will be on the evening news and on the front pages. Kennedy may not hold enough delegates to keep Carter from being renomin ated, but he certainly has more than enough to raise plenty of dust at the convention. Kennedy probably has more in mind than mere mischief. The senator probably realizes that the collapse of the Carter re-election bid he expected last winter and spring as inflation soared and the hostage situation dragged on is a long shot. But he has nothing to lose by waiting another nine weeks to concede that Carter has the nomination. There are other good reasons for Kennedy to hang on. As long as he is a candidate, he can get the best concessions from the White House on the Democratic platform. With the exception of wage and price controls, which Kennedy may not want now anyway, he might just be able to force Carter to run on Kennedy’s platform. And that is important, despite the cynicism about party platforms. As an exercise of power, Carter would in effect be playing Hua Goufeng to Kennedy’s Deng Xiaoping. Carter might be the president, but the senator from Mas sachusetts would have demonstrated who has the clout. Then, of course, there is 1984. If Carter wins re-election, he won’t be back four years from now. If Ronald Reagan is elected, it is entirely possible that as a man of 73, he won’t seek another term. But at age 52 in 1984, Kennedy will be at a prime age for the presidency. Much depends on how Kennedy handles himself from now through August. If he gets what he wants from Carter and then steps aside gracefully with a pledge of support for the tick et, he will be the big hero of the drama. If he does it right, he will be on the live television cameras for a week or more in New York. That beats calling a news conference in Hyannis and turning over his sword to three network film crews, a ragamuffin band of repor ters and some tearful aides and relatives. U.N. says weapons placing environment under strain by AL ROSSITER JR. United Press International WASHINGTON — The people of the world spend nearly $1 million a minute on ways to kill one another and even if they are never used, the United Nations says their toll on the en vironment is great. The threat to life posed by the growing volume and destructive power of the world’s stocks of weapons is obvious. In addition to widespread death and destruction, a nuclear war would cause tremendous environmental damage. But the U.N. Environmental Program said even if no weapon were fired in anger, the arms race would still be placing the environment under constant strain. Military activity around the globe was cited by Dr. Mostafa K. Tolba, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, as one of five special environmental problems facing the world’s people. In his annual State of the World Environ ment message, Tolba said military activity also has an indirect impact because of the enormous expenditures for weapons that could otherwise be applied to environmental development. “The diversion of even a small proportion of the wealth the world community annually de votes to military activity would make a major contribution to satisfying the basic needs of the world and a betterment of the quality of life for all on this Earth,” the message said. Also listed as areas of special environmental concern were man’s influences on the climate, the hazards of heavy metals, the effects of trans portation, and the vulnerability of children to pollutants and environmental stresses. The arms race, by large and small nations Slouch by Jim Earle Warped Viewpoint The Battalion Texas A&M University Tuesd.i June 17,1 A glance at Udall plan for reform of primari alike, is acting “like a hemorrhage” on develop ment, the U.N. agency said. It said the current increase in military ex penditures is taking place at a time when 1.5 billion people have no effective medical ser vices, nearly 750 million are severely under nourished, about 3 billion lack access to safe water and nearly 750,000 die each month from waterborne diseases. “Yet it is in the developing countries, where these problems are most acute, that military expenditure, including expenditure on arms imports, is growing most rapidly,” the report said. “Scarce scientific and technical manpower is being diverted from the development of the social and environmental foundation for pros perity to the development of military power. ” In addition to the diversion of funds from development, the report said even peacetime testing of weapons can cause serious environ mental damage as can accidents in handling, transport and storage. Tolba said he is concerned that the oceans and space are becoming increasingly milita rized. In 1978, for example, his report said 112 military satellites were launched primarily to aid military navigation, for target identification and surveillance. He said the number of nuclear-powered sub marines prowling the globe’s seas has increased to well over 200. The oil required to support the world’s milit ary activity, the report said, is twice that con sumed by all of Africa. And the report said it does not take a nuclear war to cause major environmental damage. It said the Vietnamese conflict provided a glimpse of the kind of damage modern weapons can do to man and his surroundings. The report said chemical herbicides destroyed 1,500 square kilometers of mangrove forest and dam aged 15,000 additional square kilometers. by DAVID S. BRODER LOS ANGELES — The single biggest im provement that could realistically be made in the presidential primary system is to achieve decent intervals between the primaries. Theoretically, it might be nice to abolish two- thirds of the 36 primaries that now clutter the calendar, but that is not possible. But spacing can be achieved, most simply through Rep. Morris K. Udall’s (D-Ariz.) prop osal that primaries be allowed only on the first Tuesdays of March, April, May and June in the presidential year. Udall offered that suggestion three years ago in a bill co—sponsored by Rep. John Ashbrook (R-Ohio). But, as he knows, the Republican and Democratic national committees could do it themselves without even involving Congress. The need for spacing the primaries is widely recognized, and a number of more sophisti cated schemes have been offered for doing that. Regional primaries, “time zone groupings and other variants are possible. The Udall plan has the virtue of simplicity. It requires only a single decision by the two party committees — to accept as accredited delegates from presidential primary states only those chosen or bound by the results of voting on those four specified dates. His plan allows the maximum freedom of choice for the states. No state would be re quired to hold a primary, nor barred from hold ing one. No chronological order of states would be mandated, nor any particular geographical grouping. If predictably rebellious states like New Hampshire challenged such a rule in court, the precedents suggest that the authority of the parties to prescribe their own delegate- selection procedures would be upheld. Ob viously, nonconforming states would have the option of choosing delegates on a wider variety of dates through a caucus-convention system. Spacing the primaries would have some dis advantages. It would make it harder for a rank outsider to establish himself by an early plural ity victory in a single small state. It would re quire candidates to raise more money at an early stage of the contest. It would perhaps enhance the role of advertising and other “wholesaling” political techniques against handshaking and other “retailing” methods. From the viewpoint of a New Hampshire Chamber of Commerce official, or a self- proclaimed “outsider” like the Jimmy Carter of 1976, these may seem overriding objections. But the advantages to be gained by grouping and spacing the primaries must seem clear to most disinterested observers. The grouping process itself would probably encourage some states to drop their primary, thus restoring balance to a selection system now overly weighted to the primaries, where more than 80 percent of the delegates are chosen. Small states that clung to their primaries, even with altered dates, would find their influ ence reduced. No longer would New Hamp shire be the tail wagging the dog, just because it came first. And no longer would a single pub lisher, like William Loeb of the Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader, exercise disproportion ate national influence because of his dominance of opinion in a single market. What is true of Loeb would be true of the press and television in general. Spacing and grouping the primaries would reduce the role of the mass media in anointing the candidates — a change I and most other political reporters would welcome. If the primaries were grouped on four dates, in a somewhat random fashion, most Tuesday nights would find us reporting mixed results. In March and April, with large fields of conten ders, a single day might produce five or six different “winners.” Even at the end, results would probably read like those of June 3, when Ted Kennedy won five primaries and Carter won three — and the stories pointed to the diversity of messages being sent by the voters of various states. That would be healthy, because it would reduce the emphasis on the irrational factor of “momen tum.” That cursed word might be erased from the journalistic and political vocabulary. There would be less of a rush tojudgt less of a tendency to force worthy candid emerge over time and for voters in many — not just the early states — to play a cant part in the selection process. Finally, spacing the primaries wouli for real campaigns to take place, rathertlii quick flicks of attention which are dates give most states on the present dill calendar. It takes time for candidatestol serious messages, and time for voters toi informed judgments. With the four intervals between the primaries, the would have that time. There could be nal televised debates before each new rooi primaries, and a real airing of issues, this could be done without prolongingtk paign process. In fact, reducing the influence of the in individual states early in the primary dar should tend to eliminate the incenl starting the campaign two years in advai With this change — and two otherst discussed in the last of this series of artii we might even get back to the astute politicians believed that the best* win the presidency was to gain respect ill present jobs. (c) 1980, The Washington PostCompi Readers’ For rum Guest viewpoints, in addition t» Letters to the Editor, are welcome. All pieces submitted to Readers forum should be: Typed triple space Limited to 60 characters per Limited to KM) lines The Battalm USES 045 m TAE hold CODY I*"*" OFFH MEMBER Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Congress A( Editor City Editor Beck! 1 S»i Sports Editor Richardt News Editor Lynd 1 Staff Writers. . Uschi Michel-Howell, Debbie^ Cathy Saathoff, Scot K. Meyer, Jon Hi The Coopei gram in the has career p the Fall of 1 companies: Aeronautics fern, Corps c and various 1 Students wit don or abo inquire aboi more inforn Henry D. P say at 845-' Harrington. Cartoonist . .. Photo Editor . Photographer. Scolt tld . Lee Roy Lescl|< Marshall EDITORIAL POLICY The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supportingiie\n0 crated as a community service to Texas A&M VlM Bryan-Colleffe Station. Opinions expressed in Thi those of the editor or the author, and do not necessid! 1 sent the opinions of Texas A&M University adminis™ faculty members, or of the Board of Regents. Questions or comments concerning any editorill should be directed to the editor. (V‘ LETTERS POLICY Letters to the Editor should not exceed300 words in bP are subject to being cut if they are longer. TheediW reserves the right to edit letters for style and lent make every effort to maintain the author’s intent must also be signed, show the address and phone md writer. 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XtV he*.* a lent. ®*« but a pleasant an* He-lpin) people, solving problems, clearing up billing matters ttc. j but T sure will be glad when, we close. So X Vc-ahj Gosh, I have a set ions Complaint, X »bject t° being billed ■for 10 long-distance Ca. II5 to W\ y hoyfrienc) in W\aiV\e tha.t X .bad nt *|nt e n ded to maKe and uh- porkers nee ^ssion regi: intact Mr. Office of / 21 “Look at it from the teacher’s point of view. If you study and do well from the very first, the teacher will have nothing to work toward. He’ll be deprived of the privilege and satisfaction of helping a student improve and progress over the semester. pi c AS C'ass rint 0u < gold j ( Th Town: 3731