(3 of 5)
The man in charge of the Hart campaign is Hart himself, and therein lies a weakness. As he proved in the 1972 McGovern campaign and in his stunning upset this year in New Hampshire, Hart is a shrewd political tactician. But it is exceedingly difficult to be a winning candidate and an artful campaign manager at the same time. As Hart correctly points out, the campaign has had to go from a "mom and pop operation to a national chain" overnight. Yet the business is still largely owner run: when Hart delegates, he often finds himself trying to clean up the mistakes of his young and inexperienced staff.
His aides are so eager for advice that they solicit it from political reporters. When a TV correspondent suggested that Hart counter Mondale's "Where's the beef?" line by displaying his book A New Democracy between buns, Hart produced a "bookburger" at the very next stop. When another correspondent complained that Hart's neckties were too pale for TV and suggested he "wear red," the candidate began sprouting red ties.
Unlike Mondale, who always travels with a trusted aide, Hart often sits alone on the campaign plane, reading magazines or staring out the window. This week Hart aides tried to find their man a "sage" on the order of Mondale's Jim Johnson or John Reilly. But the two would-be wise men—Mark Hogan, a former Lieutenant Governor of Colorado, and Ronald Dozoretz, a Portsmouth, Va., psychiatrist who is active in state politics—are neither national political heavyweights nor particularly close to Hart. Hart's staff fears that the candidate is burning out. "I keep asking him to take a night off and go to a movie," says Press Secretary Kathy Bushkin. Yet Hart presses on, exhausted.
Mondale also admits to being "pooped." Even so, his campaign has been fairly error free since it made the almost fatal mistake of ignoring Hart before New Hampshire. After that shock, Mondale seemed strangely liberated, giving his strongest speeches of the campaign on his best issue, compassion and fairness to the poor. He attacked Hart with a toughness many thought Mondale lacked. As Illinois approached, Mondale began to lose some steam, but he remained well insulated by his able handlers. All of a sudden his stolid candidacy, which had contrasted so poorly with Hart's campaign of new ideas, began to look safer to voters unsettled by Hart's change of name (from Hartpence) and age (younger by a year). Said Housewife Marge Lannon, 37, who voted for Mondale in Illinois: "I was taken in by Hart, but then I remembered the peanut farmer who came in and was President before anyone realized it. Mondale has a lot more experience."