Mr. Baker--the first Republican Senate Majority Leader since the Eisenhower

Administration--had retired from the Senate the year before and was testing the waters for a presidential campaign. Mr. Alexander, who had gone to Washington as Mr. Baker's chief assistant twenty years earlier, was just ending a second highly successful term as his home state's governor. There are no fireworks on this show, but some pleasant conversation on topics of general interest--mainly, as WFB phrases it, "Why is the South still preponderantly Democratic, notwithstanding its inclination to Republican Presidents?" HB: "I think that Republicans are thought of as grand strategic thinkers and Democrats are thought of as concerned and compassionate. Both those things are overstatements and gross simplifications, but it is true." LA: "You don't get elected mayor of Tupelo worrying about the gold standard."