---

Margaret Warner speaks to former Presidential Press Secretaries on the closing days of an administration.

---

JIM. LEHRER: Now some reflections on the final days of the campaign and to Margaret Warner.

MARGARET WARNER: The last four days of a presidential race are tough for any candidate, and more so for a candidate who is lagging in the polls. For insight into what that's like, we turn to two former Press Secretaries for presidential candidates: Maxine Isaacs, who was with Walter Mondale in 1984 and previous campaigns, and Marlin Fitzwater, who was with George Bush in 1992, and previously also. Welcome both of you.

MAXINE ISAACS, Former Mondale Press Secretary: Thank you.

MARGARET WARNER: What was it like in the last days of the ‘84 campaign when Walter Mondale was so far behind in the polls?

MS. ISAACS: Well, we had always believed that we were going to win against enormous--enormous odds. Um, it's--it's--you can't go out and do what you have to do in a campaign if you--if you think you're going to lose. Um, what had happened with Mondale was he had won both his debates against Reagan. It's hard to remember that, but he did, or he was perceived by most people to have won, and then after--after--he made no progress after those two debates, and it was clear--at least to the senior management of the campaign--that it was over. We had this phenomenon where, um, we were seeing sometimes 75,000 people a day. There was a big, spontaneous sort of outpouring for Mondale. He had very deep roots in the party, and people came out to see him, and so after one of these days where we had gone through on a bus trip and seen, um, 75,000 people. We went to a hotel in Milwaukee--we were going to do an evening event--and, uh, our campaign chairman, Jim Johnson, came out, and to Milwaukee and told us--we had a meeting--and told us that it was over. And it's--it's very hard, and it's very sad. And, um, uh, Mondale went in one moment from I think really believing he had a chance to total acceptance, and he started talking immediately about his dignity, which was a concept that was very--always very important to him--um, talked about his children, the legacy he wanted to leave for his children, and talked about trying to help Democrats, realizing that he couldn't help himself, but he could try to help Democrats.

MARGARET WARNER: What kind of advice was he getting from the staff at that point, what to do?

MS. ISAACS: There were, there were some people who were telling him he should do what, um, uh, what Sen. Dole is doing and basically go after Reagan, go negative as hard as he could, try to save himself, try to win a few states. And he decided he--he was not going to do that. He didn't think that that was a legacy that he could be proud of if he did that.

MARGARET WARNER: Well, George Bush wasn't as far behind in the polls, but what was it like for him in the sort of last days or weeks of ‘92?

MARLIN FITZWATER, Former Bush Press Secretary: Well, I think the dynamics are a little different because he was the incumbent president, and so there's a very strong feeling of letting the party down and all the people who are in power and in the government, all the people that you brought to Washington. And the polls are closing kind of a point a day, and it was just enough to give you hope all the time, and we were at ten back and then nine and eight, seven, uh, and so it kind of keeps you moving forward, even though you kind of suspected it might not be real. There was never really a point with us where the pollsters said it was over, or at least not until a day or two before the election. Uh, the other side of it is, is that you're fighting the President and all those close to him were fighting any, any urge to kind of look like you're losing, or that you're giving up or quitting, because stranger things have happened. I mean, people have won in the last few days or the last few hours even, and so you want to always keep that option open, and so you're fighting your emotions to one hand look like you're fully confident and you're really forging ahead, on the other hand you can see that people are dropping by the wayside. Mayors don't show up. Governors aren't there. Congressmen have suddenly got appointments in other parts of the state. And I remember, we took a train trip through Wisconsin the week before the end of the election, and when the train started, there were huge crowds and the train was jammed with people. By the time the train trip ended, there were about four us with the President. It was a very sad kind of moment.

MARGARET WARNER: And how did President Bush, himself, cope with this?

MR. FITZWATER: Well, the President was urged, I think, this must be universal at the very end to go negative against at that time candidate Clinton, and, uh, he just--he refused for the same reasons. He couldn't do it; it just wasn't in his character, and but there is a frustration that, that just seeps out, and it's tendency to want to blame the polls and at one point President Bush referred to candidate Clinton as a bozo, you may remember, uh, and he regretted that. He felt terrible about it, but it was just one of those things that's--that comes out in the frustration of, of knowing things aren't going your way.

MARGARET WARNER: Did that ever happen with Mondale?

MS. ISAACS: I don't remember--

MARGARET WARNER: The frustration.

MS. ISAACS: I don't remember that sense of frustration. I remember--I remember the last two weeks as being very poignant and sad, but I don't remember what you're describing as part of this--part of frustration and anger. I don't remember--I don't think that was the tone of what we were going through. It was a poignancy, more than anything else.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, a Press Secretary, of course, is under particular scrutiny. How did you personally handle that? What did you feel you had to do?

MR. FITZWATER: Well, of course, the press secretary travels with about fifty to a hundred reporters at any given time during the campaign. And you are the face that they see the most often and every day, and so they're searching every nuance of your gesture for, for frustration or for giving up and that sort of thing. And I used to meet with my staff every day and say, look, hang in there, you've got to look strong, and you've got to be optimistic and positive, or we're going to fight this all the way through. And I would always use the football analogy that it's like an ant running under a pass. You've got to run through it all the way into the end zone. If we lose, we lose, but don't ever let ‘em see you cry, you know. You got to hang tough.

MARGARET WARNER: Do you have the same approach?

MS. ISAACS: Very much so. I sometimes felt that I was--that people saw me as being silly because I would come out and, and try to put this positive face on everything, but it was--it was--it was also in my nature, I think. It was, um, it's very hard, and I, and I--one of the things that's so fascinating to me about what's happening now is that Dole was dealt Mondale's hand, and he's hand Mondale's hand to play almost from going back to the primaries, and it's been fascinating for the people who were close to Mondale to watch him play those same cards very differently. That's one of the things that's, that's interesting.

MARGARET WARNER: Does the press start to treat you differently as it looks words?

MR. FITZWATER: Well, they treat you better I think when they see disaster ahead.

MARGARET WARNER: A sudden wave of sympathy comes over--

MR. FITZWATER: They're at their worst when you're on top, winning, and they're going for you, and, uh, so at the end, you know, reporters are coming up and saying, you know, the--he has really done a great job, what a great guy--and he has this dignity and inner strength--yeah--well, let's see that in print.

MARGARET WARNER: Do you find the same thing?

MS. ISAACS: Absolutely.

MARGARET WARNER: Would you say that the candidate ever--your candidate--ever flags in intensity, or I guess a better way of asking it is, how does he keep from flagging in his intensity, especially in Mondale's case--he--he really knew from someone he trusted that it was over, and he goes day after day.

MS. ISAACS: I think that in Mondale's case it was the nation changed. He decided that he was--you got to remember, Mondale only won 11 electoral votes. This was a huge defeat, and he--what he decided was that he was going to do what he could to help Democrats. And he could do that because he was close to the--he was close to the party. He was from the, from the grassroots of the party. And so there were--there were people who wanted him to campaign with him, and in the end, the Democrats picked up two seats in the Senate, and uh, only lost fourteen seats in the House, which was amazing, considering the size of Reagan's victory, so that, um, while, you know, in a way Mondale may have not helped himself because he didn't help himself try to win, you know, a couple of states here and there and increase his electoral margin, he did help Democrats, and so that kept him going. He felt that he could still provide something useful to the party about which he felt very strongly.

MARGARET WARNER: And just very briefly, does having anticipated the loss make it any easier when it happens?

MR. FITZWATER: I don't think so. I think it makes it harder really. Every candidate and even the people around him have a kind of inner drive. They've given so much of their life, so many hours, so many days, so many cities, that you think in the end he'll win, you think people will go in that booth, and yes, the polls show you're 20 points behind, but they'll come to their senses, and you'll win.

MS. ISAACS: I wanted to--can I tell one story--um, on election night, we had--we had--we were in a suite in the hotel in Minneapolis, and there were staff and family around, and we had created a room with, uh, several monitors and big armchairs, and we were going to watch the returns, and so, um, Mondale and I sort of drifted into this room as the news was coming on, and we turned on the news--it was just the two of us--everybody else was wandering around, having a Coke or something--and we were sitting there, and the news came on, and the entire map was one color, except for Minnesota, and there were the two of us, and he turned to me and went like this--(shrugging)--and that was it.

MARGARET WARNER: Well, thank you both very much.

MR. FITZWATER: Thank you.

REGIONS TOPICS RECENT PROGRAMS ABOUT US FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS / FEEDS:

Support the kind of journalism done by the NewsHour...Become a member of your local PBS station.
PBS Online Privacy Policy Copyright ©1996- MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. All Rights Reserved.