Reagan has failed—Hart

Press, 12 July 1984, Page 6

Reagan has failed —Hart

NZPA-AP-Reuter New York The re-election of President Ronald Reagan would “bring a time of unprecedented danger” marked by regional conflicts which could all too easily “escalate to a nuclear showdown,” Senator Gary Hart said at the Centre for International Studies at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. Mr Reagan was “substituting rhetoric for results” to mask policy failures in Central America, the Middle East and on arms controls, he said yesterday. Mr Reagan “has increased Soviet intransigence around the world, strained our relations with our European and other allies, and failed to achieve any arms control successes whatever.

“A second Reagan Administration would be a time of unprecedented danger, when a confrontational atmosphere could all too easily cause regional conflicts to escalate to a nuclear showdown,” Mr Hart said.

As in other recent aprances he concentrated attack on Mr ReagaS: and muted his differences

with the former Vice-Presi-dent, Walter Mondale, although he still says he will go to next week’s Democratic national convention as a candidate for the Presidential nomination, which Mr Mondale says is his. “I am in the race to stay,” Mr Hart said after his speech. “My name will be placed in nomination and I don’t quit.” He said that he had reduced his list of prospective Vice-Presidential running mates from the original 25 or 30 to “half-a-dozen or so,” including Mr Mondale and several of the people also interviewed by Mr Mondale as potential Vice-Presiden-tial candidates.

Meanwhile Mr Mondale remained silent on whom he would pick or when he would announce his VicePresidential candidate. He said that he and Mr Hart liked each other despite “real differences,” but side-stepped a question about whether the two could get along as “running mates.” In an interview with the “Los Angeles Times” the Rev. Jesse Jackson said that Mr Mondale

had refused to consider him for the position because he “isn’t seriously interested in a black running mate and is responding to threats from Jewish leaders.” “It’s clear if there was any scientific basis for making a Vice-Presidential choice, it would be me,” Mr Jackson said, citing his strong showing in the South in the primary elections. Mr Mondale was under pressure from Jewish leaders offended by his use of the word “Hymies” to describe Jews, he said.

The newspaper said Mr Jackson had complained that Mr Mondale was putting greater political stock in Jewish voters than in blacks, although blacks were “the most loyal” while Jews had threatened to support Mr Reagan if Mr Mondale acted against their wishes. Mr Jackson said that Jewish leaders were labouring under a “very arrogant and contemptuous assumption” that you could “stick another head on the body I have organised.” Referring to his commentiyabout “Hymies,” Mr Jackson said, “When I made

a mistake in casual conversation that had no political or religious overtones, it was turned into an attack as if I went on a tirade or something.” Despite criticism ■ from political rivals and the press about Mr Mondale’s search for a running mate, several key Democratic state leaders yesterday gave strong backing to his methodical approach. Party leaders in California, Georgia, Texas, and West Virginia said that Mr Mondale had not shown “indecisiveness” or “pandered” to special-interest groups in his highly publicised VicePresidential selection process.

They praised him for being thoughtful and deliberate and for opening to serious consideration political minorities, noting that six of the seven people Mr Mondale had interviewed were either black, Hispanic, or women.

Since Monday Mr Mondale had been working on the acceptance speech which he is scheduled to deliver on Friday the convention, a spokesman

But the press speculation and criticism has in one instance riled Mr Mondale. Yesterday he wrote a letter to "The New York Times” complaining that a story on Monday had been wrong in saying that his interview with a New York congresswoman, Geraldine Ferraro, had been “somewhat disappointing.” State party leaders said that they were impressed with the openness of Mr Mondale’s search for a running mate and preferred it to past settings of “smokefilled back rooms” at conventions.

The West Virginia party chairman, Joseph Goodwin, said that his only concern was that Mr Mondale’s approach had raised expectations, particularly among women’s groups, for a woman Vice-President. If Mr Mondale did not choose a woman, Mr Goodwin suggested, he should announce his choice before the convention to avoid a floorfight from women delegates and allow time for his running mate to gain public exposure.