Paul Tsongas

After a slow start, former U.S. Sen. Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts has pulled even in the polls with Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton in Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary in New Hampshire, which is considered the first real test in the campaign.The Evening Sun would like to know if you think Paul Tsongas will win in New Hampshire. Can he win the Democratic nomination? Has Bill Clinton's bubble burst as a viable candidate?To register your opinion, call SUNDIAL at 783-1800 (or 268-7736 in Anne Arundel County)

Liberal round pegs no longer fit into the square realities of our world, and the conservative square pegs prevailed.-- Paul E. Tsongas, ''The Road From Here'' (1981) BOSTON -- Paul Tsongas was a remarkable man, and his untimely death January 18 unleashed a flood of memories and appreciations. In the obituaries last week and in the recollections of those who knew him, there were tributes aplenty: To his courageous fight with cancer. To his fierce pride in his hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts.

In 1980, Sen. Paul Tsongas challenged the liberal wing of the Democratic Party to come up with new ideas and a new agenda. He said too many liberal Democrats were disconnected from reality, with a list of goals that was more a theological litany than a politically practical program for action. How right he was, and how ignored.He hopes he'll get a more respectful hearing now. He is a presidential candidate, not just a Senate back-bencher in the shadow of his Massachusetts colleague and liberal cheerleader, Sen. Edward Kennedy.

"Time Present, Time Past: A Memoir," by Bill Bradley. Knopf. 442 pages. $25Bill Bradley's new memoir may be the first example of a new genre: the non-campaign book. He is retiring after three terms as U.S. senator from New Jersey and, despite earlier reports, seems unlikely to seek the presidency this year. So, unlike political leaders' books that are little more than expanded stump speeches, this is a summing-up of Mr. Bradley's 18 years as a well-respected figure in Washington, D.C., and a well-traveled campaigner for Democratic candidates.

Liberal round pegs no longer fit into the square realities of our world, and the conservative square pegs prevailed.-- Paul E. Tsongas, ''The Road From Here'' (1981) BOSTON -- Paul Tsongas was a remarkable man, and his untimely death January 18 unleashed a flood of memories and appreciations. In the obituaries last week and in the recollections of those who knew him, there were tributes aplenty: To his courageous fight with cancer. To his fierce pride in his hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts.

CONCORD, N.H. -- At the beginning of every presidential campaign, the press gives its heart to the candidate who runs his campaign the way the reporters would run a campaign: with candor, humor -- and utterly no chance of winning.Four years ago that candidate was Bruce Babbitt of Arizona. This year it is Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts.At first ignored by the press, then lionized by the press, Tsongas now is on the threshold of Phase Three: getting savaged by the press.The growing popular wisdom about Tsongas is that he cannot win a Democratic primary outside of New England.

Paul Tsongas is being praised for making so gracious a withdrawal speech. But he'll get no praise from me. I'm tired of hearing politicians stand up and pretend to be good losers when they must surely be filled with bile. And I wish they would spit it out.Since he wouldn't do it, I'll -- off a speech for him:"I am withdrawing. It is clear that I cannot win the nomination, even though it should be obvious to anyone with more than an ounce of brains that I was the best candidate. Unfortunately, those with less than an ounce of brains are in the majority."

AS THE Democratic Party staggers toward the 1992 presidential election year with no recognized star yet in the running, the lament continues that it doesn't even have an agenda with which to challenge the high-riding Republican incumbent.The argument that President Bush is bringing the victorious troops home from the Persian Gulf to a domestic scene rife with neglect of pressing social needs is sharply hampered by the nation's huge debt squeeze that gives Bush an alibi for domestic inaction.

MERRIMACK, N.H. -- "Nobody ever says to me, 'you're wrong on the issues,'" Paul Tsongas observes. "They say, 'you don't give a good speech' or 'you're a Greek.'"As a piece of political analysis, that is as good as any. In the aftermath of Michael S. Dukakis, another Greek-American from Massachusetts doesn't seem to be just what the doctor ordered. And no one ever accused Paul Tsongas of a rhetorical style that sends his followers walking through walls.One result is that the onetime senator from Massachusetts has been consigned to what is euphemistically called the "second tier" of candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Nashua, N.H. -- WHEN PAUL TSONGAS arrived at Daniel Webster College here the other day to find more than 500 voters, nine television crews and several dozen hard-breathing reporters, he did a mock doubletake and asked: "What are you all doing here?"Everyone laughed appreciatively. Paul Tsongas, the determinedly uncharismatic former senator from Massachusetts, has suddenly become all the rage in the Democratic presidential campaign with the New Hampshire primary just ahead. Opinion polls now show him essentially even with the slipping Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas.

Facing a choice last Tuesday about the sort of government they want, Marylanders appeared to be of two minds, but the split may be less sharp than it seems.Approximately 1.4 million votes were distributed neatly in the race for governor between a doctrinaire Republican who promised lower taxes and a Democrat still willing to vouch for government spending as a force for good.Prince George's County Executive Parris N. Glendening, the Democrat, held a 6,191-vote margin over the Republican, Ellen R. Sauerbrey, when the polls closed on Tuesday.

Washington -- It's difficult to believe that a hard-hitting Baltimore Oriole has much in common with your two U.S. senators.But sure enough, all three appear on trading cards this spring.On the nation's playgrounds, a Cal Ripken or a Brady Anderson probably has a higher trading value than a Barbara Mikulski or a Paul Sarbanes. But not in political circles."Political cards are a sleeper in the industry," says Paul McGue, TC sales representative for Wild Card Inc., a Cincinnati trading card manufacturer.

Paul Tsongas is a popular guy these days. So is Ross Perot. Virtually every Maryland candidate contemplating a run for governor next year has embraced one of these iconoclasts.And no wonder. Mr. Tsongas coasted to victory over Bill Clinton in Maryland's 1992 Democratic presidential primary with a suburban strategy that could set new standards for future statewide elections. Then in November, Mr. Perot highlighted the discontent among a strong minority of voters -- 271,000 strong -- who could provide the winning margin in next year's state races.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's last-minute assignment to a prime speaking slot on Thursday's acceptance night at the Democratic National Convention shows that Bill Clinton's campaign is prepared to overlook Maryland's defection to the Tsongas camp in the state primary last March. Together with the two assignments Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski has been given on the podium, it ensures Baltimore a high profile.Mr. Schmoke was a consistent supporter of the Arkansas governor during his darkest days, when it appeared the Clinton candidacy might disintegrate under the pummeling of charges of marital infidelity and draft-dodging.

NEW YORK -- Everyone knew it was the next-to-the-last hurrah, but almost none of the faithful wanted to admit it. No one wanted to let go -- not the candidate, not his followers.The time for making peace with political reality was at hand, and the candidate, former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas, was trying to make the transfer of loyalty to Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton less painful.With Maryland's Tsongas delegates sitting close to the stage, the vanquished candidate consoled and cajoled yesterday during a spirited but bittersweet rally at the Sheraton New Yorker Hotel.

An election is the means by which a self-governing people is supposed to express its will, but in the presidential election of 1992, this is plainly not happening. The people are obscuring their will. They are hiding.A few statistics make the point. Forty-seven percent of registered voters in New York State are Democrats. The turnout in the Democratic primary was 27 percent. Of these, 41 percent voted for the winner, Bill Clinton.However, Voter Research and Surveys has reported that among those voting, only three in 10 actually favored any candidate.

Stop the presses! Paul Tsongas is running.The U.S. is the great power in the world and is begging its bankers in Tokyo and Bonn for lower interest so that it can go on living the fantasy a little longer.Iraq wants to sell oil and assets for such humanitarian necessities as food and medicine. You have Saddam Hussein's word on that.

Paul Tsongas, erstwhile Democratic candidate for president from Massachusetts, and Warren Rudman, soon-to-retired Republican senator from New Hampshire, say they may team up. That does not -- repeat not -- mean they are running as a new-fangled bipartisan national ticket for president and vice president. Too bad. If they shared the same platform, these two politicians would talk so much economic sense that voters would suffer from an overdose. After all, as Senator Rudman has observed, Americans are used to being lied to.Political common wisdom confirms that an independent Tsongas-Rudman ticket is an impossibility.

WASHINGTON -- Paul Tsongas, in keeping his presidential campaign in "suspension," won't say so, but he's sounding like a man who wouldn't mind being Bill Clinton's running mate. At the least, he wants Clinton to take his pro-business message, if note him.Tsongas in announcing his decision to stay on the sidelines made several references to his determination to keep that message alive as essential to a Democratic victory in November. But he said he would not accept the role of spoiler. His job, he said, was to advance the message but at the same time heal the party.