in the 1984 campaign, i was covering allen cranston. he ran for president in the primaries. he didn't do very well. he finished sixth if you want to count it that way, but reagan actually got more write-in votes and he had to quit. we were on the airplane going back to los angeles in an old delta plane to l.a.x. and i'm sitting beside him and he says, karl, abraham lincoln couldn't be elected today. and i was taking notes and i stopped taking notes. and he said do you want to write that down? i saidic i think i'll do you a faefr, sir, i'm not going to put that in my story. and he said why not? i said -- what he was getting at is that gary hart was this pretty face and that he couldn't break through to be the guy who runs against mondale. and i said, well, because lincoln was the greatest writer we've ever had in that office since jefferson held it and if he was running now, all of the people on this plane, and i turned to all the roerteporters would quit and work for him. >> is there a contender on the list do you think could have gotten elected today because television that