The day before this taping, Jimmy Carter had defeated Gerald Ford for the

Presidency; furthermore, in Congress, most of the Democratic freshmen originally elected in the Watergate year of 1974 had been re-elected. These three old pros give us a tour, rich in detail, of the policies and personalities. WFB: "Do the returns ... suggest that the Republican Party carries a stigma which it appears incapable of a cleansing, so that people who want a crack at public life are extremely reluctant to proceed under the sponsorship of the Republican Party? ..." RR: "I think, yes, there is a stigma ... On the other hand,... the election laws are designed to perpetuate the two-party system, so that once you get the Republican nomination you can do anything you want with it--run as an attractive young alternative, or, as Hayakawa did in California, as an attractive old alternative running against the majority party." ... JK: "The first thing I think I'll say is that... it seems to me to be very very much an un-landmark election ... But in answer specifically to your question, it would seem to me that there are several good indices for the Republicans. First of all, they elected some young, fresh faces--Lugar, Wallop, for example. Secondly,... when a state like New Jersey, which I think has unemployment of over 11 per cent, goes Republican, it seems to me that the Democrats ought to be scratching their heads a little bit and worrying a lot."