Word: hartness
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...Gary Hart's ritual declaration of presidential candidacy had been foreordained ever since he promised the 1984 Democratic Convention, "This is one Hart you will not leave in San Francisco." But in politics these days, choosing a suitably telegenic backdrop is often as important as the announcement itself. Hart wanted to keep it simple, making the brief statement from the front porch of his log-and-stone house in the Colorado mountains, 25 miles from Denver. His handlers preferred something more dramatic and expansive, with, of course, more room for reporters and TV crews. Caught between a rock...
There last week, evocatively framed by snow-speckled red-sandstone formations, Hart, 50, formally staked his claim to the prize that eluded him last time. His eight-minute speech, flawlessly delivered from memory, harked back to the cerebral themes of 1984: "I intend, as I always have, to run a campaign of ideas." Hart's central idea is his proclaimed ability to discern "the national interest" and his determination to pursue it. This sets up a refrain, as he compares his ideas to Reagan policies: "One choice is in the national interest, and that choice could not be clearer...
...more compelling than rhetoric, however, was the visual image of Gary Hart: rough-hewn and handsome, dressed in a dark blue suit and trademark black cowboy boots, standing in splendid isolation halfway up a mountain. The lone political warrior towering above his rivals is precisely Hart's position nine months before the Iowa caucuses. It has been Hart vs. a still indistinguishable field ever since New York Governor Mario Cuomo decided to sit out the 1988 race. A Washington Post-ABC News preference poll of Democrats last month gave Hart 46% and Jesse Jackson 14%, with no other active...
...Hart, who has built his political career as a grass-roots outsider running against the party establishment, lacks most of the hallmarks of a traditional front runner. Aside from the Colorado delegation, Hart's avowed congressional supporters could caucus under the same umbrella. Old-line party financiers who actively supported Walter Mondale in 1984 find Hart's diffident style difficult to accept. "Hart I can't see," says a prominent Southern fund raiser. "If I don't know who he is, I don't know how he can win." Labor leaders, who remember Hart's blistering attacks on Mondale...
...Hart campaigned hard for the party's ticket, which lost in a landslide, and he started working toward another campaign almost as soon as the 1984 general election was over...