A Moment of Charisma

Hundreds of cheering Bostonians pressed forward in the overheated hotel ballroom to get a glimpse of the triumphant figure on the podium. Heads of girls kept bobbing up and down; burly men elbowed in for a handshake. The object of all the excitement, enjoying his moment of glory, was a rather short, dumpy man in a baggy suit. Struggling to the microphone, Senator Henry (Scoop) Jackson said: "This loyalty is gonna carry us to victory in New York in July. In the meantime, we'll pick up a little charisma." The crowd chanted: "Scoop! Scoop! Scoop!"

For a moment, Jackson was what he has rarely been before: charismatic. It was the kind of transformation that political victory can work. For most of his long congressional career, Scoop has been a dutiful plodder, wooden and uncomfortable with crowds. He spoke in what was dubbed a "Movietone News voice"--a monotonous, stentorian delivery that politicians employed before public address systems were invented. But in Massachusetts, perhaps sensing victory early on, he began to unbend and even modulate his voice. Crowds became a challenge rather than a concern. When antibusing hecklers forced him off the podium at a Boston stop, he never lost his dignity and won the respect of opponents in the audience. Says his press secretary, Brian Corcoran: "He just got tired of reading that he was dull and decided to do something about it." -

On the issues, Jackson has shrewdly and forcefully blended a conservatism on foreign affairs and many social questions with a traditional liberalism on economics and civil rights. The issue of detente is almost his own. He started complaining about a one-way street long before the phrase was picked up by his Democratic rivals. He combines a skepticism about the Soviet Union with pleas for an old-fashioned patriotism and an end to national self-deprecation. He declares: "We have got to put a stop to constantly turning the other cheek and letting the other side kick us all over the lot." As a counterweight to Russia, he urges improved relations with China; he would open an embassy in Peking and reduce the embassy in Taiwan to a liaison office.

Jackson's stands are especially appealing to labor, the elderly and much of the Jewish population. No one is more hawkish in defense of Israel, and he drafted the bill prohibiting most-favored-nation status for the Soviet Union unless it permitted more of its citizens to emigrate. The effort collapsed when Russia refused to go along. A large percentage of the $5 million in campaign funds that Jackson has collected to date is estimated to have come from Jewish sources.

Among the candidates, Jackson is second only to George Wallace in his opposition to involuntary busing. A bill he has recently introduced in the Senate calls for the establishment of three-judge courts to decide all busing cases. Before they order busing, the judges would have to consider a variety of criteria, e.g., whether busing would lead to a further flight of whites, as it often has, thus reinforcing segregation. The bill would also authorize $1 billion over the next two years for alternative methods of ending school segregation. Says Jackson: "I am making it clear that I am against busing and for integration."

Scoop believes the economy is the most important issue. "Jobs will be the centerpiece of the Jackson Administration," he asserts. He supports public works programs and other kinds of pump priming to ease unemployment. The Senator criticizes the Federal Reserve for its restrictive monetary policies, and he wants Congress to exercise more control over it. He favors price controls on oil and natural gas.

Jackson's biggest obstacle to the nomination remains left-wing Democrats. They fear his hawkishness on defense and foreign policy; they have not forgiven him his staunch support of the Viet Nam War. Complains Jackson: "Their view of a liberal is one who cannot be hard and tough. Their liberal must never, never support a defense budget of any kind. When they find that I take a hard-nosed position on issues of freedom, which I have all my life, this sort of gets 'em. And when they're confronted with the fact that I have by any honest measurement, as good a liberal record on domestic issues as anyone, they are driven up the wall. So they have to stop this monstrosity Jackson." But the man whom liberals see as a "monstrosity" could become a leading candidate in a year when moderation seems the vogue.

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