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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 7, 1984)
Opinion Page 2/The Battalion/Thursday, June 7, 1984 The race continues Yes Ronnie, there is a Santa Claus — and he’s bringing you Christmas in June. What’s more, Mr. President, it was the Democrats, not dear old Santa who dreamed up this new idea. That’s right, the Democratic presi dential candidates have decided to give the president the best gift any incum bent could ask for — they’ve decided to continue their bickering another month. The issue of the Democratic presi dential nomination was supposed to have been decided Tuesday night by the final primaries of the 1984 political sea son. But it seems that those primaries did nothing more than give each of the three candidates for the nomination a new reason to continue the quest all the way to the San Francisco convention next month. Walter Mondale won two primaries Tuesday and has gone to work courting the uncommitted legion of delegates. Mondale says he now has enough dele gates to lock up the nomination on the first ballot. But Gary Hart, who won three prima ries including the important California contest, disputes that claim. Hart says the race is just beginning and he will go the distance. On top of that, Jesse Jackson, backed by strong finishes across-the-board on the final “Super Tuesday,” is threaten ing a floor fight at the convention and a challenge of more than 500 Mondale delegates. With Hart and Jackson prepared to fight it out with Mondale, whichever candidate does emerge from the fray in San Francisco will be badly bloodied and will bear the scars of a deeply divided party. Meanwhile, Reagan will have another month to travel the globe presenting a statesmanly image as the leader of the free world — breakfasting on crumpets with the Queen while the Democrats eat crow at the convention. The Battalion Editorial Board The Battalion USPS 045 360 Mcmlxrr of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Rclnxa Zimmermann. Editor Bill Robinson, Editorial Page/Assistant City Editor Shelley Hockstra. City Editor Kathleen Hart. News Editor Dave Scott. Sports Editor The Battalion Staff Assistant News Editor Dena Brown Staff Writers Robin Black. Kari Fluegcl. Sarah Oates. Travis Tingle Copy Editor Trade Holub Photographers Peter Rocha. Dean Saito Letters Policy Letter* tit the Ediutr sltnuUl ntH esccett lUtO in length. The etlitnri.il sul f re serves the right to etlit letters tor style ami- length hut hi// make r»erv el/hrt to niitiniuin the juilHtr's intent. F.ich letter must he tigtietl ainl must include the ut/dress anti lelrnlntne nutnltertd'the writer. The ll.iti.tliim it ijubli.thetl Mtnuljy thrnngh FntUt ilunng Texas A.KrM regular tetnettert. except hir Inditl.tx anti examina~ linn petmmls. anti Tue>tla% ihrnugh Thurs- tla* timing summer session*. Mail uihscrijM ittms ate SI ft. 73 /ter semester. 5T1.-3 per sthtmtl tear anti S33 per lull sear. Atl*ertis~ ing rates lunushesl tut rrt/uesl. Our atltlres*: The liattalitm. 'Jlti Rcetl Mt Ihmaltl Ituihltng. Texas AA-M L’niserxitv. liege Stamm. T.V 77313. StxtHitl tlas* /ftstage p.iitl at (adlege Sta lina. LX 77343. Letter: Editorial Policy The Battalion is a nttn-pndU. self-sn/t- /mti ling net* s/ki/mt n/teraitnl as a c mnnnimis- set sice to Texas A AM and Jlryan-Cadlege Slat m nt. Of union* expresset! in The llattalion are those ol the Fahttni.d lltKirtl nr the author, ami tht tmt netv%s.nil\ tc/tteseni the o/tm- ion* id Texa* A AM .tthminsti attn*. Intuits m the Hoard.d Regent*. The llattalion al**t seise* a* a Lthtnatot v ne** epaper lor utitlcnl* in tepmimg. eihintg ami /ihotitgia/dts t lasses %*ithin the De/Kiil- ment nl (atmimnnt atton*. I ‘inicil IS ess Inlet national i* cntitletl ex- tins,sets to I he u*e lor tepnmlnt imn ol all lieu s ths/Kilt he* nethietl to it. Rtghis ol ,e- piittliM lam ol all ttther mallei hetetn te- seisetl. Computerization of A&M registration processes Editor: Bryvo to your editorial “Registration needs help.” If there is one thing at A&M that is old, ar chaic and a tarnish on the administration’s hopes of becoming a “world class” university, it is the registration system. Arriving at A&M last August to begin my graduate work, I was totally surprised that such a large, not to mention wealthy, school did not have an on-line computerized registration sys tem. The results would be amazing. For example, Georgia Tech (11,000 students) instituted an on-line system two years ago. The registration process now procedes like this: enter the registraton building, check the hourly-up dated printouts on available courses, take 3 to 5 minutes to bubble in an op-scan form, submit it to the computer window. Within 10 minutes, out comes your schedule and fee asssessment. Excepting computer downtime, this whole sys tem takes 30 to 40 minutes. Entrance to the regis tration building is based on the percentage of credit hours toward your degree you have, start ing with graduate students, then seniors, juniors, ... . Registration time cardsare issued to every student. This is just one of many on-line computerized registration schemes being used at universities across the country. Is it not time Texas A&M de cided to join the computer age! Steven C. Bahrt Graduate student, civil engineering Bickering killing Democrofs 1984 presidential aspirations By DAVID S. BRODER Columnist for The Los Angeles Times Syndicate BLOOMFIELD, N.J. — The Democrats have finished the marathon of the primaries notably more dispirited than they began them last Feb ruary. Their hopes of defeating President Rea gan have died the death of a thousand cuts, all of them self-inflicted. Rita Maguire, a shopper in this Newark sub urb, knows exactly what has gone wrong. “If the Democrats would only stop bickering and dump ing garbage on each other, they might have a chance,” she said the other day. “I’m a Democrat, but I’ll vote for Ronald Reagan. At least he looks and talks like you expect a President to do — not the junk you hear coming out of the Democrats.” Twenty weeks ago, when eight Democratic presidential candidates gathered at Dartmouth Gollege for the first of the televised 1984 debates, there was no such pervasive pessimism among their followers. But things started out badly that day and have gone generally downhill. On that Sunday afternoon in mid-January, Walter Mondale out-blustered then-rival John Glenn in a finger-pointing exchange. When Glenn accused Mondale of talking “gobbledy- gook,” Mondale replied that was “baloney.” Gary Hart, then just one of the pack, warned that “quarrels between you two are not going to en able this party to lead and govern again.” Jesse Jackson, then an untested political novice, chided the front-runners, too, cautioning that “We Dem ocrats have to conduct our affairs in a serious vein.” George McGovern suggested that all of Mon dale’s rivals resist “the tendency to clobber the front-runner,” observing that “sometimes front runners get nominated.” But all of that common sense and caution has been cast away in the overlong struggle for power that is now blessedly drawing to an end. From Hart’s Vrdolyak ad to his New Jersey joke, from Mondale’s “Where’s the beef?” to “I’ll pay back the PAG money,” from Jackson’s “Hymietown” to his snubbing of McGovern last week, all three of the surviving Democrats have done severe damage to their own reputations — and each oth er’s. The campaign is ending on a sour note, with the candidates looking wearied, scarred and tar nished. None of them is as formidable a political figure as he was five months ago. Jackson’s idealism did not prevent him from using crude ethnic labels or welcoming the sup port of a man who uttered threats against Jack son’s critics. Hart’s energy and self-confidence too often impelled him into verbal and political indiscretions. Mondale’s professionalism did not prepare him for, or spare him from, the rude up set at Hart’s hands in New Hampshire. Even when he battled back with a display of political stubbornness and stamina, he was not able to sus tain his own cause except by attacking Hart. ✓ In the end, Mondale has had to exhaust him self, his staff and his financial resources in the struggle for a prize that was supposed to fall into his hands more than two months ago. The Demo cratic nominating system this year was designed to favor the front-runner and to produce an early consensus nominee. Even in such a system, Mondale will probably limp across the finish line looking more like a battered survivor than a bat tle-toughened champion. Some Democrats reading these words will surely object that they draw too harsh a picture of the nomination campaign and portray too bleak an assessment of their party’s chances of defeat ing Reagan. Gompetition is normal and healthy, they will maintain, and the rhetoric of the prima ries is often forgotten when the general-election campaign begins. Just look at the Republicans in 1980. Look, indeed! In 1980, Ronald Reagan was up against a field of rivals at least as tough as this year’s Democratic entrants, and probably a good deal tougher. Remember that it included George Bush, who had been the party chairman and a se nior government official; Howard Baker and Bob Dole, two of the Senate heavyweights of the past decade; John Anderson, who developed such a stron personal following that he became an independent candidate for president; and John Gonnally, a man the Democrats once con sidered one of their best and brightest. Reagan so dominated this cast of non-slouches that by the Illinois primary in mid-March his nomination was assured. Not long thereafter, he was left without a challenger. From New Hamp shire onward, Reagan did two things with con spicuous success: He displayed a personality that disarmed his critics while continuously sharpen ing his indictment of the failings of the party in power. Gan anyone seriously maintain that any of the men now remaining in the Democratic race has done either of those things — let alone both? The Democrats have done one thing and one thing alone in this excessively long and frequently trivialized campaign: They have exposed each other’s glaring weaknesses. All that remains to be seen is if the Democratic convention of theoretically free-thinking dele gates nominates one of these demonstrably flawed aspirants, or summons the courage to act on its own in the party’s and country’s interest. TF - EIPcz Addressing L no one on l pasc; Capitol election p thejustio tains incu Stale tednesd; By ART BUCHWALD Cde'pem'l Columnist for The Los Angeles Times Syndicate | Morenc Everybody is in a snarling mood thesedat Washington. The latest hassle seems to bt television coverage in the House of Represtt lives. A group of Republican conservativesk; using TV as a method of attacking liberal Dt crats when they weren’t there. While the Hi was not in session, the conservatives appearet the podium and launched into vitriol againsi Lee Un opposition. Since House rules demandedthai: [state she cameras stay on the speaker, the C-Span viewer had no idea the Democrats beingattaa LU ‘‘‘V^ were absent. in.me. This enraged Speaker Tip O’Neill, dered the cameras to show that the Repubfc were addressing their remarks to House. This, in turn, enraged the consenaiji who thought they had found a new wayolj ting a lot of free TV time to sock it to theirlite colleagues. busim spe Since congressmen are now in show many of them are putting TV scriptwriten their staff. I was in Rep. Sadness’s office during a “sk conference” last week. The head writer said, “Congressman, theln think you should attack Rep. Steeple for his on wanting to ban handguns in dement schools.” “Is that Steeple’s position on handguns?” “We don’t know and neither does the f so whatever you say Steeple stands for is*: they will believe.” “Suppose Steeple gets up after metodelt himself?” “You’re not going to attack him while Cora is in session. You’ll do it after ‘legislative h«i while no one is there, but the TV camerasarei rolling.” “Tip O’Neill is wise to us and has ordered cameras to show an empty House while speaking,” Sadness said. “We think we’ve solved that problem. Foi few bucks we persuade one of the night dealt people to sit at a desk and scowl the wholec you’re questioning Steeple’s patriotism pointing your finger at the cleaner asyouaro him of every dirty commie trick in the book. “But how can the cleaning man be Steeple” “You’re never going to say he is Steeple, looking at him with contempt while you’res] ing, viewers are just going to assume he is, body knows what Steeple looks like exceptfu few voters in his district.” “What happens when I’m finished Steeple below the belt? Does the cleaningt come up and respond?” “He can’t answer you if he isn’t Steeple, be arrested for impersonating a congressm But if he slinks out with his head bowed broom between his legs, the TV audiencewff lieve everything you said about Steeple was trt The congressman said, “It’s a great idei know a cleaning man who looks like an unsl® Attila the Hun. He’d be perfect for the Stef role. Suppose Tip O’Neill finds outwhatw done and he attacks me.” “We’re counting on it, because if tip temper, his words can be ‘taken down’ford ing House rules against personal attacks on® hers,” the chief writer said. “Then we’ve selves a real TV show.” “Let me look at the script.” “Be as mean as you want,” the writers “When you finish, yield to your pal Vandeii who will get up and congratulate youonfi brilliant analysis of what the Democrats are' wittingly doing to help sell out the country.” “After Steeple, can I smear Congresse Rigor for voting against poison gas?” “That’s what the congressional TV came are for.” Slouch by Jim Earl AUST House c arships tc come tea. mercenai The ] Committ. Te> op pre Unit AUSTI ent-teache an appoin extended school day The T 2,000 PT/ showed ai position tc elected S with a sn the goveri “While questionec Board of they were right to el Laura Tyr the Texas news confc PTA m whelming!; chool day 3 Mile “How was registration? How was... hello! Are you there?”