POLITICS ’88 : Democrats Carefully Crafting Convention for Prime Time TV

Now comes Prime Time.

With a kettle of rivalries still boiling away, the Democratic National Committee and its nominee-in-waiting nevertheless say they have a script for the party’s national convention that will lead them away from the bruising, fractious, televised engagements of past election years.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson’s deputies in Atlanta abruptly broke off pre-convention negotiations on Wednesday, in the aftermath of Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis’ selection of Texas conservative Sen. Lloyd Bentsen to be his running mate.

But when the opening gavel falls next Monday, the picture on television during the evening sessions will be peaceable and businesslike, the Dukakis and party forces say.

“You watched us over the months. We set a course and we stuck to it. We didn’t react. We set out a goal and we went after it,” said Marcia Hale, the convention manager for Michael Dukakis.

“We are prepared to run an orderly convention . . . . This race is very, very close, and we need to launch the general election with four good days of TV.”

Democrats do not shy away from saying how high the stakes will become.

Wide Audience Expected

“People will say this is a party either ready to govern or this is a party not ready to govern, based on what they see,” Democratic pollster Peter Hart said. He estimated that 53% of American voters will watch the party proceedings on television.

“The convention can do great damage to the Democrats if things don’t go well,” Hart said.

The control rooms and back rooms of Atlanta’s labyrinth Omni complex are filling up with Dukakis Democrats who speak an unfamiliar tongue--one full of words such as futuristic, efficient, unified, businesslike and forward-looking.

They have changed the traditional red, white and blue colors to add a high-tech gloss. They have changed the pace of the program to accommodate television’s declining interest.

Yet the same question that has tugged at the party Establishment since the last election remains unanswered: Will Jesse Jackson get in the mood to go along?

Jackson has found himself uttering the U-word, unity, but at the same time, he has not shown himself to be a willing devotee of the tidy and businesslike school of conventioneering.

Might Jackson try to steal the thunder of the nominee here? he was asked.

“It has nothing to do with thunder,” he replied. “Mr. Dukakis had no intention of bringing any thunder to Atlanta.”

The Dukakis campaign managers, however, believe the tone of the week is theirs to set. They say that this is the beginning of the general election for them, while it is the end of the primaries for Jackson.

And, however shaky the situation at midweek, there were some signs of unity among the Democrats.

There were no challenges to the seating of any of the more than 4,000 delegates, unlike some Democratic brawls of the past. And the party’s rules committee has produced a report with no minority planks.

On the other hand, potentially sharp differences over the platform remain unresolved.

No Public Conflicts

Democratic Party Chairman Paul G. Kirk Jr. had begun the week saying: “I don’t expect there will be any floor fights.”

Even if there are, he continued, they will be debated and brought to a vote before the television networks begin their two-hour, live coverage of the evening sessions.

A total of 13 minority planks to the platform have been offered. Of these, four pose the biggest problems: Jackson’s quest for a tax increase on high incomes, a freeze on military spending, renouncement of first use of nuclear weapons and a statement supporting self-determination for Palestinians in the Middle East. Dukakis has opposed even negotiating on these points.

The platform will be presented Tuesday night, the night Jackson is to address the convention. Jackson will have a prime time slot and will be introduced by his children, according to the tentative schedule.

Monday night will feature speeches from former President Jimmy Carter and some of the party’s up-and-comers. The convention keynoter will be Ann Richards, Texas state treasurer. Wednesday night is the traditional time for the nominations, and Thursday night is for Dukakis and Bentsen.

To carry the program along on television, the preliminary script calls for rapid-fire political salesmanship, squeezed into television’s restricted schedule and purveyed by a dizzying lineup of 50 Democratic officials.

A limit of 10 minutes has been requested for all speeches except the most significant ones.

For all the planning, however, the delegates could still drive the convention into some unexpected--maybe even exciting--direction. Or the production could come off as planned but prove so manufacturered as to be flat and uninspiring.

“Whether we get our story out via the 13,000 hungry animals (press) who are here to be fed is a real question,” said the Democrats’ convention press spokesman, Mike McCurry. “Because, as a news event, there ain’t much here. We could mail the ballot in at this point, and the results would be the same.”

Friction between the convention orchestrators and the news media was already apparent.

Not only have the networks cut coverage to two hours of prime time--three hours on Thursday, the closing night--but one network, NBC, announced itwill cover the Democrats not just from the perspective of the convention hall but also from the point of view of Americans in their hometowns.

Kirk, the party’s national chairman, said the media have an obligation to show the convention more or less the way the Democrats stage it. “During the NBA playoffs, they didn’t go out to Indiana and ask Larry Bird’s high school coaches what they thought of Larry’s jumpshot now. They stayed with the show,” he said.

Convention managers are hoping that some of the hours lost to the network curtailments will be offset by expanded reporting on local television.

For those broadcasters who do not want to cover the proceedings but still want some “news” to call their own, the party has created its own mini-network to record interviews and action, package them, and beam them via satellite right to the stations.

“We and others who know the business better than I have described this convention as the most high-tech, state-of-the-art technology convention in history. We hope in many ways to live up to that standard and show . . . the Democratic Party of the United States is the party of the future,” Kirk said.

Most Americans will witness this “future” in the form of the imposing podium designed for this convention. Here the old-fashioned, red, white and blue give way to “soft blues, soft red and gray tones.”

No-Sweat Speeches

“Chiller vents” aimed at the speakers’ faces will prevent cameras from exposing any perspiration, and a hydraulic foot stool will enable all Democrats, short and tall, to stand at the same height.

An elaborate, electronic voting system will eliminate the long state-by-state roll calls, except during the nominations of Dukakis and Bentsen. Democratic officials decided to keep the traditional roll calls for Wednesday night after they conducted a poll and found that the sounding off of each state’s name, replete with corny regionalisms, is the No. 1 favorite with television viewers.

Convention planners said “no” to some Hollywood flair, such as having Barry Manilow sing while Dukakis takes the podium and the hall is filled with video vignettes of America. An idea along these lines was proposed by Los Angeles production consultants Smith-Hemion, the firm that also is advising the Democrats on more mundane matters of lighting and pace.

In the final days of planning, Democrats here continued to remind themselves to be flexible. Posted on a bulletin board here was a reminder from a former national chairman, Robert. S. Strauss:

“Conventions ain’t easy ‘cause there’s no dress rehearsal.”