Hart lives again as Mondale stumbles in the Midwest
The invitation read, "Help put Fritz over the top." Balloons floated, booze flowed and the band played as hundreds of Mondale supporters jammed the Sheraton Washington Hotel last week to celebrate the beginning of the end of the Democratic race. Inquiring reporters were told to expect an early victory statement at 8 o'clock. At 9 p.m., Campaign Manager Robert Beckel assured the faithful: "We're on our way. It's only a matter of time now."
But the time dragged. Small groups began to cluster around TV sets. Campaign workers whispered anxiously among themselves. Still no candidate, still no statement. Finally, a few minutes after 11 p.m., Walter Mondale waded slowly through the now diminished crowd, family and entourage in tow. His face was weary, his voice flat and somber. "I know we're going to win this," he insisted. "I know we're going to be elected. That's what the American people want."
If so, it was hardly apparent from the results of "Super Tuesday II." Mondale did win solidly in North Carolina (36% to Gary Hart's 30% and Jesse Jackson's 25%) and Maryland (43% to Jackson's 27% and Hart's 25%). But Hart came back from the brink to upset Mondale twice, in the key Midwestern states of Ohio (42% to 40%) and Indiana (42% to 41%). "Welcome to the fourth quarter," Hart told a jubilant throng of his supporters at Washington's National Press Club. "The message is clear. The Democrats and the people of this country are not prepared to have this contest and debate end at this time."
Hart's analysis was closer to the mark than Mondale's. Still, the results were less a victory for the challenger than a defeat for the front runner. The former Vice President remains the odds-on favorite to win the nomination. But party chiefs fear that by the time he raises his arms in victory at the convention in San Francisco, he will have taken so many blows from his opponents he will be punch-drunk. Says Iowa Democratic Committee Chairman David Nagle: "If Hart sweeps the rest, Mondale's going to be a badly wounded duck trying to fly home."
With perverse consistency, voters seem to slap Mondale down every time he appears to have the nomination within his grasp. Having derailed Mondale's "juggernaut" in New Hampshire, they briefly admired him as an aggressive underdog struggling back. But after Mondale regained the role of front runner, he began behaving like one again, calling for party unity and looking ahead to the contest against Ronald Reagan. To the voters, he was no longer "Fighting Fritz." Once again he was what one party insider calls "Mondale Inc.," the buttoned-up Establishment candidate who sells shares of himself to interest groups.