Campaign Notebook

What Becomes A Landslide Most?

(TIME, November 4) -- With polls forecasting an election sweep for Bill Clinton, some giddy Democrats are already using the L word: landslide. Not so fast, George Stephanopoulos. Even the most optimistic Democrats are predicting that Bill Clinton will not win more than 52%. But a real landslide ought to be well above that. Since 1824, when reliable popular-voting results became available, only four Presidents have made it into the 60% club. (One of them--F.D.R.--ran against a Kansan.)
1920 Warren G. Harding
1936 Franklin D. Roosevelt
1964 Lyndon B. Johnson
1972 Richard M. Nixon

Source: Congressional Quarterly, Inc.

Prop Quiz

For a politician a prop is more than a toy; it's a visual mnemonic device to help voters remember who the politician is and what he stands for. Match the politician with the prop that has become indispensable to him on the stump, and win the $500 government-issued hammer Al Gore used to lug around.

Props:
1) A doll-size wooden rocking chair that sways from left to right instead of from front to back
2) An ice bucket
3) A copy of the 10th Amendment
4) A white pickup truck

Pols:
a) Newt Gingrich
b) Victor Morales, Texas Democratic Senate candidate
c) Bob Dole
d) Elizabeth Dole

Answers: 1. d.; 2. a.; 3. c.; 4. b.

Stump Wit

"Top 10 Ways President Clinton Could Still Lose the Election...
No. 8: Appear on CNN giving back rubs to Saddam Hussein."
-- The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS, Oct. 13, 1996

Diogenes

"All he has to do is not drool on himself, and he wins."
-- Kevin L. Geddings, media consultant for Elliott S. Close
regarding his candidate's 93-year-old opponent, Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina (from the New York Times)

Winners & Losers

Winners

ROSS PEROT
He can still sting! Dole conjures up the nearly forgotten Texan, only to be called weird

HARRY BROWNE
Who he? Look at your ballots. The Libertarian is up against Bob, Bill and Ross in all 50 states

DEMOCRATS
Toto, they may be back in Kansas--breaking the G.O.P. hold on its congressional delegation

Losers

BILL CLINTON
Not the winner yet, but, uhm...excuse me, Mr. President, is that your hubris showing?

RALPH NADER
His unassuming campaign isn't even unsafe at any speed. It's unnoticed with no speed at all

DEMOCRATS
Can't count on Arkansas. A seat they need to control the Senate may fall out of their grasp

Haley Barbour And His Laborious Job

(TIME, November 4) -- A G.O.P. television ad warns, "The big labor bosses. Big money. Big lies. Big liberals." Republicans from R.N.C. chairman Haley Barbour on down have accused the AFL-CIO of trying to buy the elections with its $35 million campaign. As it turns out, Barbour himself has direct knowledge of labor bosses. From 1989 till 1991, Barbour was on retainer to the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association, a dues-paying member of the AFL-CIO. According to union sources, Barbour was paid about $50,000 a year for "professional services," such as lobbying. The leadership of the union at the time also seemed familiar with big money and big lies. Former president C. Eugene DeFries earned a racketeering conviction and was sentenced earlier this year to more than five years in prison for his role in fixing union elections, forcing members to contribute to the union's political-action fund and embezzling $2 million.

--By Viveca Novak