Word: hartness
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There is an inescapable tendency, however, to exaggerate Hart's liabilities. At this premature stage, almost everyone following the Democratic contest -- the press, campaign consultants for rival candidates, and party officials who want to be wooed -- has a vested interest in a political horse race. Small wonder the conventional wisdom is filled with airy speculation about which Democrat might suddenly emerge from the pack with a Hart-stopping charge in Iowa or New Hampshire...
...happen. Up to now though, Hart has run a gaffe-free campaign that provides scant fodder for his hungry rivals. Perhaps his only strategic error was to neglect the Iowa battleground for much of 1986. But Hart's Senate record wins Democratic applause, especially his consistent opposition to Reaganomics and his long advocacy of an oil-import fee. Hart's speeches have grown more evocative and thematic; technocratic details are now left to his position papers, which are voluminous enough to satisfy anyone's hunger for beef...
...only ripples in the calm waters of the Hart campaign are churned up by debris from his last campaign. Hart still owes creditors $1.3 million from 1984, and campaign laws allow him to separate this leftover red ink from his political coffers for 1988. But the lingering 1984 debt remains an annoying distraction. U.S. marshals made surprise raids on two Los Angeles-area Hart fund raisers last week, seizing the receipts on behalf of a small ad agency that is owed $165,900 from 1984. Hart's aides insist, with seeming validity, that 1988 campaign funds cannot be garnisheed...
...more amorphous, yet potentially far more serious for Hart, are the lingering echoes from what is politely called the character issue. In 1984, underlying doubts about Hart's personality took the form of an overheated discussion of his name change (from Hartpence) and his frequent misstatements of his age. This time around Hart is plagued by vague rumors of womanizing, all advanced without a shred of credible evidence. It is no secret that Hart and his wife Lee endured two painful marital separations, the last one ending in 1982. Last week, prompted by a reporter's acknowledgment that the innuendos...
Forgettable flaps like this are what pass for news in the early days of campaign '88. Inevitably, Hart himself will become the issue. "That's the nature of being the front runner," says Paul Tully, Hart's political director. "You're going to get trashed." For the next six months, however, Hart's rivals lack a dramatic forum to get their views across; no debates, straw polls or other major media events are on the schedule. By the time Democratic voters turn their attention to presidential politics, Hart, still traveling alone, could well be within sight of the mountaintop...