Flunking Out

Senate candidates muff a quiz

In aggressively erudite Boston, a television reporter Last week asked all the candidates for a U.S. Senate seat a series of factual questions, most of them on defense and foreign affairs. None of the ten knew all the answers. One candidate for the Democratic nomination got every question wrong. The quiz might have been suitable for a Secretary of State, contended Holyoke Community College President Da vid Bartley, but not for a Senate candidate.

The inquisitions were broadcast on WBZ-TV. "The intent was not to humiliate," insisted News Director Stan Hopkins, but the effect was precisely that. Hartley and Democratic Congressman Edward Markey could not identify the Prime Minister of Israel (Yitzhak Shamir). Markey came close: he guessed Moshe Arens, who is the Defense Minister. Bartley alone failed to get the name of Syria's President (Hafez Assad). Republican Elliot Richardson, a former Secretary of Defense, estimated the military's share of the budget (28%) at just 7.5%. All seven Democrats were stumped by the toughest questions they were asked: the amount of the current defense budget ($258 billion), the number of U.S. troops overseas (WBZ's answer: 400,000), and the countries in which the U.S. is currently deploying nuclear missiles (Great Britain, West Germany and Italy). Both Bartley and William Hebert, a former teachers' union official, were tripped up by the confusing but basic policy question about which side the U.S. supports in El Salvador (the government) and in Nicaragua (the insurgents).