Word: bentsen
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...speech in Longview, an east Texas oil town, Bentsen stands in front of a 60-ft. American flag and a silent, black oil rig. "Let's get down to us folks," he tells the crowd of about 100, old and young, black and white. "Five out of six prigs that were active in 1981 are now inactive." Yes . . . Yes! some exclaim. "The Reagan-Bush Administration's energy policy has been as empty as Dan Quayle's resume." A few yee-his ring out. But when Bentsen segues to Dukakis and the Massachusetts Miracle, the crowd becomes silent. After the speech...
...Bentsen is a species as indigenous to Texas as the longhorn: a Tory Democrat. For once, the most oft-used adjective about a candidate is the most accurate: patrician. Courteous and deferential, he wears his down-home credentials as discreetly as the LMB monograms that dot the breast pockets of his fine cotton shirts. As a campaigner, he is like a good tire: durable, road-tested, puncture-proof. But no one would ever describe him as electrifying: he often seems to be moving and speaking in slow motion. Unlike many men in public life, he looks his age, a weathered...
Sometimes the Bentsen campaign seems to be a languid odyssey in futile pursuit of network airtime. By design, the Dukakis headquarters has kept him from committing any news, though he has stepped up his attacks on Quayle. "If the Republicans were elected," said Bentsen last week, "I would pray for the good health of George Bush every night." Bentsen's advisers trust that he will show similar vigor in this week's debate...
...reason Bentsen's campaign seems like a local election effort is that it is. Under Texas law, Bentsen can run for both the vice presidency and the Senate. He spends nearly a third of each day giving local interviews and another third raising money. Bentsen will rope in $8 million for his Senate race against a virtual unknown. That money can be used for precinct-level registration and get-out-the-vote efforts, which are what win in Texas. Democrats are telling voters to pull the lever twice for Bentsen on Nov. 8. But the Republicans have a subtler strategy...
Week by week, Bentsen is growing stronger as a campaigner; he is looser now and more comfortable with a TelePrompTer. He is beginning to campaign like a man who can't lose -- and he can't. Yet the Republicans continue to make ! headway. Bentsen says he was "bloody outraged" by what Bush did with the Pledge of Allegiance and felt that Dukakis should have come out punching. Many operatives think the Democrats still need to take the gloves off in Texas. "These guys," says a county chairman, "have to be a whole lot tougher in rebutting this bull." But Bentsen...