NEW YORK NOTEBOOK : VIP Chaos

A shortage of special passes for entry to the floor where delegates sit and insiders want to be was creating such mayhem Monday that the credentials center was simply closed down in an attempt to restore order. A few hours later it was reopened with hundreds of angry and impatient conventioneers in snaking lines that made most motor vehicle offices in this country seem efficient and orderly by comparison. A convention source summed up the problem: “We underorganized and overpromised.”

The Button Brigade

Traditional campaign buttons just showing candidates’ faces are definitely passe. These days, best-selling buttons must have a theme. One popular button shows Bill Clinton playing the sax with the inscription “Blow Bill Blow.” Another proclaims “Bradley Back in the Garden,” a reference to New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley’s basketball days. Also very popular is Dan Quayle’s face with a red line through it and the words “Just Say Noe,” a reference to the vice president’s spelling prowess. Still another hot item proclaims “Abort Bush in the First Term.” But the hottest button, being plucked for $1 from button hawkers, shows the President and vice president smiling happily. Its slogan refers to the olfactory properties of natural fertilizer.

Friendly Territory

Democrats seated in their purple chairs in Madison Square Garden are in friendlier territory than in the rest of the nation, according to the Los Angeles Times Poll. Fully 46% of the voters in the Northeast view the Democratic Party favorably and 31% negatively--better numbers than the party gets nationwide. New York, in the heart of the Northeast, has stood as a bedrock of Democratic presidential success when Democrats succeeded in capturing the White House.