For weeks Walter Mondale had predicted with facetious precision that he would acquire the magic number of 1,967 delegates needed to pin down the Democratic presidential nomination at 11:59 a.m. on the day after Super Tuesday III—the final day of one of the most grueling, frenetic and unpredictable primary seasons ever. Now on election eve Mondale's campaign plane was over California, nearing the end of a 25-hour, 5,620-mile coast-to-coast blitz. The candidate had been in fine fettle, rousing partisan audiences in New Jersey, West Virginia and New Mexico. He seemed somehow to be thriving on the hectic pace and its near sleepless nights. Finally confident that the elusive goal was at hand, the Minnesotan's staff broke out bottles and let spirits soar. The former Vice President gleefully awarded T shirts imprinted with I SURVIVED AIR MONDALE to those who had made the trip, and read a "wimp list" of correspondents who had begged off doing so. His aides led weary reporters in a stir-crazy version of the Wabash Cannon Ball:
From the Bond Court to the Fairmont, the hotels have been great,
A different bed each evening in a different state.
Our sex lives are terrific, celibacy is fine.
We're in a flying convent, Flight 11:59.
Waiting out election results in home state, Mondale heard nothing shake his buoyant mood. His foe Gary Hart was carrying South and New Mexico, as expected, but delegates were at stake. Mondale sweeping West Virginia. The news New Jersey was dazzling. A hefty 107 delegates were the prize, and Mondale, capitalizing on the state's district election system, seemed to be taking an amazing of them to Hart's none and Jesse Jackson's four. The voting booths had closed in California, with its enticing of 306 delegates, but early exit polls indicated a tight race. Arriving at a party in St. Paul's Radisson Plaza Mondale reached out to his rivals and their backers. "I want your support," he said, "and I intend to earn it." After delivering a Satchel Paige warning to Ronald Reagan, "Don't look back, somebody's gaining on you," the contented Mondale ordered a batch of cheeseburgers, celebrated with friends in his 17th-floor suite and drifted off into a long-awaited deep sleep at midnight.
But for Mondale's aides, the euphoria gave way almost immediately to a bout of Hart-induced nightmares. Back in February, the Colorado Senator's stunning upset in the New Hampshire primary (he had risen from a mere 3% following among Democrats nationally just a month earlier) shattered the notion that an invincible Mondale machine would crush all opposition early. After a string of Hart wins in New England, Mondale had doggedly fought his way back with victories in Alabama and Georgia on Super Tuesday I. Then he seized Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania, setting up another knockout chance on Super Tuesday II. Yet the equally dogged Hart had jolted pollsters once more, winning in Ohio and Indiana. Early on Wednesday morning, Mondale's strategists found the reports from California turning sour. Would their man be stymied short of a delegate majority after all?