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An Anyone-but-Mondale movement does not appear to be gathering, at least not yet. Said Hart's campaign manager, Oliver Henkel: "We're not in a stop-Mondale mood." Still, many Democrats fear that Mondale would be no match for Reagan.
They contrast the image last week of Reagan making a televised plea for peace with the Soviets with the spectacle of the Democrats wrangling in a college auditorium.
Said one top party official: "Democrats standing in a circle shooting each other won't beat Reagan." If the Democrats have compelling alternatives to Reagan's policies, they were not able to present any in the din at Dartmouth.
His lead in the polls notwithstanding, Mondale still has not generated much intensity among voters. "He's being too cautious," says Pat Butler, an editor of the Fairmont (Minn.) Daily Sentinel. "If he doesn't get more specific, he might blow it." As the debate showed, Mondale has some hard questions to answer, such as how he really plans to reduce the deficit and pay off all those promises to interest groups. His high perch is fragile. Beneath him, the hounds are milling and jumping, barking to be heard. —By Evan Thomas. Reported by Hays Gorey/Washington and Christopher Ogden/ Chicago, with other bureaus