CAMPAIGN ’88 : Bentsen: Still Rockin’

Could it be that the courtly, silver-haired senator from Texas is secretly a rocker at heart?

Dukakis is accompanied everywhere he goes by the uplifting strains of Neil Diamond’s “Coming to America,” lest anyone forget his immigrant roots.

Thus, one might expect his 67-year-old running mate, Lloyd Bentsen, to move to the beat of a dignified rendition of “The Yellow Rose of Texas.” But the unofficial anthem at Bentsen campaign rallies is “Highway to the Danger Zone.” This frantic theme song from the movie “Top Gun” usually blares at mega-decibel levels as Bentsen moves on and offstage.

Tuesday night, the Bentsen campaign stretched musical incongruity further. As he took the podium at Washington University in St. Louis, the campaign set the mood by switching on Tina Turner’s version of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.”