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The article presents information on the democrat Paul Simon. Simon is the perfect candidate for tain't season. He is a walking amalgam of every successful and failed Democratic candidate for President since Franklin Roosevelt, at least, with some Republicans thrown in for good measure He has craftily packaged a set of signifiers for policies and programs from the New Deal through the Fair Deal, New Frontier, Great Society and the Plains Deal. His jobs program ($8 billion in the first phase) recalls the Works Progress Administration. His long-term health care plan for the elderly expands on Medicare.

The article focuses on political conditions of the U.S., as of November 7, 1987. Beginning in the summer of 1983, Jesse Jackson set out to change the course of politics in that most resistant of regions. He convinced, cajoled and in some cases almost dragged blacks to registration desks and polling places with such success that more than 2 million "new voters" entered the political process. Not only that but blacks were encouraged and organized to run for office according to a strategy that would constitute a new progressive bloc within the Democratic Party at both the local and national levels.

The article comments on political and economic developments all round the world. A year from now the last presidential primary will be completed in California, the party conventions will be setting up in the steamy South, the field of candidates will be radically depleted and perhaps three-quarters of the estimated $400 million that Americans are going to spend on the 1988 election will be distributed to television stations, consultants, advertising-space buyers, airlines, printers, telephone companies, district workers and the myriad recipients of what has become a quadrennial national welfare system.

Presents several letters to the editor commenting on an article "The Left and Clinton: As Bill Goes, So Do We," by Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin's in the previous issue of the periodical. U.S. President Bill Clinton's insurance company-friendly health plans and proposed welfare cuts; Prospect of the Republican Party's victory in 1996.

Reports that the bulk of the surviving U.S. left has joined the Democratic Party center, without the will to inflect debate, the influence to inform policy or the leverage to share power. Negation of the reasons for the left's own existence; View that Jesse Jackson represented an opportunity for the left in the Democratic Party.

Applauds the development of African American political power in Lowndes County, Alabama by establishing the Lowndes County Freedom Organization political party through grassroots organizing and mobilization. Social conditions of African Americans; Role of the Black Panther in organizing the party; Obstacles to integrating Democrats with African Americans in Lowndes.

Examines the upcoming presidential election in the Dominican Republic and assesses the chances of Juan Bosch winning the election. Status of politics in the country after the U.S. military intervention; Implications of the presence of U.S. soldiers in the Dominican Republic for its people; Approaches proposed by political parties to solve the social and political problems of the nation; Information on how Bosch will deal with the left-wing and right-wing groups.

Provides an account of the Americans for Democratic Action's (ADA) 19th annual convention held in Washington in 1966, with emphasis on the participation of U.S. Vice President Hubert Horatio Humphrey. Role of Humphrey in the organization of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota in 1948; Recollection of Humphrey's attack on Harry Byrd and the Senate conservatives' ideas about government spending and federal bureaucracy during the 1948 Democratic National Convention; Claim that the reason for Humphrey's presence in the ADA convention was to reaffirm his association with ADA people.

Focuses on several Republican leaders across the U.S. who in dealing with state and local problems, are developing an approach to politics which differs from traditional Republicans and Democrats. Information on how John Lindsay challenged the Democratic Party in his campaign in New York City in November 1965; Advantages of Governor Daniel J. Evans of Washington over his Democratic rivals; Efforts of modern Republicans to duplicate the organizations of the Democratic Party that provide programs for Democratic platforms and harness volunteers for political teams; Contradictions between modern and traditional Republicans in how they confront the issues related to the Vietnamese conflict.

Highlights the disarray of the Republican Party due to an absence of a recognized leader and its defeat in the November 1965 election in the U.S. Major contribution of the party's leadership; Professionalism of Republican Senator Dirksen in contrast with the House Republican leaders; Pressure faced by the Republican National Committee from conservatives in the House of Representatives.

The article focuses on the Italian Communist Party (PCI), a political party that controlled scores of city and regional councils, commanded the allegiance of millions of workers and represented the major parliamentary opposition to the ruling Christian Democrats. It is reported that now the party has changed its name and its program, its hold on local politics is loosening, the favor of many workers and voters has been lost and it constitutes a barely credible opposition. Last winter in a wrenching national convention, the PCI became the PDS, the Democratic Party of the Left. Meanwhile, the old PCI managers and party functionaries in their central Italian strongholds go about their political and economic businesses as if nothing very much has changed, except their spots.

This article focuses on the U.S. Presidential election in 1988. Presidential candidate Jesse Jackson did not take over the U.S. Democratic party in 1988, although he had already changed politics in ways that few predicted at the start and that will be extremely difficult to reverse. Jackson's apparently coy but reportedly genuine bid for "serious consideration" as Michael Dukakis's running mate may have been partly a gambit to keep his campaign alive in the media during the dull days between California and Atlanta.

This article presents information related to U.S. politics. Andrew Kopkind writes that the author's presidential campaign in New Hampshire was "bizarre," that it "had no serious political strategy and proved ultimately pointless." Kopkind has simply failed to do the kind of job worthy of this periodical and its readers. Never once did he bother to interview the author or try to find out what the "point" was of the author's campaign. An election strategy is a plan, a program to organize a constituency, a scheme to amass support. The goal is to win elections or, failing that, to accumulate enough electoral power to influence an election, to impose an agenda, to remake a party or realign parties.