The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

MR. MacNeil: Good evening. Leading the news this Tuesday, an exit poll in Israel's general election suggested no clear majority for the right or the left. In the U.S. campaign, Dukakis attacked Wall Street merger mania, Bush stressed law and order. Leading indicators fell slightly in September as economic activity slowed. We'll have details in our News Summary in a moment. Jim.

MR. LEHRER: After the News Summary, Roger Mudd examines the U.S. Senate races in Mississippi and elsewhere, we have stump speeches delivered today by both Gov. Dukakis and Vice President Bush. There is a conversation with a citizen from Denver named Jacquelyn Jackson-Quinn about the next President, and we close with a Roger Rosenblatt essay about why the whales were such a story. NEWS SUMMARY

MR. MacNeil: There was a heavy turnout in Israel's general election today. An exit poll by Israeli television showed that neither the Lekud nor the labor parties would emerge with a clear majority, but that Lekud might have the edge in forming a governing coalition with other parties. That would mean that Yitzhak Shamir might remain Prime Minister. Voters went to the polls in an emotional atmosphere of terrorist attacks and reprisal raids. We have a report from Roderick Pratt of Worldwide Television News.

RODERICK PRATT: The most serious violence during election day happened in the Wadi Jas district of Arab East Jerusalem, when a fire bomb was thrown at an Israeli car carrying an Lekud Party sticker. Three Israeli occupants of the car were burned, one seriously. About 30 Arabs were detained for questioning. The renewed violence has heightened passions all round and ensured a high turnout for the elections. By the end of the day, over 2 million ballots were expected to be cast representing the 27 political parties crowded into the Israeli spectrum. Seats are distributed according to proportional representation which guarantees several of the smaller fringe parties at least one or two seats in the Kinesit. Incumbent Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir hopes that his right wing Lekud will profit from the renewed threats to Israeli security. His policy of one of no territorial concessions to the Palestinians. The labor party led by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres has come out in support of an international conference on the Middle East as the best hope for reaching a lasting peace. After the latest violence though, even labor's Yitzhak Rabin came out in favor of imposing the death penalty for acts like the recent Jerrico bus bombing. Also on election day Israeli aircraft carried out raids against suspected Palestinian guerrilla positions in Lebanon. The refugee camps of Mia Mia and Inel Holway on the outskirts of Siden were both hit. Local police said at least five people were killed and fifteen injured. It was the fourth Israeli air strike in 10 days, though it was seen in particular as a reprisal for the Jerrico incident.

MR. LEHRER: The U.S. Presidential election is a week from today and Vice President Bush campaigned in Indiana and Wisconsin, Gov. Dukakis in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Missouri. At Notre Dame University in Southbend, Indiana, Bush said he had problem with the liberalism of Harry Truman.

VICE PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH, GOP Presidential Candidate: I respect him for this kind of liberalism, good things. I respect him for their commitment to civil rights, good things like civil rights, but some of today's liberals do not see as clearly as their forefathers. A civil rights infraction is still a crime to them, but street crime, violent crime, is somehow beneath their notice. It doesn't register, and if you bring it up, and if you bring it up, they call you insensitive or backward.

MR. LEHRER: Gov. Dukakis spoke of Wall Street at a town meeting in Youngstown, Ohio. He denounced what he called merger mania. He said as President he would stand up for the average worker.

GOV. MICHAEL DUKAKIS, Dem. Presidential Candidate: You're the people that built this country, you're the people that made it, you're the people that pay its taxes, fight its wars, and while communities like Youngstown are struggling to come back, we've got an epidemic on Wall Street and in this country of billions and billions of dollars of acquisitions of companies, hundreds of millions of dollars being made by sharp operators. Folks, I'm not interested in the sharp operators. I'm interested in the lathe operators, in the machine operators, and people all over this country who work for a living.

MR. LEHRER: Gov. Dukakis's wife, Kitty, has come down with a viral infection. She is in a Minneapolis hospital for observations and tests. She went there last night after complaining of fever and chills.

MR. MacNeil: In economic news, the government's chief forecasting gauge, the Index of Leading Indicators, slipped 1/10 percent in September. It was the third dip in five months, but they were interspersed with gains. Three months of consecutive decline has been taken by some economists as a sign of impending recession. Private economists today said the up and down figures probably signaled slower growth but no recession next year.

MR. LEHRER: The gulf war peace talks resumed in Geneva, Switzerland, today. The foreign ministers of Iran and Iraq were both there. It was their sixth meeting since the UN-mediated talks began in August. UN Secretary General Javier Perez De Cuellar was also present today. A cease-fire in the eight year old war is currently in effect. The peace talks are designed to establish firm borders and repatriate prisoners among other things. Back in Washington, a Defense Department spokesman confirmed press reports that one of the 26 U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf has been ordered home. He identified the ship as the guided missile frigate the U.S.S. Rodney Davis. Also today, eight Persian Gulf states agreed to a Kuwaiti plan to clear the gulf of mines and wrecks left over from the Iran-Iraq War.

MR. MacNeil: The United States today expressed concern about a growing Soviet military presence in Afghanistan. The State Department announced the Soviets had displayed new missiles in the Afghan capital of Kabul. This follows yesterday's charge by the U.S. that the Soviets had deployed advanced war planes in Afghanistan and bombed targets in areas where U.S.-backed rebels are advancing. State Department Spokesman Charles Redman outlined U.S. concerns.

CHARLES REDMAN, State Department: Over the last 24 hours, we've learned that the Soviet Union has displayed SS-1 Scud Missiles in Kabul City. These missiles have a range which puts the Western frontier of Pakistan and much of Afghanistan, itself, within striking distance. Taken together with the deployment of Mig 27s and the use of backfire bombers near Kandahar, this action calls into question the Soviets' stated desire to achieve a genuine political settlement in Afghanistan, and their undertakings to us not to engage in offensive actions. If the purpose of these latest military developments is to threaten Pakistan, the Soviet Union knows that Pakistan enjoys our full support in this situation.

MR. MacNeil: In South Africa, the government today banned the best known opposition paper for a month, claiming it threatened public safety and order. The Weekly Mail, a left wing paper with an influence beyond its 23,000 circulation, is published in Johannesburg and read mostly by white liberals. It's been an outspoken critic of the government and has focused on alleged police brutality and grievances in the black townships. Under emergency powers, the government can suspend any paper for up to three months.

MR. LEHRER: And that's it for the News Summary. Now it's on to the races for the U.S. Senate, Bush and Dukakis stump speeches, one voter's look at her next President, and a Roger Rosenblatt Essay. FOCUS - '88 - SENATE STAKES

MR. MacNeil: We turn our attention tonight from the Presidential race to the battles being waged in 33 states for Senate seats. As confident as the Republicans might be of retaining control of the White House, they are less confident when it comes to winning control of the U.S. Senate. We'll look at the Republicans' chances with our Congressional Correspondent Roger Mudd. First he reports on the race in Mississippi to fill the seat vacated by the retiring senior Democratic Senator John Stennis.

ROGER MUDD: Something highly unusual is happening in Mississippi, and you'll never guess what it is. It's a real honest to goodness genuine race for the U.S. Senate between an actual Democrat and an actual Republican. This sort of thing doesn't happen just every day in Mississippi. In fact, a young ambitious politician could turn gray down here just waiting for a Senate seat to open up. In the years since World War II, this state has had exactly three U.S. Senators, James Eastland who retired in 1978, Thad Cochran who succeeded him, and John Cornelius Stennis, but now after 41 years, Stennis is finally leaving and in his place will be either another Democratic, three term Congressman William Wayne Dowdy of Macomb, Mississippi, near the Louisiana line, or the assistant Republican leader of the House, Chester Trent Lott of Pascagula on the Gulf Coast. The choice between the two is startling. Lott, smooth and seamless, crisp, tailored clothes, neat hair, aviator glasses, open easy smile, extended hand, self-assured TV presence, ever flowing small talk, Dowdy, slightly rumpled and unkempt, hair in need of combing, reserved body language, vaguely quizzical TV style, Southern country manners, deep, rich, Mississippi accent. Dowdy is the traditional campaigner. He opened his fall drive with a 1940's style whistle stop swing through Northeast Mississippi, where he hopes the so-called "Reagan Democrats" will help elect him. Even a temporary derailment failed to embarrass Dowdy, who seemed to take pleasure from the new label he coined for his opponent.

WAYNE DOWDY: How many of you can remember somethin' called Hadicol -- how many of you ever took Hadicol -- raise your hand - - Hadicol made a lot of claims -- they didn't prove to be true - - Hadicol they said would cure a cold, but later we found out Hadicol didn't have anything to do with a cold. They said Hadicol would cure the common cough, but it didn't have anything at all to do with a cough. They even claimed Hadicol cured rheumatism, but it didn't have anything at all to do with rheumatism. When you think about all the claims he's made, I must tell the people of Lincoln County that my opponent is trying to Hadicolize this election. He's the Hadicol candidate.

MR. MUDD: At Bobby's Marine in Nesbitt, in Northwest Mississippi last week, free catfish and pork shoulder drew a crowd of several hundred to hear Wayne Dowdy.

WAYNE DOWDY: And then another thing, when you talk about little people, and I think that as a Democrat, that would be my responsibility, to go to the Senate to try to look out after the little people.

LOTT CAMPAIGN AD: Trent Lott for Mississippi.

MR. MUDD: In contrast, Trent Lott is the television candidate. His 30 second spots produced by the well known Goodman agency of Baltimore and paid for from a $3 1/2 million campaign fund seem to cover everything from the shipyard to the front porch.

LOTT CAMPAIGN AD: And I'm going to make sure that every Mississippian has the chance that I have.

LOTT AD ANNOUNCER: Trent Lott for Mississippi.

MR. MUDD: When campaigning live, the Lott operation is well organized from the bumper sticker crew in Vicksburg to the flatbed truck and warm up group in Clinton, to the noontime rally in Jackson, with its grade school cheering squad and its big time balloon release.

TRENT LOTT: The key to a great victory on November the 8th, is the people of Mississippi, people like you that are assembled here that care enough about our state and about our nation to be involved. Now I have seen some elections lost all over this country, but right here in Mississippi, because the people didn't turn out and vote. We're not going to do that on November the 8th. With your help and support in this election, we'll get the vote out.

MR. MUDD: On the issues, the distinctions seem even clearer. They revolve around Dowdy's embrace of a strong social role for the federal government and around Lott's advocacy for a more limited role. But when asked what they think the issue is, their answers are strikingly similar.

TRENT LOTT: Well, I think experience and approach to the job when you get there. My opponent hasn't had a very good attendance record in the House. He's not been an aggressive leader, and I think that the people in Mississippi want and need somebody that's going to be an aggressive representative for the state.

MR. MUDD: Mr. Dowdy, what's the issue in this Senate campaign?

WAYNE DOWDY: Well, I think the issue is do the people of Mississippi want a Senator in Washington whose first loyalty is to the Republican Party and that's he feels his job is to go up there and represent the Republican Party, or do we want a Senator who will imitate Sen. John Stennis? Sen. Stennis always had a sign on his desk that said, "Mississippi comes first," and that's what I intend to do.

MR. MUDD: Some call that pork barrel, but not Dowdy or Lott; they call it helping Mississippi. This is the way Lott put it in Vicksburg last week.

TRENT LOTT: It could mean nothing more than a water tower, a new tank for water in Picayune, Mississippi, which helped us attract a new plant that employs fifty to a hundred people, and you go right across the district. We want to do that all across Mississippi.

MR. MacNeil: Dowdy does not talk about access to President Dukakis, whose campaign has shriveled up in Mississippi. Dowdy talks about access to Sen. Sam Nunn.

WAYNE DOWDY: If there are to be bases and installations closed over the next few years, I think you know in spite of what the law may say at that time that the Senate of the United States will have a role in making those decisions as to which ones will and will not be closed. Who would be the best person to go in and sit down and talk with Sam Nunn of Georgia, who will be Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Democrat of Georgia, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, to plead the case of the bases that we have in Mississippi?

MR. MUDD: After decades of viewing the federal government as its blood enemy, Mississippi apparently has now made its peace with Washington. With the end of racial strife, came outside investors, and with them, came a broadened tax base, a rising per capita income, better schools, better skills. Federal contracts for the Navy ships being built at the Engle Shipyard in Pascagula, and the eight military bases in the state account for roughly 45,000 military and civilian jobs. The payroll at Engle's, which just 10 days ago finished re-commissioning the battleship Wisconsin, now totals $6 million a week. So no candidate, not even the conservative Trent Lott, dares advocate a reduced federal presence in Mississippi. Lott and Dowdy, therefore, try to create their own differences. In an early TV spot, Dowdy accused Lott of being driven around Washington in a government limousine by a $50,000 a year chauffeur.

DOWDY CAMPAIGN AD: That chauffeur must be more important to Trent Lott than the people of Mississippi.

MR. MUDD: Lott countered by putting the driver, a Capitol Hill policeman, on television.

LOTT CAMPAIGN AD: Mr. Dowdy, I'm nobody's chauffeur. Got it?

TRENT LOTT: He tried to make an issue out of what he called a "chauffeur" in the campaign. Well, as it turned out, it kind of backfired on him, because he didn't realize that George really was a security man assigned to me by the Sergeant at Arms. He didn't stop to check out the fact that he voted for the bill that provided the money for that and I voted against it.

WAYNE DOWDY: He's not a bodyguard. If he really were a bodyguard, he would have others spell him and we would be protecting him 24 hours a day, 7 days a week around Washington, and not just driving him to and from the Capitol in the morning, in the afternoons, and guarding him from the tourists in Washington.

MR. MUDD: Lott has accused Dowdy of missing votes in Congress.

TRENT LOTT: We believe that you need somebody up there from Mississippi that will be an aggressive spokesman for Mississippi, that will at least show up to work and vote every time the votes are counted in the United States Senate. Mississippi needs a Senator that you can be proud of, one that won't be just hanging around on the back roads, voting sometime and not voting. Mississippineeds a vote that will be heard in Washington.

MR. MUDD: Dowdy has accused Lott of voting too much, too much against the people of Mississippi.

WAYNE DOWDY: Every time he's voted to cut Social Security, cut the minimum benefit, cut out the education benefit for orphans, and yet we see these misleading commercials about Social Security. He ran a commercial about handicapped but every single time he's voted against handicapped funding.

MR. MUDD: Dowdy says only he can fill the shoes of John Stennis.

WAYNE DOWDY: -- fill those big big shoes of Sen. John Stennis, I can do it, I wear a size 13.

MR. MUDD: Lott says shoe size is immaterial.

TRENT LOTT: Ladies and gentlemen, you need somebody in the United States Senate for Mississippi that's going to talk about more important things than hair styles, size of feet or chauffeurs.

MR. MUDD: And on and on it goes. Dowdy is currently behind in the polls, which he acknowledges. Lott exudes confidence and already appears to be counting his chickens. If Lott does win, Mississippi will have two Republican Senators for the first time since reconstruction. But Dowdy has come from behind before, and Mississippi Democrats hope this rare Senate race still is too close to call.

MR. MacNeil: Roger Mudd is with us now in Washington. Roger, that's Mississippi. Let's discuss the arithmetic that the Republicans would need in order to win control of the Senate, starting with where it is with the existing Senate.

ROGER MUDD: Robin, on any given night at any given cocktail party in Washington you can get estimates that range from a Democratic gain of four seats, to a Republican gain of two seats, somewhere it's in-between. The arithmetic is this. The Democrats control the Senate by 54/46. That means for the Republicans to move to 51/49, they need a pick-up of five seats. Their magic number is five. Now, there are 33 seats up this year, as you mentioned when we began. Fifteen of them are now so-called "Republican seats", but already, the Republicans have lost one of those fifteen, and that's by all indications going to be Virginia, so there are fourteen seats that the Republicans now hold. That means the magic number instead of being six. The question is: Where do those six come from?

MR. MacNeil: Where do they come from?

MR. MUDD: Well --

MR. MacNeil: Where can they come from?

MR. MUDD: What the Republicans must do is they must begin by holding all 14 seats that they now have, and that includes the ones that are weak and shaky, like Connecticut, where Lowell Weicker is running for re-election, in Nebraska, where David Carnes is up again, in Nevada, where Chick Heck is running for re- election, in Washington State, which is an open Republican seat, the Republicans must hold that, and they must hold Minnesota, where David Duremberger is running for re-election. If they hold all those, and then if they pick up three shaky Democratic seats, such as Mississippi, where they have a chance, in Florida, where they have a chance, in New Jersey, and in Wisconsin, if they can do that, then the chances are that they may have a shot at picking up a few more seats, some big big upsets and that would be Metzenbaum in Ohio, it would be Melcher, and it would be Burdict, and that might get them close to striking distance within the 51.

MR. MacNeil: But upsets like Metzenbaum, I mean, that would be, that is a very very long shot, indeed, is it not, because isn't he running very strongly for re-election?

MR. MUDD: Well, they're all long shots, Robin. I think the fact of the matter is that the chances of the Republicans coming close is a remote one. It is technically possible. I suppose if the Bush campaign is a massive landslide, that the chances are the Republicans will be helped in Wisconsin, where they're behind now, they could be helped through the Midwest, certainly in New Jersey, they would be helped, and in Florida. But I think the effect of the Bush candidacy has already been played out, particularly in Mississippi, Florida, and New Jersey.

MR. MacNeil: There has been a lot of commentary this year about tickets, the prospect of ticket splitting. In your reporting, do you pick that up, that people are quite content to vote one way for President, but another way in the Senate?

MR. MUDD: I think what we found was a general contentment with the way things are going, a general contentment with those present office holders, a general feeling that they will stay with what they've got which means they'll stay with George Bush and Howard Metzenbaum, that they like what they've got and, therefore, the mood is not to change. There is a built-in safety valve, Robin, and that it seems to me is to without changing sharp directions on the Presidency, you keep the same split government in the Congress so you give the Congress to the Democrats and you give the Presidency to the Republicans.

MR. MacNeil: I read a commentary that some people had been urging Vice President Bush, given that his lead has been so large, to give up some of his national campaigning time for himself and go and help some of these Senators. Is that a sort of serious issue inside the Republican Party?

MR. MUDD: He has been urged to do that and I think with the reading of the polls that he's making in the last few days probably is reluctant to go into those states that would aid Senatorial candidates. He is I think still too nervous to want to waste that time.

MR. MacNeil: What happens to the seat in Indiana, if Mr. Quayle becomes Vice President?

MR. MUDD: That's a scenario, Robin, that we didn't talk about. If we assume that the Bush/Quayle ticket wins, the Quayle Senate seat becomes vacant, the Republican Governor of Indiana, Gov. Orr, appoints a replacement, and if the Republican Party is able to pick up four seats, that means that they will then be 50/50 in the Senate and Vice President Quayle will cast the fifty-first vote and the possibility is that Gov. Orr might opponent to the vacant seat created by the elevation of Dan Quayle Mrs. Dan Quayle. She was asked about it last week and she said, "I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. And if I go into the Senate, I can assure you my voting record will be more conservative than my husband's." So it could be Quayle and Quayle will be the decisive votes in the Senate next year.

MR. MacNeil: Well, Roger Mudd, thank you very much. Jim.

MR. LEHRER: Still to come on the Newshour tonight, Dukakis and Bush stump speeches, one voter's view of the Presidency, and a Roger Rosenblatt Essay. SERIES - '88 - ON THE STUMP

MR. LEHRER: We continue our stump speeches series tonight with speeches by both Presidential candidates. Gov. Dukakis is first. Here are key excerpts from what he said at a town meeting in Youngstown, Ohio.

GOV. MICHAEL DUKAKIS, Dem. Presidential Candidate: This is not my first visit to this valley and to communities like it in the State of Ohio, the State of Pennsylvania, in the State of Illinois, and Michigan, and communities all over the industrial Midwest. To the best of my knowledge, George Bush has never been here, never been here. And he probably won't be here. And I think that givesyou and gives the American people as clear a sense of the difference between Mike Dukakis and George Bush, between the Democratic and Republican tickets, as anything I can say. These are communities that were hurt and hurt badly. There was another Republican candidate you remember in 1980 who came to Youngstown and said, we're going to get those mills open and moving again, and you've lost fifteen to twenty thousand jobs since that time. Now I don't have a magic wand. I'm not going to tell you that I can walk in here on the 21st of January and suddenly create 15,000 jobs. You know that and I know that. But I know what a community like this has been going through and communities like it all over the country because not too long ago my state had gone through exactly the same thing. And in Lowell, Massachusetts, and in Fall River, and New Bedford, and Worchester and Springfield, we had exactly these same kinds of conditions. We didn't walk away. We didn't propose a five year, $40 billion tax cut for the wealthy as the answer for the problems of those communities, we didn't sit around while a merger and acquisition binge is now underway in this country that is gobbling up billions and billions of dollars of capital and resources, funds that are making millions and billions for very few people, but aren't doing much to create jobs and build the productive capacity and extend the circle of opportunity in this country to people like yourselves and others all over America. You're the people that built this country. You're the people that made it. You're the people that pay its taxes, fight its wars. And while communities like Youngstown are struggling to come back, we've got an epidemic on Wall Street and in this country of billions and billions of dollars of acquisitions of companies, hundreds of millions of dollars being made by sharp operators. Folks, I'm not interested in the sharp operators. I'm interested in the lathe operators, in the machine operators, and people all over this country who work for a living. I'm going to be a President with an Attorney General who knows the difference between antitrust and antifreeze and I mean it. We're going to have a Federal Trade Commission that understands what its responsibility is, and that is to make sure that we've got a competitive America. And we don't have these vast concentrations of power that are taking jobs away from good people, jobs away from communities like this, and I look forward to working with Howard Metzenbaum and Jim Traficant and Lou Stokes and their colleagues to do something which will not only get this merger and acquisition binge under control and get these vast billions that are being borrowed at the present time, junk bonds, God help us if we have a recession and those companies that are borrowing and borrowing and borrowing have to pay back those loans and those bonds. We've never had anything quite like that in this country. It's out of control. This is not a partisan issue or shouldn't be. The first antitrust President in this country happened to be a Republican named Theodore Roosevelt, who understood the dangers of this kind of thing. And one of the things that you're going to see with Mike Dukakis and Lloyd Bentsen in the White House are a President and Vice President who come back to Youngstown and work with you to help build a future. And we'll be here. We'll be here.

MR. MacNeil: Vice President Bush spoke today at a rally at Notre Dame University in Southbend, Indiana.

VICE PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH, GOP Presidential Candidate: This is a good time to let the smoke lift from the battlefield, talk about what the fight is really all about. And there have been a lot of charges, counter charges the past few weeks. There has been some painting in broad strokes. That's not all bad. In fact, it was inevitable. We are fighting for something big here, the future of a great nation. And some of the differences between my opponent and me are so deep and wide that they demand broad strokes on taxes and crime and America's place in the world. You could probably call the distance between us the great divide. And it's not a divide that has to do with different degrees of conviction. At the last debate, I was asked all of a sudden to name some things about Gov. Dukakis that I like. And I said with conviction that I think he is a sincere man with a wonderful family. He has sincere beliefs and I have sincere beliefs. But those beliefs are totally different, different in their assumptions and different in their implications. And it seems to me after six months of a hard fought campaign that what it all comes down to is this. One of us represents the American mainstream and one of us does not. One of us holds mainstream views and stands for mainstream values and one of us does not, and mainstream, it isn't just the middle. It's the big, full hearted center. It's the traditions and the faith and the beliefs that have guided this country for 200 years. And I will continue to speak for and push for a return of solid values, including respect and non-violence. And if history is a guide, the next President will have a high number of seats to fill on the Supreme Court. You know this reminds me -- remember, they used to say, they used to yell at Harry Truman, "Give 'em hell, Harry." And Harry said, "I just tell the truth and they think it's hell." I think if history is a guide, the next President is going to have a high number of seats to fill on the Supreme Court and I will appoint moderate persons of conservative views, and I believe, I believe, I believe that my opponent would appoint doctrinaire liberals. Sorry to use the word, but that's what I think he'd do, and that's what he did in Massachusetts. It's exactly what he did in Massachusetts, exactly what he did in Massachusetts, but the excessive judicial activisim of the 60's and the 70's is one reason Americans turned against that kind of liberal in the 1980's. This is no time to go back and I want to say something here I had some programmatic differences but I respect the tradition of Harry Truman and for a liberalism that was committed abroad and concerned at home -- The Oval office requires an unflashy, an Oval office requires an unflashy good common sense. And i will try to bring that kind of common sense to the Oval office. It calls for a reliable calm. It requires that you know the difference between important and crucial, between desired and necessary. It demands an ability to take the long view and to take short-term heat, along with the long-term gain. It's the place of cutting moments, the moments that cut through the expected and the every day and force us through action to define ourselves. I don't know what the cutting moments will be for the next President, but I know they'll come and I know I'm ready and I'm no mystic and my leadership might not be the most charismatic. But I'm not sure that we need a lot of razzle dazzle. There's probably enough drama in the world already, but I'll try to be fair, I'll try to be wise, and I'll listen, and so you know my hopes and aspirations. You know what I intend to do, and now the day of decision nears, and now you must choose your side of this great divide, and I ask for your support, I need your vote, every vote counts, and I want you to send out the word to everyone, everyone you know, everyone who cares about you, tell them we need their help, your parents and your brothers and your sisters and your friends, and the teachers and the nurses and the lawyers, and the bus drivers, everyone. Now tell them, we need your help. And now you can tell your children and grandchildren that on a cool crisp day in the month of November in 1988 you helped a future President and he will never forget it. Thank you and God bless you all and thank you very much.

MR. MacNeil: We will continue carrying stump speeches by both candidates until election day. Jim.

MR. LEHRER: Next, a conversation with somebody you've never heard of. Her name is Jacquelyn Jackson Quinn. She is a 37 year old widow with four children who works as a teacher's assistant in Denver, Colorado. She was one of several voters I talked to recently for a segment in a special program to be seen on public television next Monday night, election eve. Ms. Jackson's Quinn's thoughts about the next President, be he Dukakis or Bush, seemed to us to deserve a fuller hearing than the special will afford so and thus, I give you Jacquelyn Jackson Quinn of Denver, Colorado, first on making education a priority in this country.

JACQUELYN JACKSON-QUINN, Teacher's Assistant: When the Russians beat us into space with their Sputnick, our two Presidents during that time made America going to space a priority. That was what you heard and that was what they pushed. And it worked. And all I want him to do is make educating our children the main priority. We compete internationally. I concern myself with not only where my children stand in the local school, in the district, and nationally, but where do my daughters and my son stand internationally? Are they going to be able to compete in the international market with the type of education they're getting in this country? It's as simple as that.

MR. LEHRER: You don't think they are?

MS. JACKSON-QUINN: No, not right now. I mean, just the -- what is it, the record, the patents, if you go to the patent office, we're not nearly getting American patents registered the way we were say fifteen, twenty years ago. There are patents coming from other countries into this country. That doesn't make sense. We're international leaders and suddenly our technology is coming from outside. It doesn't make sense to me and I think part of the problem is that we've developed a mediocre attitude toward a lot of things, a make do attitude toward a lot of things.

MR. LEHRER: Why has that happened?

MS. JACKSON-QUINN: I think because we're satisfied. There are a lot of -- materially we're very satisfied to a large degree. We think -- as a black person, I get the feeling that sometimes black people, a lot of them, think we've overcome because we've got the material facade of being middle class. And so we accept things as they are instead of pushing for what things could be. I don't think we'll ever be as good as we dreamed we might be at one time. But the point of it is you don't stop dreaming. I think a lot of Americans have just stopped dreaming and we don't teach our children to dream anymore.

MR. LEHRER: Can a President help us dream?

MS. JACKSON-QUINN: Sure. Kennedy gave us dreams. You saw what happened there. Johnson had dreams that he was able to pass on to the country. Even Nixon had a couple of dreams. The whole point of it is Congress does what they want but thePresident can give the country a feeling of what we can be again, that we don't have to be second rate to any other country. Our children can be the best educated children in the world. And it doesn't take a lot of money. It just takes commitment. It just takes a commitment to do and use what we have to the fullest. Everything goes back to education, you know, and when children aren't educated, when they don't have dreams, when they don't have hopes, when their expectations aren't high enough for themselves, and the community's expectations aren't high enough, then you get street gangs, and you get children who are the products of people. I mean, these children's parents failed in school to a large degree. And so there's a big push on from the Secretary of Education about parent involvement, but the parents you've got to go out and get are the very parents that the school systems failed to a large degree. These are the people who have no faith because they know that they did not get it, so to speak, and their children, there is no push for their children to excel, and it's the whole thing of where the money is with street gang kids, and the whole idea of what makes you a man or what makes you a woman, you know, in this country it's money, there's no two ways about it. You can't deny it. And it's a matter of I guess what value system are you going to give your children, are we going to give American system to get that money? It's pretty hard when you're raising kids and especially when you've got older teenagers and you know, you're saying you work hard, you're honest, you give it 150 percent and you'll get your reward, and you know, and this is the way I'm doing it. And the kid knows. You're driving a secondhand car, down the street's a pusher in a BMW. The kids call them "beamers". Kids aren't dumb, you know, and when we hauled up a value system that says you must have the money, you know, this is one way of showing that you've made it in America, and who's got the money in these neighborhoods? The pushers have. The most visible people with money, let me put it that way, are the pushers. I'd much rather see hopefully one day visible people that work for what they have, that sacrifice for what they have, and then at the way we're all taught you did it in America. You know what I'm saying? It's really funny to hear a President talk about money for, okay, for the Contras, because of the great danger from the Sandinistas. The Sandinistas are not killing children in Denver; crack is. You know, the Sandinistas are not destroying homes in this country. If we're going to throw some money at something, if we've got that money to use, let our armies protect us from our real enemies, and that's drugs coming in. Put them out there and let them protect our borders against the enemies that are really destroying our children and I don't think we'll go broke, you know, and then start -- the other thing I'd really like to see him do is to start recognizing the people that have the most influence on American children, because when you talk about crime, you're talking about the failure of a system to give children a value system that's workable, and that comes out of the schools. Teachers have our children six to seven hours or more a day. What I'd really like to see is a national pay scale for teachers. If the government wants to support something on a national level, have a national base for teachers' salaries, basic teacher's competency, which is I know something teachers don't like to hear. But the bottom line is until we educate children and givethem a values system where they will feel that their education will get them where they want to go in their lives, we'll have the problems of crime. It doesn't make sense for a child to go through eight years of school before he can get into a summer reading program. Generally speaking, summer schools take place in high school to get those credits you need to graduate. Well, Jesus Christ, the kid has stumbled through for eight years. You know, put the money where it's needed. We're not talking about a lot of more money. We're talking about just deciding where money needs to go to be the most effective. Elementary schools are ignored almost. We get the handouts, you know. We get what's left. And then for eight years, here's a child muddling through with one social worker in a school with four hundred and seventy-five children, maybe one psychologist that comes a couple of days a week, and then all of a sudden, high school, you've got these terrible problems with street gangs and stuff, because you've ignored this kid for eight years, and given him just enough to make him look good on paper or to satisfy your budget requirements or whatever. Put the money down there, give personnel when these kids are young, they're impressionable. Most Americans my age grew up with Sky King and the Lone Ranger who never killed anybody and it may sound utopian, but, Jesus, those were my values. That's where I got them from. You know, the Pledge of Allegiance, that was there. And there were teachers who for whatever reason put their all into us, and that's where we got our values from. Now they're worrying about their money, they're worrying about the budget, they're worrying about equipment. They shouldn't have to worry about this. The first eight years will give us what we want. We can cut down on crime. It's not going to happen overnight. And that's another thing. The President, any President, needs to stop putting bandaids on things and get seriously into dealing with problems realistically. I'd like to see the President just be a President, be a leader. It's hard to tell kids about ethics and to think logically and if you do the right things, you'll get the rewards, and if you do the wrong things, somebody's going to call you on it, when the politicians are doing the wrong things and they're getting away with it. You know, the other day, my son missed a football practice so he can't play Saturday. That was the rule. He'll live by it. But when he looks up and he says, well, I can't play football Saturday because I missed a practice and then you've got a person who's becoming a national hero because he defied my constitution, that's a load of bull. You know, how you do this with children, when all over the children they're constantly seeing our leaders circumventing the constitution, but he can't play Saturday because he missed a practice. It's like he says, mama, you know, there's two sets of things going on here. You're telling me to live one way and the people who run my country, they do what they please and they get away with it. And this is what kids are seeing. Children are not dumb. There are no stupid children in this country. Even with the mediocre education they're getting, they're not stupid. They see what's going on. And those are the people they're going to role model.

MR. LEHRER: Why are the leaders so out of sync with what you think is reality?

MS. JACKSON-QUINN: I don't think they talk to people anymore. You know, it's one thing to have a big media thing when a candidate comes to town like the President comes to town. You know, and that's nice. But when does the man sit down and talk to common, everyday people? Sometimes when you watch the media, you would think there's a third of the population in New York, there's a third of the population in LA, and there's maybe a third of the population in Iowa, or somewhere in that area, and the rest of the country is empty, you know. They never -- who asks us what we want -- you know, who ever comes and says, what can we give you? You know, sometimes if you really think about it, a hundred dollars for some poster's kids campaign design against drugs may do some good because it's community generated. You know what I'm saying? The kids know each other. There was, what was that, last year they were talking to a group of high schoolers and they said, well, who would you like to come in and talk to you about drugs, and what drugs can do for you, and why you shouldn't use drugs, and the adults were naming athletes and people like that. And there was this little kid sitting there, he was about seventh grade, he says, we don't want to see these people, because you see on the news how they lie; they'll say don't take drugs and they'll take them all the time. He says, why can't we meet some people who've been on drugs and got off drugs? Maybe they aren't rich, but at least they're going to be honest with us about how they got on them and what it did to them. Because you really don't know who you can trust anymore. And that's what this kid said. And it has bothered me, and this was two years ago in a meeting. That has bothered me, because I think what he said is what a lot of kids are saying. There's nobody you can trust to tell you the truth anymore. You know, people will say one thing and they're doing something else. I suppose this is always the bible, do what I say and not what I do. But the point of it is if we're going to remain a country, we need to stop worrying about the superficial things and deal with our real problems realistically. We will never be as strong as we want to be until we have a well educated population. The one reason I tell my children this country could never fall to Communism is because only ignorant people can be swayed to the wrong ideas. Only people who do not read and think for themselves can be brainwashed. What I'm seeing is -- you know, I'm not saying we're a nation of ignorant people, but what I'm seeing is people and children starting to pay attention to only specific things, television, you know. It's the strangest thing to me to tell a child to go watch Treasure Island. No, you go read it. You know, I'm hearing -- maybe if a child can't read and he has a real problem, fine, but give our children the books back again. Encourage reading, encourage exploring, bring out all issues into the open. Don't hide anything from our children and the next generation will be strong, free thinking people who can look at ideas, analyze them and make good decisions. ESSAY - WHALE OF A TALE

MR. MacNeil: Finally tonight we have an essay. Roger Rosenblatt talks about the attention everyone paid to the trapped whales.

ROGER ROSENBLATT: Had not the Russians enlisted in the rescue efforts at Point Barrow, Alaska, public interest in the fate of the whales might have evaporated earlier, but through the middle of last week, the story was as good as new revived by symbolic pictures of a superpower partnership and a concrete place to break the ice. Add that political romance to the visual plight of the animals poking their armored noses out of man cut pools and who could help but stare? To save fellow mammals,to provide air, to offer passage for creatures on a necessary journey, on all that at least did the appeal of the story depend. Then there was the pure simplicity of the thing. In a week typically characterized by complicated stories about massive corporate mergers, weapons verification, trade and welfare reform and drug law enforcement, there in a frozen waste swam one clean problem, one clear goal. And there were the whales, themselves, nothing like them in the world's imagination. Associated with ferocity in the bible, with enormity by Milton, with government by Hobbs's Leviathon, with prehistoric power by Melville. "He swam the seas before the continents broke water." The Anglo Saxons called the oceans whale roads in deference to the animals' dominion. A whale rescued Jonah, one of our own. Point Barrow offered the chance to return the favor. From the moment, the rescue efforts were colossal, helicopters dropping potato mashers onto the ice in the dead cold night, chain saws, ice choppers, in the end, millions of dollars and not a few rubles spent invoking millions of predictable comments on how that same money might have been more appropriately applied to the trapped people of the world, which is true, as well as the predictable ironic observations that while two whales are deliberately saved, others are deliberately killed, which is also true, or that the Russians are freeing whales while discussing the status of their political prisoners. A baffled Marine biologist remarked, "This is all out of proportion." True too. But the deeper attraction of the story may have lain in what it showed about the people who were attracted by it in the first place. The freeing of the whales, whatever else it demonstrated, was a basic fable in human generosity. Nothing called for all that human labor, after all, but an impulse to preserve a couple of lives and to let them take their course. As the Presidential candidates hunkered down for their last exchange of insults, people turned their heads away almost unconsciously toward two large animals which in the abstract were nothing larger than found objects of human affection. What seems odd about this general reaction is not that it occurs from time to time, but that it goes away so quickly. Weeks from now one will need to be reminded of the whales, just as one needs to be reminded of Jessica McClure, the 18 month old girl caught in a well shaft in October 1987, or of Kathy Fiscas, the three year old found dead in a well pipe in April 1949, or of the recurrent stories of coal miners buried in cave-ins below ground. The analogies are apt only because of the feelings involved. For the trapped people, as for the trapped whales, the nation stopped, waited, hoped. Then the incidents were put away and with them the observable fact that people are driven as naturally to preserve as to destroy. One might forget that were it not for the occasional endangered animals who raise their heads from the lower depths and cry for help. RECAP

MR. LEHRER: Again, the major stories of this Tuesday, returns from the Israeli elections show no clear majority for either the right wing Lekud or left wing labor parties, but this evening, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir claimed his Lekud Party could form a new government combined with other right wing parties. And in the United States Presidential campaign, Gov. Dukakis denounced what he called sharp operators on Wall Street, saying he would stand up for the average worker, an Vice President Bush praised the liberalism of Harry Truman, but denounced the liberalism of Michael Dukakis. Good night, Robin.

MR. MacNeil: Good night, Robin. That's the Newshour tonight and we will be back tomorrow night. I'm Robert MacNeil. Good night.