Only Hoosiers Had It Right on the Button

Political savants weren’t the only ones tossed into a tizzy by Vice President George Bush’s surprise selection of Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle as a running mate.

The button vendors weren’t too happy--or too ready, either.

For a week, they had been selling hundreds of lapel buttons variously pairing Bush with all the likely running-mates, and some far-fetched ones as well: Jack Kemp, both Bob and Elizabeth Hanford Dole, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Howard H. Baker Jr., even Oliver L. North.

But when the announcement came down Tuesday, the only people who had Bush-Quayle buttons on their lapels--and smug smiles on their faces--were members of the Indiana delegation, who had ordered the long-shot favorite son buttons long before.

Offered $50

The clamor for Quayle buttons reached such a pitch in the hours after the announcement that one Indiana delegate said she was offered $50 for hers Tuesday night--and just said no.

Vendors, who weren’t even sure how to spell Quayle, hastily tacked up signs promising buttons the next morning.

At Creative Photo Crafts’ Toledo, Ohio, plant, “they worked all night last night and probably will work all night tonight,” said vendor Tommy White on Wednesday. By midday, the smaller size of the red and white Bush-Quayle buttons, $3 each or 2 for $5, were sold out.