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Mondale owes some of his lead to the failings of his rivals. Most disappointing has been John Glenn, the astronaut turned Senator. His hero status and centrist politics made him a logical match for Ronald Reagan. But the more Glenn hit the stump, the further he fell in the polls. He comes off as a good, gray technocrat, offering facts, not vision, often lapsing into jargon and digressions that leave audiences drowsy. He can show zest, though, sometimes speaking clearly and substantively on favorite issues, such as arms control and cutting the budget deficit. Since his positions are closer to the center than Mondale's, Glenn theoretically has a larger pool of support. But he needs to rebound quickly if he is to challenge the front runner.
Few of the others are doing any better. Cranston jokes that "I had a full head of hair until Reagan became President," but even his TV ads bring out a flaw that is not the California Senator's fault: in an age of imagery, his bony build and glistening skull are unpresidential. With his brains and looks, Gary Hart should be a winning candidate. But his natural reserve makes him seem cold, even condescending. Ernest Rollings looks like a President, yet his quick tongue outpaces even his nimble wit; he rambles, improvises and seems to startle himself, as well as his audiences, by what he has just said. George McGovern's sincerity, clarity and professorial calm have piqued the interest of a new generation of college students who were children when the former presidential candidate led his party against the Viet Nam War in 1972. To the mainstream of voters, however, he appears quaint, quixotic and too liberal. Reubin Askew remains a blur, with low name recognition even among recent residents of his home state, Florida. Only Jesse Jackson, irrepressible and sometimes outrageous, seems to be gaining converts in his long-shot crusade. But while Jackson has shown that a black can be a potent force in the primaries, he seems more of a lever for black demands than a legitimate threat to win the nomination. His campaign is disorganized, and he delivers messages rather than programs.
So how did Mondale, who has some deficiencies of his own, achieve such a solid lead in the Democratic race? Only a decade ago, he withdrew from the primaries with one of the most self-damning confessions in recent political memory: "I do not have the overwhelming desire to be President." Even his Minnesota mentor, Hubert Humphrey, wondered whether Mondale had "fire in the belly." That question, which once seemed an obstacle to Mondale's presidential ambitions, has been laid to rest. These days Fritz's boilers glow red hot as he assails Reagan for replacing the New Deal with "the double deal" and promoting "a jungle where only the richest and fittest prosper."