Word: teflon
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Taking On a Teflon Senator...
Although his actions have prompted scorn and snickering during his campaign for a second term, two things usually fatal to a politician, the fervently conservative Senator has demonstrated a Teflon resistance to lasting taint. The Des Moines Register poll conducted last spring showed him 16 points behind his opponent, Democratic Congressman Tom Harkin, but the Register poll released last week gave the Senator a 50%-to-41% lead. Jepsen has appealed to Iowa voters by claiming to be a victim of "character assassination." At a Republican state convention, he won sympathy by saying he had been "stripped of all worldly...
...advantage for Jepsen may be the current enormous popularity of President Reagan, the original Teflon candidate, in the state. Iowa voters have split tickets before, sending some notable liberal Democrats to Capitol Hill while voting for Republican presidential candidates, but an overwhelming pro-Reagan sentiment might discourage many Democrats from going to the polls in November...
...G.O.P.'s strategy raises the issue of whether Reagan's likability can indeed persuade large numbers of independent and Democratic voters to vote for other Republicans. Reagan, after all, has been nicknamed the Teflon President by his Democratic detractors, who are frustrated by his ability to separate himself from his Administration's failures. Perhaps wishfully, they maintain that Teflon Presidents do not come equipped with Velcro coattails. "Our polls reflect that Reagan's personal popularity is not transferable to Senate Republican candidates," says J. Brian Atwood, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "They have...
...have Americans seemed so generous toward Reagan? Pundits resort to a kind of mystical non-analysis: some unprecedented "Teflon factor," they say, has permitted him to escape public blame; no failure sticks. Walter Mondale's hope is that before Americans step into the polling booths, they will come to see that the Teflon is just a thin coating, that the President beneath is oblivious and misguided. "Mondale and Ferraro are putting up warning signs," notes a White House strategist. "They are saying the next four years will be dangerous if Reagan is reelected. We will have to respond to that...