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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JULY 6, 1984
one was a white male••.. Fine and dandy.
help among men voters, not women.
PAGE 7
But•..Mondale needs
The British, like many other Europeans, are looking upon this strangest-of
all U.s. political campaign with increasing fascination, especially the
sudden upswelling demand for a woman on the ticket. A lengthy article on it
appeared in the June 24 TIMES of London, which included an interesting
reference to President Reagan's "ideal woman," in which he quotes from
Proverbs 31:25-26--much to the dismay of the feminists, I'm sure:
One of the few problems the Reagan re-election committee faces as
it 1imbers up for the presidential race: the so-called "gender
gap." Reagan is a man's man. Only 47% of women who voted last
time chose him, his "approval rating" among women has never gone
above 50%..•. [ Mr. Reagan J is perceived as a dyed-in-the-wool
male chauvinist, or--as his daughter prefers to call him--"a
romantic."
He quotes Proverbs to describe his ideal woman:
"Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the
future. She opens her mouth in wisdom, and teaching of kindness
is on her tongue." ...
Somewhat belatedly, Reagan and his party have decided to do a
little courting of their own•.•• The party has tried to achieve a
more equitable male-female ratio at its convention in Dallas this
August. By some not-too-subtle arm-twisting, they have managed
to ensure that 44% of the delegates will be women. [Exactly one
half of the Democratic delegates are women.] ...
Is America ready to accept a woman, just a heartbeat away from
the Oval Office? Earnest psychologists have addressed the issue
and Susan Reverby of Wellesley College in Massachusetts believes
that deep down many Americans are still uncomfortable with the
idea. "They can think of their mothers running the kitchen, but
not the free world," she says. The examples of Mrs. Thatcher and
Mrs. Gandhi, both of whom are widely admired in America, have not
banished all the usual prejudices, even among women. They were
summed up by one southern woman last week who asked: "What would
happen if a woman president were negotiating with Chernenko and
she got the hot flashes?"
This past week, Mr. Mondale also engaged in a bit of mutual fence-mending
with Jesse Jackson. The former Vice President has been under increased
pressure from some Jewish leaders to condemn Jackson for refusing to com
pletely dissociate himself from Black Muslim preacher Louis Farrakhan. In
Farrakhan's latest outrages, he called the establishment of Israel an
"outlaw act" and a "criminal conspiracy" and called Judaism a "gutter
religion" (Farrakhan said he was misquoted; that he called Judaism a "dirty
religion"--as though, TIME magazine said, "the distinction was signifi
cant"). Jackson was subsequently forced to publicly denounce Farrakhan's
language but he still has refused to totally distance himself from Far
rakhan's Black Muslim sect, whose members are still seen at Jackson
appearances, sometimes as guards.
Why the reluctance of Mr. Mondale to repudiate Jackson and his connection
to Farrakhan? Patrick Buchanan gave his opinion in the June 29 WASHINGTON
TIMES: