If You’ve Got the Time, Heeere’s Johnny--and Bill

--As sand trickled through an hourglass on Johnny Carson’s desk, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton conceded to “Tonight Show” viewers that his widely ridiculed nomination speech for Democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis at last week’s Democratic National Convention in Atlanta was not his finest hour--or, more accurately, his finest half hour. Allotted 15 minutes, Clinton rambled on for 32, ignoring flashing red lights and other attempts to cut him off. When he said: “I want to say, in closing,” the booing convention crowd cheered. Clinton, who has been using humor in an attempt to keep the fallout from his disastrous speech from ruining his image as a rising star in the Democratic Party, told the studio audience: “My sole goal was achieved, however. I wanted so badly to make Dukakis look great, and I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.” Carson introduced Clinton with a long-winded speech of his own that included minute details from Clinton’s educational background. He added: “Not to worry, we have plenty of black coffee and extra cots in the lobby.”

--Taking what might be called the prudent course, the Miami Herald says it won’t run any cartoons of Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III while he decides on a newspaper merger proposed by its parent company. Meese is considering an application from Knight-Ridder Inc., which owns the Herald, and Gannett Co. to combine business operations at their Detroit papers. The decision fell to Meese when the newspaper groups appealed an administrative law judge’s refusal to grant the merger of Knight-Ridder’s Detroit Free Press and Gannett’s Detroit News. Herald Editor Jim Hampton said he decided not to run Meese drawings by Herald cartoonist Jim Morin because “a cartoon can’t say ‘on the other hand.’ ” An editorial informed readers of the touchy situation. “The discomfiture in which this matter places the Herald is self-evident,” Hampton wrote. For now, he said, words would have to suffice when commenting on Meese.

--Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, has been named the winner of the 1988 Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger. The award was given by The Hunger Project, a nonprofit organization founded to study ways to end world hunger.

--Lee Roy Young, a 15-year Texas state police veteran, has been named the first black Texas Ranger in the 160-year history of the elite force. Stephen F. Austin, who brought the first colonists into Texas, founded the Texas Rangers in 1823 to help protect settlers. Of the 94 Rangers, four are Latino but there are no blacks or women.