Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Nation & World_ After all the talk, veep candidates will he chosen old-fashioned way by Walter R. Mears The Associated Press Washington — When the vice pres idential talent scouts are done, after the prospects have been checked for hidden flaws, that modem style of seeking No. 2 candidates will yield to the way it has always worked, with Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President A1 Gore casting the only votes that count. So the current lists are pure guess work, speculation about the obvious, or longer-shot but possible candidates in each party. There are no invisible polit ical figures to be chosen by surprise. The nominees will come from a ros ter that includes governors, where the Republicans dominate the list; Congress, most likely the Senate; the Cabinet on the Democratic side, or party figures who have served in those roles. So it doesn’t take inside information to come up with names, especially when the candidates and the people around them can gain by adding names to the list, not by ruling anybody out. Gore has fomier Secretary of State Warren Christopher looking over the prospects for his ticket. Christopher did the same thing for Bill Clinton in 1992, when Gore got the nomination. Bush is to set up a similar Republican operation soon. Now that presidential nominations are clinched early in the election year — never earlier than in 2000 except when presidents were seeking renomi nation unopposed — vice presidential speculation becomes the only suspense left. It keeps talking heads talking. Politicians allied with potential can didates play, too, trying to promote their choices. But obliquely. To do so overt ly is bad form, and besides, it doesn’t work. The advance work now devoted to checking vice presidential candidates began after the 1972 Democratic mess in which nominee Geoige McGovern chose Sen. Tom Eagleton only hours be fore his choice had to go to the con vention for approval. Only later, too late, did McGovern learn that his last-hour selection had been hospitalized for men tal illness. After trying to fend off the problem, McGovern changed running mates. Until then, McGovern said after his landslide defeat, there had been no real background checks on vice presidential nominees. There was an assumption that because these were widely known po litical figures, their prior campaigns would have turned up any major problems. That changed after 1972, although even the background checks that are cus tomary now don’t always turn up all the political trouble spots that emerge in the glare of a national campaign. And the process is not really a tal ent hunt. The people involved are not strangers to each other. There are always political variables that can’t be factored in until the time comes to choose. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, a swing state Republican with the right credentials for a Bush ticket, makes that point amid the recent speculation that he is a prime prospect. He says it is too early for meaningful speculation. “It is the politics of June or July that will dic tate the choice,” Ridge said recently. Even Jimmy Carter, who broke from the old pattern when he methodically checked, chose and disclosed his top prospects for vice president in 1976, said later that he would have played it dif ferently and shopped among names for No. 2 if he’d had to in order to clinch his own nomination. He didn’t, and his systematic search led to his man, Walter F. Mondale, one of the seven finalists Carter interviewed for the job. Mondale became vice pres ident after shunning a White House cam paign that year, saying he didn’t want to live in Holiday Inns. He rescinded that objection to campaign life when Carter chose him for the ticket. Gore also be came vice president after ruling out a 1992 presidential campaign. Bush’s president father, on the oth er hand, ran with Ronald Reagan in 1980 after a persistent campaign against him. It included a line Bush had to swal low, his description of Reagan’s program as “voodoo economics.” Rivals have wound up vice presi dential nominees even after saying, as Sen. John McCain has repeatedly, that they weren’t interested in No. 2. Lyndon B. Johnson said he would n’t trade his vote for a gavel, but he did as vice president to John F. Kennedy. Nelson A. Rockefeller, whose long quest for the presidency always came up short, said he wasn’t designed to be standby equipment. But the New York governor accepted appointment as vice president to Gerald R. Ford in 1974, after Water gate. Kennedy had his own vice presi dential moment, and won politically by losing at the 1956 national convention. Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic nom inee, left the vice presidential nomina tion to an open convention vote, and Kennedy, then a little-known Massa chusetts senator, was a candidate. It took two ballots and he led, but short of a ma jority, at one point. In the end, Sen. Estes Kefauver was nominated, to run on the losing ticket. That convention contest put Kennedy’s name on the national De mocratic roster, and was the beginning of his climb to the White House. Italian premier likely to insist president accept his resignation by Frances D’Emilio The Associated Press Rome — Following a rout by conserv - atives in regional elections, partners in Premier Massimo D’Alema’s center-left coalition pressed for a new leader Tues day, making it likely D’Alema will again insist the Italian president accept his res ignation. D’Alema was scheduled to address lawmakers on Wednesday, after President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi rejected his resig nation offer this evening and told him to address Parliament. Ciampi reportedly canceled a public appearance scheduled for Wednesday evening in Florence, feeding speculation D’Alema would return to the presiden tial palace that night to again tender his resignation after 18 months as the first former Communist to lead an Italian gov ernment. In Sunday’s balloting, media mogul Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right alliance routed the center-left, sweeping the af fluent north and the region including Rome, where a center-leff leader had been the regional president. Consensus swelled among the cen ter-left coalition partners to try to avoid early elections by backing a new premier. “We need a new premier, a premier capable of communicating with the new classes in the country,” said one D’Ale ma coalition partner, Pierluigi Castag netti, a former Christian Democrat. A few hours later, the Greens, a coali tion partner, formally proposed Treasury Minister Giuliano Amato, a former So cialist premier, as their choice to lead the government to parliamentary elections next year. Amato is widely respected abroad and at home for helping Italy rein in its huge deficit. Another coalition partner, hardline Communist leader Armando Cossuta, in-' sisted a new government be formed be fore the long Easter holiday weekend. Some in D’Alema’s own party, the Democratic Left, suggested that it was Berlusconi the businessman’s sense of people’s needs that made the difference in Sunday’s vote. The left “doesn’t know how to in terpret the needs of the new producing class, small and medium businesses, in dustry,” said Antonio Bassolino, who used his popularity as Naples mayor to score the most significant victory for the left on Sunday. Avoiding new elections could let a May 21 referendum to reform Italy’s electoral system go forward. The refer endum would abolish the rest of Italy’s proportional election system. Under the system, 25 percent of seats are divvied up among all parties running in the election. The remaining 75 per cent of the seats are directly chosen by the voters. Sensing a return to power, Berlus coni’s bloc, including the National Al liance, a party made up of former neo fascists, has been clamoring for early elections, especially since D’Alema reshuffled his Cabinet in December, af ter coalition squabbling forced the pre mier to briefly resign. Plane carry 130 crashes in Philippines The Associated Press * Manila, Philippines — An Air Philip pines jetliner carrying 130 people crashed in the southern Philippines on Wednes day, and rescuers said there were no signs of survivors. The Boeing 737-200, which began its flight in Manila, circled its destina tion city of Davao, 625 miles south east of Manila, before going down in a coconut grove on nearby Samal island, officials said. Emergency crews arriving at the ate of the still-smoldering plane said there were no signs of survivors. If that turns out to be the case, it would the worst plane crash in Philippine histo ry “The initial report is that everyone was killed,” said Melcar Estella, the as sistant regional director of civil defense. in ■ The pilot of a small plane that flew over the area told authorities that the craft appeared to be totally destroyed except for its tail section. The airline said that the plane was carrying 130 people— 124 passengers, including four babies, and six crew mem bers. There was no immediate word on what caused the disaster. The airline said the plane was given its normal mainte nance check before taking off and it checked out OK. Weather conditiohs at the time of the crash were good, the government weather bureau said. Planes, buses and ferries throughout the Philippines were jammed Wednes day because of the start of Easter holi days, in which many Frlipinos return to their hometowns. It appeared to be the most serious crash in the Philippines since a twin-en gine plane slammed into the hills in the northern part of the country Dec. 7, killing all 17 people aboard In the country’s worst air disaster ever, a Cebu Pacific DC-9 jet crashed in 1998 near the top of a fog-shrouded mountain in the southern Philippines, killing all 104 people aboard Several of the country’s airlines cre ated since the industry was deregulated several years ago have been dogged with safety- and maintenance-related prob lems. Boeing began producing the 200 model of the 737 in 1966, building more than 1,000 of them over the next 22 years before ending production. r'"’r"rV/ I H I 11 *i I I V“'tV'> I ■ I ■ 1\ v*\ * *'* ** i UNIVERSITY AWARDS DAY Thursday, April 20,2000 at 2:00 p.m. on the Horseshoe Reception immediately following at the President’s House 1f?v' tifflpp *-* Public cordially invited Departments and organizations will present over 100 awards to outstanding students I Sponsored by: Division of Student and Alumni Services Honors & Awards Commission Omicron Delta Kappa USC Educational Foundation Student Government *in case of rain, the ceremony will be held at the Russell House Ballroom