By John A. Meyers

With the 1984 elections still 19 months away, the quadrennial chorus of complaints about the ever earlier start of presidential campaigns again fills the air. But short campaigns are no longer possible, in the view of Washington Bureau Chief Robert Ajemian, who has reported on presidential politicking since 1956, first for LIFE, then for TIME. "Since 1972," he says, "we have reformed the electoral process, opened it up to more voters. For the candidate, this means in-person, retail politics, drawing voters in, confronting them in primaries, winning over delegates. That takes time. For the voter, sizing up the candidates also takes time: figuring out how they think and decide, their intelligence, temperament, imagination." At the same time, notes Ajemian, "because public life is so battering these days, a candidate's psychological armor has to be very thick. As a result, political image making has reached new levels of skill and manipulation, emphasizing the candidates' strengths and covering their weaknesses. The task is to identify both the candidate and the real person. We can't learn too much about future Presidents."

To that end, TIME this week begins a series of profiles on the leading presidential candidates, declared and not yet announced. "Our aim," says Ajemian, "is not to tell how they stack up, one vs. another, but to learn what motivates them, to try to peer through the psychological cover that politicians wear so well and sense, as best we can, the essence of these men."

TIME will attempt to uncover and explain these facets of the candidates, beginning in this issue with the current Democratic front runner, former Vice President Walter Mondale. Ajemian followed Mondale around the capital and on the road, listening to his speeches and interviewing him several times on the move and at Mondale's home in Washington. He talked with dozens of people who had known and worked with Mondale, some as far back as 25 years ago in Minnesota. The recurring, almost reluctant question these sources raised about the former Vice President was his willingness to take unpopular stands.

Says Ajemian: "People would invariably tell me, 'Fritz is a beautiful human being, but I really don't know if he's tough enough for that job.' " Ajemian's assessment of Mondale's strengths and weaknesses offers TIME'S readers an early opportunity to begin that essential citizen responsibility of making up their own minds. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.