The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

MR. LEHRER: Good evening. I'm Jim Lehrer in Washington.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: And I'm Charlayne Hunter-Gault in New York. After our summary of today's news, we examine Paul Tsongas's stunning decision to quit the Presidential contest. First, the candidate, himself, explains why, then some analysis of his impact on the campaign from Gergen & Shields plus one, and a look ahead at what happens next with candidate Jerry Brown. NEWS SUMMARY

MR. LEHRER: Paul Tsongas quit the race for President today. The former Democratic Senator from Massachusetts said he was out of money, among other things. He made the announcement this afternoon at a hotel in Boston.

PAUL TSONGAS, Former Democratic Presidential Candidate: This journey had two missions. The first was to redefine the Democratic Party, to combine economic growth with our traditional social compassion. The second mission was to secure the nomination, take the party and take the fight to George Bush. I believe that I could have brought in independents and moderate and disaffected Republicans to combine with traditional Democrats and become President of the United States. [applause] But the hard fact is that the nomination process requires resources and last evening it was clear that we did not have the resources necessary to fight the media war in New York.

MR. LEHRER: There are now two Democrats left in the race. Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton said the announcement caught him by surprise. He said it was too early to tell if he had the Democratic nomination wrapped up and vowed to go on campaigning as hard as ever. Jerry Brown got the news while campaigning in Hartford, Connecticut. He promised a head-to-head battle with Clinton right up to the July convention. We'll have interviews with Sen. Tsongas, Gov. Brown and much more after this News Summary. Charlayne.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: On Capitol Hill, the head of the post office, Robert Rota, resigned today amid allegations of illegal activities. The Washington Times reported this morning that lawmakers cashed personal checks at the post office in violation of postal regulations. The institution is already under investigation for embezzlement and drug dealing among some employees.

MR. LEHRER: Dow Corning announced today it is getting out of the breast implant business. A Food & Drug Administration advisory panel recommended restricting use of silicon gel implants last month. Dow Corning was the leading manufacturer of those devices. Company chairman Keith McKennon said at a Washington news conference the decision to get out was final.

KEITH McKENNON, Chairman, Dow Corning: Dow Corning has remained in the silicon breast implant business, even though for us it is a very small business. The products represent less than 1 percent of our revenues and have not been profitable over their history. Given the continuing controversial environment surrounding these products, I see little prospects of business improving and it seems fairly clear that the future use of these products will be curtailed to a considerable extent.

MR. LEHRER: McKennon said Dow Corning was still committed to researching the implants' safety. He said the company would help pay the costs of removing implants from women who could not afford it.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: The Commerce Department today said the U.S. trade deficit improved slightly in January. It shrank to just under $6 billion, about 4 percent better than the month before. The government also reported a drop in new claims for unemployment benefits. They were down 27,000 in the first week of March from the previous week's claims.

MR. LEHRER: A team of United Nations inspectors is due in Baghdad Saturday to begin destroying nuclear facilities. News reports today quoted unnamed administration sources saying President Bush is being given a set of military options if Iraq does not cooperate with that U.N. team by March 26th. Pentagon Spokesman Pete Williams had this to say about those reports.

PETE WILLIAMS, Pentagon Spokesman: We have said since the end of the war that we've always had military options, that all options are open. That has been the case since the end of the operation. It's still the case today. And beyond that statement, we've never discussed military planning. But we hope that Iraq will recognize that its only choice is to comply with the U.N. resolutions and that Iraq has committed itself to observe them. We hope this can be resolved by diplomatic means. And as the President said this week, we are determined that Iraq follow through on what they, themselves, said they would do.

MR. LEHRER: Williams denied any deadline had been set. State Department Spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said today the United States was joining with France and Britain in seeking U.N. sanctions against Libya. She said it was in response to Libya's refusal to hand over two men wanted in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing. The sanctions would cut off all air traffic to and from Libya, among other things. Tutwiler said the United States has strongly advised all American citizens in Libya to leave that country immediately.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: Two people were killed and at least three injured today in an explosion at a West Virginia coal mine. It happened in Blackville, just South of the Pennsylvania Border, was workers were preparing to close the mine which had been idled for economic reasons, no one inside the mine at the time. Police saidthe cause was not immediately known. That's it for the News Summary. Now it's on to the Tsongas pullout and what happens next for the Democrats. NEWSMAKER - BOWING OUT

MR. LEHRER: Paul Tsongas is our lead story tonight. The former Senator from Massachusetts withdrew today as a candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination and he is with us now for a Newsmaker interview from his home in Lowell, Massachusetts. Senator, welcome.

SEN. TSONGAS: Hi, Jim.

MR. LEHRER: Was this a difficult decision, or did the realities in the final analysis make it obvious, and thus easy?

SEN. TSONGAS: The answer is both. The fact is we sat in this room last night and looked at the numbers. And the numbers are very compelling. What happened to us in the big states was that we did not have the financial reserves that Bill Clinton did so he could define me in his TV ads. It was pretty obvious if we went into New York, the same thing would happen, and the concern was that if we lost New York, that the message would go down in flames. So the better part of wisdom was to preserve the message, get out in a situation where there was some capacity to preserve that message. So in that sense, although it was very difficult here last night, when I woke up this morning, it as pretty obvious that it was the right decision.

MR. LEHRER: Who's we, Senator? Who sat in that room with you last night and made the decision?

SEN. TSONGAS: Well, it was myself and my wife, Dennis Cannon, who's been my campaign manager, best friend, law partner, and his wife, Nick Rizzo, who was a longtime finance chair, and John Sawyer, a friend and writer, who was staying here.

MR. LEHRER: And you literally made the decision last night?

SEN. TSONGAS: Well, I saw the numbers late yesterday afternoon and we called the meeting for 8 o'clock last night. And by 9:30, it was pretty obvious what we had to do. I agreed to sleep on it and when I woke up this morning, it was clear that we really had no choice, that we were paying for the sins of 1991, when we were unable to raise the money because I was considered so implausible. We did very well financially in February and March, but it was too late. We simply did not have the reserves that others did.

MR. LEHRER: The financial resources aside, what is your own analysis of why you were not able to build on your success in New Hampshire, particularly in the Midwest and the South, with blue collar working people, both black and white?

SEN. TSONGAS: Jim, look at what happened after New Hampshire. We won in Maryland. We won in Washington State. We won in Utah. We won in Arizona. What you're looking at are small states that are reasonably self-contained. So there was no great disadvantage in terms of finances. The problem came when you went into Texas, into Florida, Illinois, and Michigan. And what would happen basically, if you look at the polls, that we would begin to catch up to Bill Clinton, that his ads would kick in, and the disparity would just jump. And since we had no capacity to respond to that, I was defined by somebody else's ads. And if you don't have the millions of dollars that a campaign like this requires and simply go on a message, what happens to groups who don't know you, you're a stranger, and you know I've been out for such a long time that I get defined by other phenomenon over which I simply had no control. So in many states we would move up, begin to draw even, then those ads would kick in and we would simply be blown out of the water.

MR. LEHRER: Do you have any doubts that you did the right thing in running in the first place?

SEN. TSONGAS: Not at all. I spoke to a lot of people today and the fact is that while I think we've changed the Democratic Party, it's going to be impossible now for a Democrat to run for President on an anti-business or a class warfare approach, and I think the recognition that we have to have economic prosperity, and that means a new Democratic Party, on economic issues, I think that is our legacy, and we're very proud of that.

MR. LEHRER: What are you the most proud of that you did in this race or as a result of this race? When you personally look back on this last year, what do you feel good about?

SEN. TSONGAS: Well, there are a lot of things, but I guess the thing is that we put together -- you know, it's hard to pick but let me just pick one.

MR. LEHRER: Sure.

SEN. TSONGAS: We were under such pressure to change our positions on a number of issues, to try to placate certain constituencies in the Democratic Party, and just the way everybody rallied around and said, no, we'd rather lose than be just another compromising politician. And the fact that there were so many people around me who supported me in that decision I guess is what, when I think, when last night when I went to bed, I mean, that's what I thought about, and it really made me feel good about the quality of the people and their commitment to principles that we had attracted.

MR. LEHRER: Was there any time in this race after New Hampshire or before, or any time where you personally thought, hey, wait a minute, I might win this thing, I might be the Democratic nominee for President and even be President of the United States?

SEN. TSONGAS: There sure was. It was, the low point in this campaign came in late January, when I had 2 percent, 2 percent of the polls. But just before the March 3rd elections, I was ahead in Maryland, in Colorado, Washington State, and if we had won coast to coast like that, we thought we had it. And then what happened in Colorado was that my opponents attacked me and tried to paint me as a pro-nuclear, wanting to build all these nuclear power plants. We've been asked for an ad on our environmental message and just because we don't have the resources, could not get it up and out and up on the air, so again, that was my first brush with somebody defining me. We lost that by 2 percentage points and that was the point where, if you will, it kind of slipped away from us.

MR. LEHRER: Yeah. But at that point before that, you smelled it, right?

SEN. TSONGAS: My nostrils were flaring so --

MR. LEHRER: You've mentioned many times now, you mentioned it in your news conference and this interview advertising, television commercials, the other guy defining you. Are you suggesting that that's what running for President of the United States is all about now, is commercials?

SEN. TSONGAS: Well, it comes down -- look, side by side, message to message, we did well and we won those states. What happened to us was we were doing well until those ads came on. Now they were not fair, but life is not fair. If you have no resources to fight back with, you are defenseless in this business. And I think the issue, look at '88, Michael Dukakis had the most money and could take out Dick Gephardt and everybody else, and Bill Clinton basically did the same thing. Give them credit. You know, they have the organization and they have the money, but I think at some point there's going to have to be some way of, I don't know whether it's policing or what, but people who put ads on that are simply not accurate somehow have to be heldaccountable for that.

MR. LEHRER: I have the impression, Senator, and I think others do too, that you really don't like Bill Clinton. Is that a correct impression?

SEN. TSONGAS: Well, you know, you get into these battles, I don't care whether you're talking about the Lowell City Council or Middlesex County Commissioner, you get into battles with people and they're combatant, but today I spoke to Tom Harkin and Bob Kerrey and Doug Wilder, who were my combatants sometime ago, and we're like a brotherhood, and that'll happen in this case as well.

MR. LEHRER: But it hasn't happened yet?

SEN. TSONGAS: It'll happen. Don't press me, Jim.

MR. LEHRER: Well, let me press you a little bit on this, because you're a Democrat and you have said you want a Democrat to be the next President of the United States. Is the Democratic Party going to be well served if Bill Clinton is, in fact, the Democratic nominee?

SEN. TSONGAS: Well, I think he has the capacity to appeal. What I thought I brought to the table was the capacity to reach independents and moderate Republicans, as well as traditional Democrats. If you don't do that, you're not going to win, but the fact is that Bill is the nominee. I will go out and campaign for him. The wounds will heal. We'll be in the brotherhood together and I would be pleased to try to help him. I'm not going to be a spoiler. That was the alternative I had last night. We sat here and we said the only way that you can win in New York is to destroy Bill Clinton and be a spoiler and George Bush would have walked in, and that was a tempting alternative, but in the last analysis, there's no nobility in that kind of process, and we said no.

MR. LEHRER: You used the term -- "electability" is a word that's become a big word in this Democratic nomination race. Do you still have concerns about Bill Clinton's electability against George Bush?

SEN. TSONGAS: Well, now that I'm out I guess I have a somewhat different view and now my focus is George Bush and a need to unite the Democrats. So I mean I'm going to get out there and work. I think I have something to say. I would hope that Bill Clinton would feel comfortable about coopting some of my issues here, but the fact is we have to give people confidence that the Democrats can run the economy. And what I fear, and I expressed this to some of my friends today, that if people see a Democratic House, a Democratic Senate, and a Democratic President sort of in sync in the wrong policy, that would give George Bush an advantage where people's instinct would tell them maybe you need some balance here. So I would hope that some of the ideas that I presented, which were contrary to what the Democrat House and Senate were about, would be comfortable for Bill and he would move in that direction.

MR. LEHRER: Do you think he will?

SEN. TSONGAS: I hope so, because I think if he does that, he'll strengthen his appeal and it'll give him a better chance against George Bush.

MR. LEHRER: As a participant now for over a year, what do you think of the process that the Democratic Party in America uses to elect a President of the United States?

SEN. TSONGAS: It's horrible, except for all the others. I'm not sure what the alternative is. I said some nice things about you all today, the press corps.

MR. LEHRER: I heard that.

SEN. TSONGAS: And I meant it, because, you know, I moan and groan about some of the things you do when you all dismissed me in the beginning, but the fact is that without a viable press of people who are tough and have some idealism, the system does not work.And so as a swan song, I just wanted people, particularly in our camp, that may have had feelings about press, understand that in the last analysis you guys do a fabulous job and I'm not always happy with what you do, but the fact is absent your involvement and dedication, this country would be in real trouble, because politicians by instinct will do what is popular, not what is right. And only because of a press that is bulldoggish, if you will, does the system operate with even some efficiency and morality.

MR. LEHRER: Do you feel based on your experience that you were heard and that the people spoke about you? I mean, in other words, you are satisfied with the results that caused you to make this decision today, that you weren't cheated in some way?

SEN. TSONGAS: There will always be regrets. You know, these last couple of days we've had a lot of people call up and say we'll raise money for you, we'll raise money for you. One person actually called and said, I'll sell my house, but the fact is that it's too late. And I think that what people should look at in the future when more people like me come along is not look at their electability or whether they hold office, or whether a Greek from Massachusetts, but look into their soul, what they stand for, that in the last analysis we survived, despite all the predictions because there's a message there. There was a set of convictions. And people like me should be taken seriously and not until after I win the New Hampshire primary, that we should be given a fair shot. And I guess the one concern is that you had so many people in the political process who basically contributed in a kind of handicapper way, who's going to win, I want to be inside this particular administration, as opposed to sitting back and saying, who do I believe in, whose convictions and whose principles are continuant with mine. And what really, I must say the great moment of this campaign was Monday, when we went to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and then spoke at Northwestern, and then the next day at Trinity, and just these thousands of college students who you could just feel the chemistry with, the connection with, that this next generation knows instinctively the threat that they are under. And I must say I walked out of those with great hopes that, in fact, the generation coming along is going to be more responsible and more sensitive to the threats out there. And I must say those two speeches, those three speeches, and the contact with those students, you just walk away just feeling warm. I don't the better word, but good about the future.

MR. LEHRER: Speaking of the future, do you still want to be President of the United States?

SEN. TSONGAS: [laughing] This interview is going on too long, Jim. You don't have anything better to do here?

MR. LEHRER: No, really. Do you still -- I mean, would you consider running again, whatever the results are, however things turn out, in 1992? In other words, if you've got the bug, is it a permanent affliction now, you want to do something and you want to be President of the United States?

SEN. TSONGAS: The reason I'm laughing is that we sat here. The last thing this group said to me was if they ever ask you a question like that, keep your mouth shut. [Lehrer laughing] So my last promise to this loyal group of ours was that I would say nothing about my future, let my feelings subside, and then think about it down the road. So in honor of my wife, I'm going to evade your question.

MR. LEHRER: Okay. Consider it evaded and thank you very much for being with us tonight. And good luck to you, whatever you do in the future, sir.

SEN. TSONGAS: Thanks, Jim. FOCUS - '92 - GERGEN & SHIELDS

MR. LEHRER: Now some analysis of the Tsongas candidacy and his withdrawal and the interview we just watched. It comes from Gergen & Shields, David Gergen, editor at large of U.S. News & World Report, and syndicated columnist Mark Shields. They are joined tonight by Frank Phillips, Massachusetts State House Bureau Chief for the Boston Globe, who's covered Paul Tsongas's political career since 1969. He joins us tonight from Boston. Did he do the right thing in quitting now, David?

MR. GERGEN: I think he did. All the way through he's shown honesty about his campaign and I think that was on display again tonight. He's a warm and honest man. I think he's run out of money and run out of steam, Jim, and he called it quits when he was still ahead.

MR. LEHRER: Mark, you're in Denver tonight. I forgot to say that. He said he wanted to go with dignity and that's why he chose to go now. Has he done that?

MR. SHIELDS: I think definitely, Jim. John Artoonas once wrote that --

MR. LEHRER: Who?

MR. SHIELDS: John Artoonas, the greatest writer of sports novels America's ever known, wrote that losing is the only American sin and most people who run for President lose of course by definition and most men are diminished by that experience in their public status. Paul Tsongas leaves this race with greater respect, more friends, a greater following, and a more profound impact upon politics in America certainly than he entered it and than most people who run for President.

MR. LEHRER: Frank Phillips, do you agree?

MR. PHILLIPS: Yeah, I do. I think Paul has always had the good political instincts of when to get in a race and when to get out and he's always fooled the experts on that. And I noticed that you started your broadcast today with a stunning, describing his withdrawal as a stunning announcement. I think we've all been stunned by his announcements throughout his political career.

MR. LEHRER: Frank, were you stunned when he decided to run for President? You've known this guy a long time. Here he'd been out of office for seven years and close to death at one time and suddenly decides to run for President. Was that a stunning thing to you?

MR. PHILLIPS: It was very stunning to me, but I suppose I shouldn't have been shocked, and every move he's made, and he reminded me of this when he did it, every move he's made from running for Middlesex County Commissioner to running for Congress, running for U.S. Senate, told him he was crazy, he wasn't going to make it, you know, a Greek-American coming out of Lowell, he couldn't run statewide, and I think he was relieved to hear my comments a year ago when I told he was really going around the bend this time trying to run for President.

MR. LEHRER: How do you think he'll be remembered, David, from this? I mean, did you agree with Mark that he comes out of this a winner even though he is technically a loser?

MR. GERGEN: I think he does and I think both he and Bob Kerrey have emerged from this as winners even though they lost and there are two of the four now who have gotten out over time and Kerrey because he showed this human warmth. I think that Paul Tsongas will be remembered as a man who did have a belief system or a set of beliefs that ran contrary to the conventional wisdom of the Democratic Party. He tried to challenge the orthodoxy of the party. I think that I disagree with him about the effectiveness of that message. I think his campaign in part faltered because it did not play well among the traditional constituencies, as well as he needed it to, but I think he will be remembered as a man who at least tried to light a torch, and maybe another generation will pick it up. It was interesting that he, at the end of that conversation you just had with him, how he talked about the young. I think he's right about that. There are an awful lot of young people who have a different view about how an economy ought to work and frankly they're closer to his views than people in their 30s and 40s.

MR. LEHRER: But, Mark, do you agree with David, I take it, that when Paul Tsongas says he's changed the Democratic Party that that may not quite be the case, right?

MR. SHIELDS: Well, I don't know if he's changed the Democratic Party. I will say this. He changed the campaign of 1992 more than any candidate in either party. He treated the voters like grown- ups and he thereby forced other candidates with his 96 page book that he cared enough to put his ideas between covers, he forced the other candidates to come up with their plans. I mean, there was Bill Clinton in New Hampshire advertising his plan being available in libraries in that state. And that was a direct consequence and just a reaction to what Paul Tsongas had done and had been able to do. I think we'll find out next fall just what Paul Tsongas's legacy was, has been, because I think he made it impossible for 1992 for candidates to get by with the manipulation of symbols, by empty visits to flag factories, as real political debate.

MR. LEHRER: Do you agree with that, Frank?

MR. PHILLIPS: Yeah. He's always been somebody who changes. When he was on the city council in 1970, he pushed a coalition together, which I thought was absolutely important to do, to throw out an old city manager and brought in a professional, bringing in the business community, when he was a Congressman, into Lowell and sort of by the scruff of the neck and making them invest in the city. He's always wanting to change things. He's somebody of vision. He also, and it was fun seeing him talk about politics, he has a great political instinct, and a lot of knowledge of the technology. I heard him analyzing, you know, how you live, how you go through the Presidential campaign, and he loves that, and he combines those two things. And it's very effective.

MR. LEHRER: If I were to ask you the same question I asked him and he, as he said, don't press me on this, his feelings about Bill Clinton, what would you, how would you answer that? Do you think there's some scars there that are going to have trouble healing?

MR. PHILLIPS: I'm only seeing it from a distance. I haven't talked to him in recent weeks. I can imagine there are. I saw what happened out there and I know Paul. I know he started off, he had a lot of respect for Bill Clinton as late as January, and I saw a lot of bitter feelings coming out during the campaign, but he's not one who holds a grudge. He certainly isn't and I think he'll pull together for what he feels is a good campaign by Clinton.

MR. LEHRER: Do you think he's gotten the bug to run for President? Do you think we'll be hearing about him on the national level for years to come one way or another?

MR. PHILLIPS: Please, don't ever ask me how to predict what Paul Tsongas is going to do. Yes. I think when he got out of the U.S. Senate in 1984, it was, he plunged into Massachusetts politics. He kept it right up through his illness, when it got bad. He was very much involved in higher education here. He took on the developers down on the Cape and he was even in his own city of Lowell, he took on the superintendent of schools, and he was very much involved. And I think now this campaign has at least launched, gave him some national platform to speak. Whether he can continue it, whether it'll be there a year from now, I don't know.

MR. LEHRER: David, what is your, all of the warm and nice things that all of you all have said about Paul Tsongas, but what, what was there that did not ignite the people beyond New Hampshire? Now, he said it was money and a lot of other things. But was there something else there too that people just didn't pick up on?

MR. GERGEN: Well, Jim, I have to tell you, with all due respect to Paul Tsongas, whom I came to greatly respect during this campaign, I think the lesson that many Democrats will learn out of this Paul Tsongas effort is that the message he's preaching is not acceptable who people who vote in Democratic primaries and a broad swatch of the Democratic Party and that other candidates -- I don't think you'll see other candidates rush to use that message in the next Presidential primaries, you know, because I think it didn't quite fit the union vote, or it didn't work in a working class, white working class, it didn't pick up a lot of black voters. In the state of Michigan, for example, he won less than 10 percent of the black vote and he only got about 10 percent of the union vote. So I would argue I think the man and his strength of character and his honesty and because he was an economic Paul Revere, I think all of that, applause all the way around, but his answers did not, I mean, his answers frankly, I think he had a good argument all the way along. Had he been the candidate of the party he would have done a very good job in drawing independents.

MR. LEHRER: In November?

MR. GERGEN: In November. But that message does not play well among rank and file Democrats.

MR. LEHRER: Okay. Well, David, Mark, Frank, thank you very much.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, what happens next with the Democrats. But first, this is pledge week on public television. We're taking a short break now so your public television station can ask for your support. That support helps keep programs like this on the air. PLEDGE BREAK SEGMENT

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: For those stations not taking a pledge break, the NewsHour continues with a look back at the political career of Paul Tsongas. As Congressional Correspondent Kwame Holman reports, he's a man who's accustomed to bucking the odds.

MR. HOLMAN: Paul Tsongas took a cab to the announcement of his intention to run for President of the United States. It was typical of his unassuming political style. And at the time, conventional political wisdom assumed he didn't have much of a chance.

PAUL TSONGAS: I began this campaign almost a year ago and George Bush was at 91 percent and when it got to that number, I said he's vulnerable.

MR. HOLMAN: Nine months later in New Hampshire, Tsongas was still poking fun at his even being in the race, but his candidacy was serious and Tsongas had come prepared. He put his ideas into an 85- page manifesto, an economic call to arms. His campaign distributed copies by the thousands. It set the tone for his pro business, no nonsense economic message.

PAUL TSONGAS: No more Santa Claus, no more giveaways, no more media types. Tell me the truth. Let's go on and build this country back in a Democratic Party once and for all. It's going to become a pro-economic growth, pro-business, pro-employer, no more corporate bashing, no more class warfare, no more protectionism. We're going to be the party of economic growth and it's about time.

MR. HOLMAN: During 10 years as a Congressman and Senator, Tsongas transformed his image from just another liberal from Massachusetts into that of an atypical conservative Democrat on economic issues. For example, in helping negotiate the taxpayer bailout of Chrysler, Tsongas was instrumental in forcing labor unions to agree to wage givebacks as part of the package. Yet, he maintains his liberal identity through his high profile opposition to the Reagan foreign policies in Central America, Israel, and Africa. In 1984, Tsongas's political career seemed over. He was diagnosed with lymphoma, cancer of the lymph nodes. Then 43, he decided not to seek re- election to the Senate. Instead, he returned to Lowell to be with his wife and three daughters. In 1986, he underwent a successful bone marrow transplant. With the cancer beaten, he joined a law firm and the boards of several corporations.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: They said he couldn't win, this kid from an old mill town.

MR. HOLMAN: Tsongas's health was a major issue when he undertook his Presidential campaign. A competitive swimmer, he encouraged the news media to record his workouts to illustrate his good health.

PAUL TSONGAS: The word "cancer" frightens people. This is a way of saying you can look at me and take comfort in the state of my health.

MR. HOLMAN: His deprecating style and his frank economic message went over well in New Hampshire. He won the state and was deemed a front-runner. Tsongas went on to win four more primaries and two caucuses. Then the race headed into Super Tuesday and the South, the stronghold of Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton. Tsongas and Clinton as the leading rivals became increasingly testy toward each other.

GOV. BILL CLINTON: No one can argue with you, Paul. You're always perfect.

PAUL TSONGAS: I'm not perfect but I'm honest.

MR. HOLMAN: Tsongas had hoped to pull out a victory in Florida, a Southern state but with a large population of Northeastern transplants, potentially fertile ground for Tsongas's economic truth telling. But Clinton went on the attack with ads and speeches portraying Tsongas's economic message as warmed over Reaganomics.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Time Magazine says much of what Tsongas proposes smacks of "trickle down" economics. He even says he'll be the best friend Wall Street ever had.

MR. HOLMAN: Tsongas was put on the defensive.

PAUL TSONGAS: You hit Paul Tsongas; he'll hit back; and he's off his message. It is destructive to my campaign, but it is more destructive to me as a leader to have the suggestion made that I cannot counter punch. And that's what I'm faced with is I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't.

MR. HOLMAN: Clinton dominated Super Tuesday, scoring decisive wins in Florida and seven other states. Tsongas won only Massachusetts, neighboring Rhode Island and Delaware. A week later came the final blow, big Clinton wins last Tuesday in Michigan and Illinois. Now, almost a million dollars in debt, Tsongas pulled the plug on his struggling campaign. He spoke this afternoon in Boston.

PAUL TSONGAS: It's been a hell of a ride. It's been a hell of a ride. FOCUS - '92 ELECTION - WHAT NEXT?

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: And now there are two, front-runner Bill Clinton and former California Governor Jerry Brown. Brown is the only Democrat left to challenge Gov. Clinton for the Presidential nomination. At his news conference, Tsongas said he spoke to both candidates and wished them well, but refused to endorse either one. I talked with Gov. Brown earlier today where he was campaigning in Hartford, Connecticut, and asked for his reaction to the surprising developments.

GOV. BROWN: Well, it's always a surprise when somebody steps out of the race and Paul Tsongas was an unusual person. He was honest. He was very authentic. I enjoyed being with him and debating with him. And I'm sorry he's gone. But of course it now makes the race very clear.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: It was also reported today that the campaign just ran out of steam, that Tsongas just lost the aura of a President or someone who was electable. Did you perceive that to be the case?

GOV. BROWN: Well, look, this is a rough and dirty business and Mr. Clinton attacked him on Israel, which wasn't really true, attacked him on Social Security, which was not true. I mean, this is a dirty rotten business. I mean, you take the polls. You know in Florida that there are a lot of senior citizens, that there's a lot of Jewish people who are very concerned about Israel, and then you start hitting. That's what Clinton did to Tsongas. Tsongas is a real decent person. He's saying this is the way I see it, I'd like you to vote for me. Well, in the rough and tumble of this business he did get ground under.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: What about those who argued that Paul Tsongas had difficulty outside of New England particularly relating to blue collar workers, to blacks, and to others, that he was perceived in some cases as almost elitist or out of touch with the kind of people that you say are supporting your campaign and rallying to him, did you find that among those?

GOV. BROWN: Well, his message was a sophisticated message. I mean, the man came out of Lowell, Massachusetts. He came out of a very difficult economic background and so he certainly identified with people in this country as well as anybody in this race, maybe better. But it's very hard to deliver this race, this message, saying, okay, folks, there's no easy cure, get ready to tighten your belt, I mean, that has, that's hard. You've got to galvanize, get people together under the sense that look, we can do it, this is America, we can conquer any obstacle, we can make a rich and prosperous country that will work for all of us. I think that has to be our theme. I believe if we change our priorities, we can accomplish that.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: How does the fact that he is not in this race now change the contest, change the dynamic?

GOV. BROWN: The dynamic is that there is now a clear fight for the soul of the Democratic Party. Who are we? Are we the party of Thomas Jefferson who said stop the power of the few to ride on the labors of the many, a party that takes its money from Political Action Committees, from thousand dollar givers, the governing elite, very similar to the Republican Party, or are we a grassroots movement? Are we a coalition, the Rainbow Coalition, the supporters of Ralph Nader, of Jesse Jackson, of the working people being laid off? There are a lot of people in Washington who think it's selfish of people in Connecticut or Detroit or Wisconsin to worry that they're losing their jobs to Mexico. They should just be good soldiers in expanding free trade. Well, I say, hey, we should have trade, but we've got to protect the working conditions of every single American and make sure everybody's got a chance. This is a very populous kind of message and now I think we can get a choice on it.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: But hasn't Bill Clinton been drawing people from a populous base?

GOV. BROWN: Yes, he has.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: So what is the difference here? I mean, how do you see --

GOV. BROWN: The difference is one is an image. One is a governor of a small state, practicing a good old boy politics, very different than the kind of politics that we have to have for a great nation like this.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: But he's won ten campaigns in two weeks by two to one.

GOV. BROWN: And so did Dukakis. He did very well, because he had an enormous fund of money to make pretty TV commercials, to identify based on poll data what people want to hear. What that does is even if he were to win, if he got elected, he'd be completely beholden to a governing elite who are responsible for getting this country in the mess that it's in. I've taken a totally different tact against the ridicule and the disdain of the Washington experts, many of the incumbent leadership. I said I won't take any more than $100. I'll use that 800 number that people make so much fun with.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: Gov. Clinton has accused you of re-inventing yourself because up until this campaign, you were dealing with these very same people as chairman of the Democratic Party.

GOV. BROWN: For Gov. Clinton to say anything about re-invention, that's the kettle calling the pot black. Here's a man who came on as the conservative, who wouldn't even let Jesse Jackson speak at his Democratic leadership convention, a pseudo conservative Democratic organization, who then talks about boot camps and getting prisoners and blacks all lined up in uniforms, and then he switches and starts saying Tsongas is the candidate of the rich. So he's re-inventing himself regularly. But he is --

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: But's let's just on that --

GOV. BROWN: But it is true. I'll acknowledge the point.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: Let's just clarify that, because you were chairman of the Democratic campaign.

GOV. BROWN: Yes. I rubbed my nose in the corrupt fund-raising of the Democratic Party. I did. I raised more money than Mr. Clinton. I acknowledge that. I know that it is the cancer killing this party, killing this party, and I'm prepared to stand aside and say, hey, let's change it. And that's why I took the limit on a hundred dollars. Everyone laughed at that, but now when millions of dollars are coming in in small donations, reflecting the hope and the wishes of just regular Democrats, what I saw and what really turned me off as party chairman, that I had to spend all of my time with the richest 1 percent and get totally disconnected from the vast majority of people who can hardly conceive of giving $10 to a candidate. And I believe it's only by mobilizing the wider group that our party can fulfill the promise of our forbearers and our founders who said this is a party of all the people.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: Bill Clinton has 944 delegates. You have 130. How, by what scenario --

GOV. BROWN: What scenario?

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: -- is it possible that you could catch up, and do you anticipate that you could be the nominee?

GOV. BROWN: Yes, I sure do. Sure I do. This contest is not even half over. There are votes for Mr. Harkin that are going to come to me. There are votes for Mr. Tsongas that are going to come to me. There are votes for Mr. Kerrey that are going to come to me. Those are delegates. He's looking at a very small lead, with most of the votes yet to go. And we have the big states of New York and California and Pennsylvania, that states that have always determined who the next President is. Bobby Kennedy beat Gene McCarthy in California. That was June. Here we are, just in the middle of March. We have plenty of time to go and what is really great, we have a choice now. You have a candidate who has built his reputation on working the Washington insiders. For 11 years this man has been at governors conferences talking to lobbyists, and the Wall Street Journal and all these people have written how he has worked this insider network. On the other hand, they say, Gov. Brown, he's Mr. Moonbeam, he's way out there.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: But you worked the insider network.

GOV. BROWN: No one has ever accused me of being the candidate of the incumbent insiders. That I think everyone can stipulate to. They know, they call me a wild card, they call me anything they want, but they will not say, I an beholden to an insider group. In fact, what I've been able to do by leaving politics, by going over to work in Calcutta with the dying, by studying in Japan, by living in a small village in Mexico, I've been able to reflect on my own life, see what this process does to you, and I'm determined to restore to this country the moral idea of economic and social justice. That's the only issue here. It's not propping up a decrepid, corrupted governing elite. It's reawakening the spirit of this country and committing ourselves to an economic justice that requires a living family wage for every American. It's not just the marketplace. It's the moral idea and the moral force that all of us can care for one another and make it work for all of us.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: On our program last night, a Republican poll taker said that the problem with the Democrats, this field of candidates, was that they were so busy fighting one another they couldn't take advantage of Bush's vulnerabilities. And Democratic National Committee Chairman Ron Brown has called on the candidates, you in particular, to stop the personal attacks. What is this campaign going to be like now that there are only two of you? What is going to be the tone of it? GOV. BROWN: Well, I think it isn't about Brown and Clinton. It's about the soul of the party, the direction of the country, who governs and in whose interest, and I've dedicated, I've really cast my lot with just regular Americans, and I've asked them to call 1- 800-426-1112. And I do say that. Please call us at 1-800-426-1112. Now, I've been ridiculed for that. But let's get what the essence of it is. It's not peddling knives in the middle of the night like some commentators have made; it's inviting ordinary Americans who don't know a politician, who don't have a lawyer or a lobbyist or a broker, to join this movement to take back this country.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: Finally, let me ask you, Mr. Brown, if Bill Clinton is the nominee, will you support him?

GOV. BROWN: I'm not going to get into those "if" questions right now. I'm a Democrat. I'm fighting for the soul of this party and I want to restore it to its greatness. I am going to do everything I can to make it happen. But most of all, I'm going to make sure this country restores its sense of morality and commitment to justice.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: Thank you.

GOV. BROWN: Thank you.

MR. LEHRER: Some final thoughts now from David Gergen & Mark Shields about where all of this leaves the Democratic Presidential nomination race. Mark, is Clinton vs. Brown a clear fight from the soul of the Democratic Party as Jerry Brown just told Charlayne?

MR. SHIELDS: Well, it's obvious what Jerry Brown, I don't know if it will become that, Jim, but what Jerry Brown is trying to do, and he's not to be underestimated, Jerry Brown is trying to cast Bill Clinton as the choice of the establishment. He's almost the status quo candidate, himself, as the agent of change, as the anti- establishment, non-establishment candidate, and it's, if he can succeed in doing that, he can make it an interesting race. And it is, it's a clear strategy and I think as he moves from protest candidate to attempt to be majority candidate, it's probably the most logical route for him to follow.

MR. LEHRER: Is there any potential for it being successful, David?

MR. GERGEN: I don't think his chances ought to be overestimated either. The fact is he is going to be mostly a voice of the angry and the disaffected and I think he'll do a lot better now, but with Paul Tsongas pulling out of the race, I think one has to say tonight that the crown of the Democratic Party rests upon the head of Bill Clinton, uneasily perhaps, but nonetheless he virtually has the nomination now I think, absent some new scandal or something like that that might be devastating. But I don't -- it is hard for me, for example, to see Jerry Brown beating Bill Clinton in the state of California.

MR. LEHRER: Even in the state of California?

MR. GERGEN: Even in the state of California.

MR. LEHRER: What do you think about that, Mark?

MR. SHIELDS: I honestly don't know. I mean, this is a guy who twice won the governorship of that state. He lost the Senate race in 1982. But, you know, he was, he's absolutely right. He was written off by virtually everybody when this race began. He became a one-liner in the late night monologues on television talk shows, and he's still around. I mean, this is a guy who said he was going to live by a hundred dollar contribution limit, and he's done it. People thought he should be sent to the Menninger Clinic when he said he was going to do that and here he is, he's really -- he's running a national campaign on a hundred dollars. That's more than paying lip service to campaign reform.

MR. LEHRER: Mark, on this program last night, a man named David Gergen said that Bill Clinton needs Paul Tsongas and Jerry Brown - - he needs opposition in order to further his electability, to overcome his electability problem. Do you agree with the Gergen theory?

MR. SHIELDS: I think that guy Gergen is wise and you ought to have him on more regularly. I think he's absolutely right.

MR. GERGEN: If they show us any more, Mark, the viewers are going to be turning off all over America.

MR. SHIELDS: What you need, what you want is two things. You want that triumphal march, that series of victories week after week, where you're winning as the nominee, and to build up your positive stories from Pennsylvania, across the country to California, from April through June, and you need to define yourself in part by your opposition. Now Bill Clinton has to define himself, if David is right, and the Brown challenge does not really amount to a serious challenge, or even if it does, Bill Clinton is in that position right now, Jim, where Richard Nixon was in 1968 and Jimmy Carter was in 1976 as the presumptive nominee of this party and how you use that time. Nixon used it wisely to really clean up some of the problems from his California governor's race and his loss in 1960, he gave a series of thoughtful addresses, he made himself a candidate far more appealing than he had been. Jimmy Carter didn't use the time wisely. And he, there was still that fuzziness, as there is about Bill Clinton of being all things to all men.

MR. LEHRER: What do you think about the Gergen theory, David Gergen? Do you think -- essentially the question is that Paul Tsongas did not do Bill Clinton a favor by getting out when he did.

MR. GERGEN: Bill Clinton would have been better off if Paul Tsongas remained in the race. I believe now that Bill Clinton is going to win mathematically much more quickly than he would have won otherwise, but by having Tsongas and Brown in the race, he was able to build his stature week by week. He looks more electable now than he did two weeks ago. By going in and beating the two men together, he was able to begin -- the sense or the doubt about him was beginning to dissipate. Now, he is in a totally new environment. He's going to win it much more quickly, but I think that Mark is absolutely right. How he uses this time and to define himself is going to be very important, but we're all going to start now asking more deeply than we have before who is the real Bill Clinton. Let's take a harder look at and let's understand because my golly he might really be the next President of the United States. And I think voters are going to want to know that now.

MR. LEHRER: Doesn't he have an even more difficult problem running just against Brown because if he beats Brown impressively everybody will discount that, oh, my goodness, that's no big deal, but if Brown starts to do well in some state, it will be, it'll just take on all kinds of proportions that it wouldn't otherwise?

MR. GERGEN: Well, now we have the Jim Lehrer and I think it's absolutely right, Jim. Let's ask Mark what he thinks of that.

MR. LEHRER: What do you think of that, Mark?

MR. SHIELDS: You guys make a lot of sense. I'll tell you one of the problems that Bill Clinton has to deal with, and that is that even as recently as Tuesday, when he won big crushing victories which in both Illinois and Michigan among those voters who want to be told the truth, as they listed it in the exit polls, their choices were 42 percent for Brown, 32 percent for Tsongas, and only 22 percent for Clinton. I mean, I think it's, Bill Clinton's got to in a hurry define himself, do something dramatic in terms of this is who I am, I'm not all things to all men, I'm not afraid to take on an important constituency and say some tough things.

MR. LEHRER: Okay, gentlemen, thank you. You all have earned your money this week and it's not even over yet. Thank you both very much. RECAP

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: Again, the main story of this Thursday, besides the Tsongas pullout was Dow Corning's announcement that it was leaving the breast implant business for good. The devices were taken off the market in January, pending safety reviews by the Food & Drug Administration. Good night, Jim.

MR. LEHRER: Good night, Charlayne. We'll see you tomorrow night. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you and good night.