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That Moynihan himself may appear too adjustable, depending on the prevailing breeze, has provided Buckley with some ammunition. The Senator only hints at the point, but Campaign Manager Len Saffir calls Moynihan a "phony and an opportunist," and says that last year he "clearly used the United Nations as a forum" for personal political motives.
Moynihan certainly turned himself into something of a national hero (and did wonders with the Jewish vote) by his spectacular stands in defense of Israel and in defiance of left-wing totalitarian assaults on the West. But he argues that he told President Ford he planned to stay on, and that he would have remained had he not fallen afoul of Henry Kissinger, who disapproved of his too independent line. After resigning from his U.N. post, Moynihan returned to Harvard, where for four months he pondered a political run. Centrist party leaders courted Moynihan for two reasons: they thought he was best able to retire Buckley and enrich New York's anemic influence in Congress. The strategy seems sound. For one thing, Moynihan, as a Catholic who attends Mass regularly at Manhattan's St. Ignatius Loyola Church and who understands how middle-income families feel about social issues, could lure back white ethnics who helped elect Buckley in 1970.
Abortion provides a significant contrast between the candidates. Both oppose abortion on demand. But Buckley is a champion of the Right to Life movement and author of a proposed constitutional amendment that would severely restrict abortion. Moynihan is against any such amendment, arguing that it would be "coercion" of one group by another. "We are in a post-Constantinian church," he says. "We really cannot expect our moral code to be translated into the legal code."
The clearest clash, however, is over bread and butter. Unlike Buckley, Moynihan favors a federal takeover of welfare, passage of a national health-insurance bill and enactment of other measures necessary to help the economically distressed Northeast. He accuses Buckley of abandoning New York State's economic interests for the sake of antiquated conservative principle.
Buckley argues that Moynihan "believes in a federal solution for every problem," and that "for the past 25 years we have been witnessing an almost reckless movement of authority away from local communities, where voters and taxpayers have some degree of control over what happens, to Washington." The economy will improve, he says, when federal spending and taxes are brought under sufficient control to encourage private investment. Meanwhile, he favors a number of innovative ideas—like factoring inflation into the income tax code—to protect families of modest means. Says Buckley. "I'm the person looking out for the interests of the taxpayer and the wage earner. If people want a change, they should vote for me."
Going into the campaign's final weeks, it appeared that New Yorkers did not quite see the choice in Buckley's terms. Moynihan seemed to be holding on to a modest lead that would allow him to add a new entry to his lengthy résumé.