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Busy day in Politics as Campaign ’96 roared into Iowa. Former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander, in a short speech to jubilant supporters at the Marriott Hotel, said his strong showing was due to his positive message of change from outside Washington. “Iowa has done what the Iowa Caucus was supposed to do,” Alexander said, who was among the minority in the room in not wearing his campaign’s trademark red plaid shirt. “Iowa has said yes to a grass-roots campaign about the future of America, and no to negative mudslinging.” Flanked by his wife, Honey, and several dozen plaid-wearing supporters, Alexander said he would carry the momentum of the last week into the New Hampshire primary. It was close. Maybe even scary for a few minutes. But the message from Bob Dole headquarters Monday night was repeated again and again: A win is a win. Gov. Terry Branstad said it.
U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley said it. Dole’s Iowa campaign manager Darrell Kearney said of the Iowa Caucus results. The universal feeling was that Dole did very well by surviving an unprecedented negative attack campaign financed by Steve Forbes’ unlimited personal bank account.
It wasn’t Forbes who benefited from the attack on Dole, the Kansas senator’s backers said. It was Buchanan. “Forbes learned you can’t buy a state,” said Grassley. “He found out he couldn’t buy Iowa and he won’t be able to buy New Hampshire.” Kearney said the Dole campaign “took nothing for granted” given what he said was a $4 million attack by Forbes. And the Iowa Caucus raced into history.
In other news – As shopkeepers pulled sandbags aside and pushed squeegees to clear inches of muck from their front doors Monday, Northwesterners began assessing the broader impact of last week’s floods. Freight trains packed with goods and hundreds of long-haul truckers started moving after being idled behind mudslides and high waters, commercial shipping was halted indefinitely ana farmers must figure out when to plant fields still soggy with sewage-laden river waters. Meanwhile, thousands of people remained out of their homes as , the Northwest’s swollen web of waterways slowly receded. Everywhere the rivers and streams had strayed, gooey brown sludge remained.
And Martin Balsam, who won an Oscar as best supporting actor for A Thousand Clowns, and a Tony for his stage role In You Know I Can’t Hear You When the Water’s Running, was found dead today in a Rome hotel. He was 76. The cause of death was not immediately clear, said a police spokesman. Balsam’s body was found on the floor near the bed in his suite at the Ripetta Residence, an upscale residential hotel in the center of Rome.
His Italian agent, Vittorio Squillante, said Balsam had been at the hotel for about two weeks while on vacation. Squilllante said he was unaware of any recent health problems.
And that’s just a sample of what went on, this February 13, 1996 as reported by The CBS World News Roundup.
