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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 12, 1984)
Thursday, Opinion Page 2/The Battalion/Thursday, July 12,1984 Ferraro selection tointed by process United BEIRUT, gunmen For the First time in American his tory, the presidential candidate of one of the major parties has chosen a woman as his running mate. It was disclosed this morning that Rep. Geraldine Ferraro of New York will be Walter Mondale’s choice for the vice presidential nomination, ending weeks of bickering about possible can didates. Mondale’s attempts to choose a vice- presidential candidate that would help him get votes is understandable — it’s part of the process. But the choice also must be based on a person’s qualifica tions, in the event that a president should die or become incapacitated. Ferraro probably meets those re quirements. WOMAN'S JOB i,i [ ANSWER THE PHONE, TAKE N0TE5,S£T C0ff££, ANP SOMET/MES TH£V LET MB &IT IN ON MEETINGS,,* ARE WOA SECRETAW? bassy Wedne outside and 1 the third atta ests in west B Police said remote-coni feme two d; Kits fled the K threat ol radical Shiilt ■‘The dai jit the bui ,le," a polic In the Cl of Baat net approv But Ferraro’s choice was somewhat tainted by the three-ring-circus atmo sphere Mondale gave the selection procedure. And what of those not chosen? List ing potential candidates may have ad verse effects on those who weren’t se lected — if only because they have been rejected publicly. Historically, vice presidential selec tions have been low-key, but Mon dale’s candidates have been inter viewed amid extensive publicity. His all-too-obvious pandering to women, blacks and other minority groups was obnoxious. We expect the presidential race to be a circus — that’s part of the political process. But it’s a sad state of affairs when choosing a vice president be comes a circus all by itself. - The Battalion Editorial Board P i c t u renchet limseif ifan and ill. Or pu mg textb semester to pay th There Tuition increases should be fully considered Once again, the attempt to raise tuition has failed. The concern of the college stu dents of Texas and our ability to act in time was un derestimated. As most of you know. Gov. Mark White called a Johnny Hatch to fund these educational reforms was going to be an increase in college tu ition. The decrease in oil revenues, for the state, has caused a problem in funding these educational reforms. One solution to the problem came from Rep. Gary Thompson of Abi lene, who tried to increase tuition in Texas (as he has attempted to do the last two sessions!). Special Session to deal with Public El ementary and Secondary Education in Texas, including teacher pay in creases. One of the methods proposed Thanks go to Gov. Mark White, Rep. Wilhelmina Delco of Austin and Rep. Neeley Lewis of Bryan, all of whom opposed the bill because stu dents had not been given time to tes tify. ' Although Rodney Schlosser, the University of Texas student body president, and I were the only stu dents to testify against the tuition in crease, we expressed the feeling of all students by saying that a tuition in crease is something that could not be dealt with overnight, and that the state legislature should wait until January to discuss the issue. The delay is needed to study the possible impact of the in crease on the students. To give you an idea of the impact, here are some Figures. It is claimed that students pay 3.7 percent of the cost of tuition (not counting fees). We pay $4 per credit hour and the state pays $104 per hour — a total of $108 per hour. The bill would increase the amount we pay 2 percent every year until the amount reaches 15 percent. (From 3.7 percent in 1984 to 5.7 per cent in 1985 to 15 percent in approxi mately Five years.) Resident students taking a 15 hour course load now pay $120 a year in tuition. By 1990 they would pay $486 a year ($16 per hour) in tuition. These figures do not ac count for inflation. The final total could very possibly be even higher. There are many students who coni not afford a 405 percent increase tuition. This is just one of the issues thai affect you as students. I challengee one of you to take the time tobecoo a registered voter and let your Su Representative and Senators bo you care about what happens in Aa tin. Let us not be underestimatedev again! Johnny Hutch is a junior busira administration major and (he direct of the Legislative Study Group Texas A&M. Stockyard image disappears from political scene ergy con Conse mean d- pleasure ones. It those co or a leg. Some* money Gustavu sity bool |Joe are i Bryan tc “We’v because really ba “We’re I adding * ten-foot Mrs. band lu that hel| in the s 1 the wint Bob < terbed can helj Tfyc said, “yi ditionei By DICK WEST Columnist for United Press International WASHINGTON — One factor apparent to everyone as the Democratic and Republican con ventions draw near is the decline of the cow as a force in American political life. There was a time when that noble beast not only give us milk for our corn flakes, leather for our shoes and horns in which to keep our powder dry. The cow also was responsible for most of the municipal auditoriums big enough to hold a na tional gathering of major party candidates and delegates. I remember a convention in Chicago when the workspace assigned to the press consisted of in door cattle stalls next to the Stockyards arena where the delegates were choosing “the next president of the United States” — or a reasonably accurate facsimile. Representatives of virtually every race, color, creed and sex known to the civilized world have been mentioned as possible vice presidential candidates. Discounting Gary Hart’s western boots, few if any cowboys were on Mondale’s list of visitors, however. for the top job, not just second place on i ticket. convention had a meaningful relationship. Time was when a party assembly in San Fran cisco would have taken place in the Cow Palace. No more. The Democrats are meeting next week in something called the Muscone Center. Even in Dallas, scene of the Republican Na tional Convention in August, the hall has no cattle connection. The site is known simply as the Convention Center. Judging from Walter Mondale’s search for a vice presidential running mate, very little. Since the end of the presidential primary sea son, the likely Democratic nominee has inter viewed members of just about any political mi nority you might name — save one. The ebbing of the cow’s political influence be attributed, I believe, to the deterioration the western movie in our society. « Roy Rogers? Gene Autry? Surely the recoitj will show they were every bit as competent as actors as President Reagan. can Moreover, both are still prominent in n life — Rogers in a fast food chain and Ann as the owner of a major league baseball teait And certainly age would be no problem. Yet no ther can match Reagan’s political accompli ments Amen Namewise, San Francisco and Dallas might as well be hosts to the Vegetarian Party. Representatives of virtually every race, color, creed and sex known to the civilized world have been mentioned as possible vice presidential can didates. Discounting Cary Hart’s western boots, few if any cowboys were on Mondale’s list of visi tors, however. singin The answer may be that they were _ cowboys, whereas Reagan never warbled a no in the silver screen. Or was it a case of rising me prices? The copy we wrote was never heaped as high as the stuff the politicians were piling up next door. Yet, it was obvious the cow and the political If convention halls in Texas, of all places, have no bovine tie-in, what chance does a cowboy have in national politics? It wasn’t always that way. Voters old enough to remember Will Rogers will recall a time when cowboys were mentioned Whatever the reason, the political fortunes® the cow definitely have tumbled in the pa st £ decades. Mondale’s only concession to the ran( vote has been to ask, “Where’s the beef?” The Battalion (ISPS 045 360 Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Rebeca Zimmermann, Editor Bill Robinson, Editorial Page Editor Shelley Hoekstra, City Editor Kathleen Hart, News Editor Travis Tingle, Sports Editor The Battalion Staff Assistant City Editor Robin Black Assistant News Editors Dena Brown, Brigid Brockman, Bonnie Langford Staff Writers Ed Alanis, Kari Fluegel,Bob McClohon, Sarah Oates Copy Writers Karen Bloch, Cyndy Davis Copy Editor Tracie Holub Photographers Peter Rocha, Eric Evan Lee Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non profit, self-supporting news paper operated as a commu nity service to Texas A.&M and Bryan-College Station. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the Editorial Board or the author, and do not necessar ily represent the opinions of Texas A.&-A1 administrators, faculty or the Board of Re gents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photography classes within the Depart ment of Communications. United Press Interna tional is entitled exclusively to the use for reproduction of all news dispatches cred ited to it. Rights of repro duction of all other matter herein reserved. Letters Policy Tetters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The edito rial staff reserves the right to edit letters for style and length but will make every effort to maintain the thor’s intent. Each letter must be signed and must elude the address and tele phone number of the writer. The Battalion is pub lished Monday through Fri day during Texas A&M reg ular semesters, except for holiday and examination pe riods. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester, $33.25 per school year and $35 per full year. Advertising rates furnished on request. Our address: The Battal ion, 216 Reed McDonald Building, Texas A&M Uni versity, College Station, TX 77843. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. Letting Reagan be Reagan in campaign President looks for an '84 mandate By DAVID S. BRODER Columnist for The Washington Post Writers Group DETROIT — The most publicized debate in American politics concerns Walter Mondale’s choice of a running mate. But the most significant debate is probably the one taking place backstage at the White House about the kind of a race President Reagan should run this fall. Four years ago, when Reagan was here accepting the Republican nomi nation, there was no such debate. He was leading President Jimmy Carter in the polls and conceivably could have coasted in on the wave of a public disil lusionment with the incumbent ad ministration. But Reagan had been talking issues for 16 years on the national stage and, on the eve of his most important cam paign, he was not about to muzzle his beliefs. As a result of his determination, the platform his supporters wrote not only condemned the “failures” of the Dem ocrats but laid out the programs Rea gan proposed to substitute. Reagan ran on that platform, and during the fall campaign told voters across the country that if they put him in the White House with a supportive Con gress, he would put those programs into effect. They heard him and believed him, and when the returns came in, Reagan had won as close to a mandate as the American political system can pro duce. The stage was set for the policy revolution in taxes, domestic spending and defense that went whistling through Congress in the first eight months of 1981. With Reagan approaching another campaign and once again in the lead, there are those in the White House and his campaign organization who see the possibility of using 1984 as an other mandating election. They see the opportunity for Rea gan to set forth his second-term agenda, to campaign on it, and to re create the conditions that could make 1985 as productive a year on Capitol Hill from his point of view as 1981 was. This time, however, there is no una nimity on the proposition. The coun- ter-argilment is that Reagan can win — and perhaps even win their distaste for what happened in the “Carter- Mondale years.” An advocate of the “bold approach” to the election said recently that he and others are “trying to suppress the inclination to run a no-risk, Rose Gar den campaign.” These “hawks” want two debates with Mondale, not just one. They want the President “to tip his hand on his second-term economic plan, starting with his acceptance speech.’’ And they want him to “camp aign as hard for Republicans in Con gress as he did in 1980,” in hopes of maintaining most of the present Re publican majority in the Senate and regaining most of the 26 House seats lost in 1982. But when I put these exact proposi tions to one of the President’s most in- luential political and policy advisers the other day, he treated each one as if it was a leftover Firecracker that mi K ht blow up in his face. “There will be a debate,” he said but it s too early to get into a debate about debates.. We could be 10 points behind tn October and need another debate... But the main thing is to be flexible.” As for the President “tipping his hand on his second-term plans he Sai f “f, ii nk we ’ H talk in general prin- c JP le *j Those who argue that Reagan should advance a specific tax-reform and tax-simplification plan, he said forget that the 1980 tax program (of across-the-board rate cuts for three years) was “a simple idea that could be grasped by Joe Sixpack.” The implica tion was that whatever emerges from the Treasury and White House this time as tax simplification” will be too complex for the voters to understand. As using his P e H for Reagan um.. 6 ***- * tor ,i political capital to try ana working control of the House hold down Republican losses i Senate, this adviser seemed He talked about the habit o j sever 1 strai' recon 1 ' splitting and the odds against incumbent Republican senator 8 ’ The man who said these thing impeccable political tre ^ entl r f i e ncf has earned the President’s con i , But if his cautionary advice * lowed, instead of the aggressn^ egy others in the campaign are mending, the country certainly the President probably — loser ’ preside Reagan did not become » .-J by avoiding risks. He is ** P° ' with strong convictions and la r 8 ^ signs, not a seeker of the statu will be He may win reelection With 0 j ing Americans a look at . klS , S fV c#[ term plans. But he and his pam not win a mandate that way- j 3l { A debate on the second-terin Fj is what the country deserves. (( what Reagan’s record entitles vo ^ expect from him. He has alway 8 * emphatic in his beliefs, and p ra g in his practices. When it comes camnaitrn. the best —