Panelists Discuss Images vs. Issues

Each of the round-table discussions held during the weekend conference on the primaries and the press at the Kennedy School of Government began with a specific topic, but all five panels eventually gravitated toward one general problem: distinguishing campaign images from the issues.

Richard Scheer, national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, launched a vehement attack on primary politics and placed the blame on the candidates and their professional strategists.

Calling the campaign trail a "process of deception," Scheer said "there should be pressure or a requirement" that candidates participate in formal debates or other means of airing foreign policy and domestic issues.

Even-Handed

When Tim Kraft, head of the Carter/Mondale Presidential Committee, argued that the press itself avoids the issues because it often does not make headlines, Scheer responded by saying, "The reason the press gets bored with the issues is that the candidates are playing with the issues."

James Gannon, editor of The Des Moines Register and a participant in the same panel on primaries versus caucuses, agreed with Scheer and said that the candidates "really weren't running on issues" in the recent Iowa caucuses. Gannon described the Iowa caucuses as "a great big circus."

Christopher Lydon, a newscaster for WGBH-TV, proposed the conference's most startling theory when he said that President Carter knew that militants would occupy the American embassy in Tehran if he admitted the deposed Shah to the United States for medical treatment. Lydon said Carter may have planned beforehand to use the hostage issue as a means of toughening his image for the re-election campaign.

None of Lydon's fellow participants supported his theory.

Lydon also said that the combination of heavy media coverage and the candidates' attempts to project attractive, but non-specific images has created "a new-model candidate."

He added that Carter--"a good television character, but a weak political character"--was such a candidate in 1976.

Alan Baron, editor of The Baron Report, among other participants, indirectly connected George Bush to this theory during a subsequent discussion. He suggested that journalists "should go back and examine the records" of such "out-sider" candidates who have little or no experience as elected national figures.

When the group returned to the topic of the nominating process, most of the panelists said that the present system, a mix of primaries and caucuses, is adequate and at most needs minor adjustments.

Richard G. Stearns, chief of delegate selection for the Kennedy for President Committee, suggested the repeal of campaign financing laws that limit a candidate's ability to raise and spend funds. He said that because of the high price of advertising, such laws prevent candidates from adequately communicating their positions. "We make the news media the most powerful actor," he added.

The fifth panel unanimously concurred with Stearns. David A. Keene, George Bush's chief campaign strategist, said the limit on contribution and expenditure is "silly, unnecessary and screws up the system."

The conference was co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times and the Institute of Politics