Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Wednesday
September 10, 1980
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By Jim Earle
“/Ve got it! If I change my chemistry lab to Tuesday, drop history,
change my math course, and get out of the Corps, I can have Friday
afternoons free!”
Anderson platform
needs more exposure
By DAVID S. BRODER
DETROIT — Independent presidential can
didate John B. Anderson has some interesting
ideas to offer in this election year. But unless
the latest shakeup in his staff serves to focus his
rather helter-skelter personal campaigijlrigi it is
unlikely that many voters are ever going to
know what they are missing.
The 317-page platform that Anderson and his
running mate, former Wisconsin governor Pat
rick J. Lucey, issued last week is studded with
specific programs that are eminently worth dis
cussion. But the document was dropped into
the newspapers on the Labor Day holiday
weekend, when few voters were paying atten
tion. And after one day, it disappeared.
Anderson’s mid-week visit to Detroit was a
demonstration of how far the candidate has to
go in converting the intellectual capital in
vested in the platform into political dividends
for a campaign that is still struggling to achieve
credibility.
As it happens, Michigan is potentially one of
Anderson’s best states. Jimmy Carter and
Ronald Reagan have never demonstrated any
great personal appeal here, and the economic
plight of the auto industry has left thousands of
voters searching for an alternative. A profes
sional poll of some 800 voters, taken during the
Democratic convention week in August,
showed Anderson only seven points behind
Carter and only nine points behind Reagan in
the state.
Thus, Anderson’s first visit here in the gener
al election campaign was an event that carried
great potential — and should have been treated
with great care. It was not.
The Anderson platform has a specific, seven-
point program addressed to the auto industry’s
problems, plus a good many other sections on
rehabilitating aging cities and obsolescent in
dustrial plants.
Instead of pulling those buried proposals into
a relatively compact statement focused specific
ally on the problems of Detroit, Anderson went
unarmed into his morning press conference,
which drew a heavy turnout of reporters from
local and national newspapers, radio and televi
sion stations.
After introducing Lucey, he turned immedi
ately to questions — and was overwhelmed
with the predictable “horse-race” queries about
the status of his finances, his chances of getting
into the presidential debates and his willing
ness to quit the race if he runs out of money or
drops in the polls.
To all of this, Anderson responded in a lack
adaisical defensive manner. If there was any
forethought on his part or his staffs that the
press conference could have been used to get
across a story he wanted to communicate — a
story of his concern for, and solutions to, the
problems of Detroit and the auto industry — it
was not in evidence.
Two hours later, at a rally in Kennedy
Square, Anderson did address those issues. But
an out-of-doors stump speech, with the candi
date shouting to drown out a few hecklers, was
not the place to explain a refundable 10 percent
tax credit for industrial research or an additional
25 percent tax credit for rehabilitation of old
factories — although Anderson tried.
But in his hasty search for applause lines, he
neglected to make it clear that he was commit
ted, in his platform, to “consult with foreign
automotive producers in an effort to avoid arbit
rary trade restrictions by persuading them to
observe voluntary restraint during times of
sharply slumping domestic sales.”
The point Anderson made in his platform,
but not in his Detroit appearances, was stressed
here the day before by Reagan. But Reagan’s
views were headlined in the local newspapers
and featured on television broadcasts, while
Anderson’s statements on the auto industry
were known to most Detroiters.
In an interview during the Detroit visit,
Anderson complained of the “negative” cover
age he was getting, of the emphasis in news
stories on a supposedly “faltering” campaign
which he said was really just beginning. But he
did little to shape the coverage of his own cam
paign or to focus attention on his positive prop
osals instead of his problematical political situa
tion.
When asked in that interview if he thought
he would be able to spell out his ideas in the
coming campaign, he said, “I think we ll have
some good audiences in national forums, but I
don’t know what the format will be. David
Garth is my media expert.”
But Garth, the ad man and campaign consul
tant, is back in Washington, and Tom Matth
ews, Anderson’s newly designated traveling
political and public relations adviser, is off on a
fishing vacation in Utah.
The Anderson platform may be the most
valuable collection of innovative policy ideas so
far assembled in the 1980s. It could help form
the dialogue and debate in this presidential
election campaign — no matter who wins. But
it will be doomed to the dustbin unless Ander
son and his campaign acquire the skill and the
discipline to use the resource the platform rep
resents.
(c) 1980, The Washinton Post Co.
Warped
‘Choking’ can be reversed
Hek
Page a
disting
the Ai
The ability to handle pressure, whether it be
social, sporting or learning, is an underde
veloped skill at any age. But college students
struggling for grades and recognition seem
especially susceptible to its ill effects.
Pressure is the blame-all for poor perform
ance. Listening to television announcers in last
year’s NFL playoffs, I continually heard that
pressure causes the choke that audiences asso
ciate with substandard performance in a win-or-
lose situation.
And for years my friends and teammates have
told me that “the pressure got to me.” Or, “I
choked. ” Or, “I wasn’t mentally prepared. ” Or,
“I am worried about this test.” At times, I have
used that excuse.
With midterm tests approaching, my room
mates have chain smoked, paced, contem
plated the ceiling at bedtime and verbally wor
ried about failing. My palms always sweated,
but I could sleep without trouble. Those actions
never helped performance.
But I felt pressure most shooting rifle for
Texas A&M University. With competition,
especially against the University of Texas, came
that familiar stomach-tightening, heart
pounding, muscle-twitching decrease in scores
that I had pictured before the match. What I
saw was what I got.
Leftovers
By Todd Woodard
That decrease was not only unnecessary, but
contrary to how champions use pressure.
Lanny Bassham, 1976 Olympic gold medalist
in rifle, told me this summer how he used
pressure to enhance his performance rather
than destroy it.
He explained that pressure has both a posi
tive and negative side. On the positive side is
arousal, the sharpening of physical abilities in
response to stress. On the negative side is anxi
ety, the jitters, the shakes.
Unfortunately, he said, most persons experi
ence anxiety in much larger amounts than
arousal. They feared failure more than they
could envision success. Mentally, they saw
themselves struggling while shooting, or taking
tests or talking to an attractive man or woman.
Because of that mental picture, they decreased
their chances of success, a self-fulfilling
prophecy.
Off the cuff, he added that Texas A&M foot
ball teams had the reputation, unwarra
not, of folding in tight or importantgi
suggested that Aggies might be worrid
failure instead of feeling success
game. He laughed wondering if 70,1
thinking “Don’t mess up, ” could affect
I missed the joke.
Prior preparation should take the
worry, he said. If you have shotalol
scores, or read and absorbed material [j
or lifted and sweated and run beforetb
why worry? Be aggressive and positive
ly, he said. “You know you’re ready,tk percei
will have the performance you planned
“Even if you haven’t prepared, why
Will worrying improve your score?Wi!l|
your brain function better? No, hesaid;
ieally.
His advice was good. Just thinking:
well prior to a competition lets merelai
ing of scoring high on a test, oftn Collej
through questions, takes the pressure
it to confidence.
After scoring her first 10 in the 19
games, gymnast Nadia Comanech said
when a television commentator asked
dealt with pressure. With a puzzled!
said through interpreter, “What is presi
Oh, Lord, it’s hard to be humble.
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It’s your turn
P.E. registration lacking in efficiency
Editor:
I am thoroughly disgusted with the system
the Physical Education department used for
registering students for P.E. classes this year. I,
only being a two-year industrial engineering
major, can easily see that this system is sadly
lacking in efficiency and cohesion of purpose.
Unless, of course, the purpose is to thoroughly
frustrate and confuse the student.
hours (the equivalent of two 22 1 /2-hour semes
ters) to register early. Instead, I earned the
privilege of choosing my class at the same time
they did. So much for the “rank hath its
privilege” philosophy that the University fol
lowed last year and still adheres to for football
games.
I pity the freshmen who have to wander
through G. Rollie without directions, onto the
floor to try and read illegible signs, to wait on
lines to get a card, to wait on more lines to try
and get another card, without hearing “the class
is closed, I guess the flimsy sheet of paper with
closed scrawled across it fell off”; to file to the
bleacher to wait on another line to get another
card, to wait, wait, wait until their sections from
a list of all the sections held at that time only is
called, and then wait on another line to hand in
their card and finally leave.
I can’t believe that a department within a
university that has one of the top engineering
schools in the nation, would ignore all the re
sources available to create an efficient system
and attempt to make do with a sorely inadequ
ate “system.” I’m not the nasty type, but now
I’m convinced that physical education majors
should stick to the gym and let the engineers do
their job.
Terri Rome ’83
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109
Actually I share empathy with my new Ag
counterparts for although I am classified as a
sophomore, I did not have the required 45
By Scott McCullar
The Battalion
U S P S 045 360
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Southwest Journalism Congress
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