POLITICS 88 : Robertson Hears No Sour Notes of Defeat

If the fat lady didn’t sing Tuesday night, she certainly tuned up her voice.

Since his crushing defeat in last Saturday’s South Carolina primary, Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson had taken to noting that the race for the nomination “isn’t over until the fat lady sings.”

With Super Tuesday returns showing him defeated soundly in 16 of the 17 states holding GOP contests--most of them in what he has called his back yard--Robertson’s campaign now appears dominated by sour notes.

Robertson, however, still hears a different kind of music.

“I want everybody to know we’re not out yet,” he told about 300 cheering supporters at a hotel rally here after the results were clear.

Flanked by his wife, Dede, and their daughter, Anne Stierhoff, Robertson vowed to compete in next week’s Illinois primary, asserting that it could be a “two-man race” between him and Vice President George Bush.

Strategists Modify Goal

In the days leading up to Super Tuesday, Robertson campaign strategists retreated extensively from their earlier goal of winning the popular vote in the South. They settled for targeting 95 congressional districts in the 17 states in hopes of winning 200 or more of the 712 GOP convention delegates at stake Tuesday.

At the Radisson hotel here, the campaign set up a bank of telephones linked to the 95 districts. Workers in those districts telephoned results to about 100 volunteers sitting at 16 long tables covered with yellow cloths.

The news over the telephones would be better than the news from television, which reported Robertson’s low popular-vote totals. “We want to be able to add on to the information that we get from the networks,” said Kerry Moody, Robertson’s deputy press secretary.

But as the night wore on, it was clear that Robertson was falling far short of even his greatly reduced goals for Super Tuesday and was collecting just a small clutch of delegates. In the popular vote, he was finishing a distant third to Bush and Kansas Sen. Bob Dole.

Seems More at Ease

When Robertson arrived at the hotel to await returns before his election night celebration, he seemed more at ease than he had for several days.

Dressed in blue jeans and a blue jacket bearing the insignia of the Christian Broadcasting Network, which he founded, the former religious broadcaster told his cheering supporters: “I’m kind of relaxed today. I’m excited about what you’re doing.”

Earlier in the day, when he voted in his hometown of Virginia Beach, Va., Robertson was given two dolls dubbed David and Goliath. He later told the crowd here: “We’re going after the giant,” meaning Bush. “It’s just a question of whether one of those smooth stones will catch him in the forehead.”

Even then, before the votes were in, he was telling his supporters to be patient until the convention in New Orleans. They have been told to accept the new definition of victory.

Optimists in the Robertson campaign believe that even though Bush looks unstoppable, there is a possibility of a deadlocked convention. They further believe that there is latent support for Robertson among many delegates nominally pledged to Bush, who may switch to Robertson if Bush doesn’t win on the first or second ballot.

‘Real Unexpected Things’

“Victory doesn’t have to happen here,” said Bette Myers, a secretary from nearby Stone Mountain, Ga. “I think we’re going to see some real unexpected things happen in New Orleans. Let God be God.”

Myers and another supporter, Robin Juarez, a registered nurse from Lilburn, Ga., said they fasted and prayed for Robertson on Sunday.

Thus, they were confident that no matter what happened Tuesday night, the new game plan would work.

Even as the vote totals rolled in, showing their candidate losing badly, they continued to believe.

Told about the returns, Juarez smiled and said: “I’m unfazed; I’m a strong pillar. Till the final vote in August, it’s not over.”

The candidate gave her no reason to believe otherwise.

“This is not the end,” he told the crowd Tuesday night. “This is just the beginning. We’re going to New Orleans, and you’re going to see victory.”

HOW EVANGELICAL PROTESTANTS VOTED Percent of vote, in six key GOP primaries.

Florida Georgia Kentucky Mississippi N. Carolina % of all voters 32% 51% 53% 49% 45% Bush 51 52 52 59 43 Dole 16 21 27 17 37 Robertson 25 22 16 17 15 Kemp 7 5 3 5 4

Texas % of all voters 46% Bush 57 Dole 9 Robertson 26 Kemp 7

Source: Los Angeles Times Poll