CAMPAIGN ’88 : A Mouthful for Bentsen

Democratic vice presidential nominee Lloyd Bentsen came to Manhattan on Thursday looking for votes and campaign money, and he found a sandwich that would impress even a Texan.

At the Carnegie Delicatessen, a New York institution, Bentsen and his wife B. A. joined comedian Henny Youngman, one of the deli’s regulars, for lunch. The Lone Star couple ordered the “Broadway Danny Rose,” a sandwich named after the Woody Allen film that featured the midtown restaurant.

“How do you eat this thing?” Bentsen said when a 5-inch-high pile of corned beef and pastrami stuck between slices of rye bread was placed in front of him.

Mugging for the cameras, he jammed the sandwich into his mouth with some help from delicatessen owner Milton Parker. B. A. Bentsen worked on hers with knife and fork, and the candidate soon followed suit, washing his bites down with a cream soda.

Youngman said he was there to provide some humor to the Democratic campaign.

“He’s going to give me a whole new line of insults,” Bentsen said.

Earlier, Bentsen spoke to a largely Republican business group on Long Island, telling members that America will “pay the price” for the huge deficits of the Reagan Administration.

“During this election, you’re going to hear a lot about a five-year economic boom,” he said, referring to the current expansion. But he said accomplishing that was no trick when the government was writing “hot checks” with deficits of more than $150 billion a year.