To kiss and murmur.
The answer tonight at 7.
From ABC, this is World News Tonight with Peter Jennings.
Reporting tonight from the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta.
Good evening. Before this night is over, the Democratic Convention will finally belong to the party's nominee.
Jesse Jackson has had his official day in the sun.
Tonight, here in the South, after 15 months, 38 primaries,
more than 25 debates, and endless talk of a brokered convention,
Michael Dukakis, son of Greek immigrants, will have plotted his way to the nomination.
We begin with Sam Donaldson.
Wow.
Seldom has the button-down, serious-minded Michael Dukakis shown such joyous emotion in public
as he did today at a luncheon in his wife's honor.
But then it's not every day one gets nominated for the presidency.
This has been a real kick. As we came into Atlanta on Sunday, I turned to my bride and I said,
well, I think it's for real. I mean, this is happening.
Dukakis bubbled over with goodwill toward the man he'll defeat tonight.
But I thought last night as I watched Jesse Jackson and I watched those five incredible kids of his.
Up there on that platform.
Not only did Dukakis praise Jackson for his speech, he called it terrific.
Jackson walked across the street to Dukakis' hotel by invitation for another meeting with the governor.
Just general discussions at an aid.
Dukakis also worked today on his acceptance speech.
It is billed in advance as having a positive tone with no harsh partisan edge,
hitting the familiar economic and foreign policy themes of his primary campaign.
He also went to the hall to familiarize himself with the podium
from which he'll deliver that speech tomorrow night.
He admits he won't be able to match Jackson's oratory, but then as nominee, he figures it won't matter.
But if a new emotional side of Dukakis emerged on this day of his days, some old traits were on hand as well.
The Atlanta Boys Club presented him with a T-shirt to mark the occasion of his visit there this morning.
And true to form, Dukakis, the technocrat, found it wasn't right.
I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth, and it's an extra large, which is a little big for me, right?
So if there's something a little smaller, and you got a large or maybe even a medium around here.
I'd love to have it, and I will wear it very proudly.
No one can imagine Ronald Reagan receiving his 10,000th T-shirt or baseball cap and saying,
well, gee, thanks a lot, but it doesn't fit. Could I have another?
But then, of course, Michael Dukakis is a far different personality.
Peter?
Now the question is, I guess, Sam, will Michael Dukakis show up here in the convention hall tonight?
Well, you know, interestingly enough, like Reagan, he may just do that.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan came to the convention hall on the night he was nominated,
rather than waiting for the next night because he wanted to tell everybody he'd selected Bush.
Dukakis has already selected his vice presidential running mate.
However, they do have a plan for him to come to the call tonight, the hall tonight after the nomination.
But being very caring, very, rather, very cagey about it, they're not telling us whether he'll actually do it,
simply saying the plan is there.
OK, Sam, let's hear it out with Sam Donaldson on the floor.
He got a hand it to Jesse Jackson in one respect.
He doesn't just tell his followers never to give in.
He appears to live by his own advice.
The Democratic Party has given him a vast amount of attention and enormous public respect.
Now the party wants him four square behind the man who Democrats really believe has a chance of winning the White House.
But it's a little hard at times to tell for whom Mr. Jackson is campaigning.
Here's ABC's Britt Hugh.
Here was Jackson before the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,
a chance perhaps to urge his loyal civil rights supporters to unite behind the inevitable Dukakis-Benson ticket.
Jackson, however, had other ideas.
Our challenge today is to learn well the lessons from this campaign and build upon it the victory for the next campaign.
Jackson said later that didn't necessarily mean he would be running for president in 1992,
but these buttons were already being hawked on the streets of Atlanta.
In the rest of his remarks, Jackson showed little reverence for Dukakis,
delighting his SCLC audience with an account of how he tormented his rival by continuing to campaign long after the primaries ended.
I got to use the SCLC tactics around June.
They didn't know what to do.
They say, but the campaign is over.
But we're not necessarily the campaign is endless.
They say, but the governor's staff, they're getting the exasperated cause, y'all, won't stop.
We never did stop much.
Was all this a violation of the Jackson-Dukakis peace accords reached Monday?
Jackson apparently thought not and this afternoon walked across the street for a meeting with the governor at his hotel.
But later, during a photo opportunity with Senator Kennedy, Jackson indicated details of those accords are still being worked out.
Obviously, I'm going to support the ticket.
The question, as to when we'll make a very formal announcement and a more formal description of the campaign relationship, we'll determine that and let you know.
With Jesse Jackson, there's always something more to be determined, something more to wonder about.
By now, Michael Dukakis may be wondering, even if he can get Jackson out of the convention spotlight,
whether Jackson will campaign loyally for him this fall or whether Jackson will really be campaigning for himself.
Peter?
Britt, you could get the impression that Mr. Jackson thrives on this unpredictability. What do you think?
Oh, I think that's true, Peter. This man operates on pure instinct, but he is a public relations, a publicity genius.
You have to wonder if he's out this fall and he's being the good soldier and saying only the approved things, will he make news? Will he get attention?
If he's not, you have to imagine that if he's not, he's going to say some of those things to get him in the news, and that isn't good news for the Dukakis camp.
Okay, Britt, thanks very much. A note about tonight's proceedings.
There are those here who believe that because the Democrats have designed their convention with the intention of impressing a television audience, that the convention has lost some of its human dimension.
There are enough satellite dishes around here to keep us in touch with the whole universe, and so much else has changed.
Thank goodness there is at least one tradition the Democrats have not tinkered with. Here's ABC's Jeff Greenfield.
Alabama desires to make a nominee. 68 votes for us to keep her. 104 and a half votes.
This is the way they used to nominate a president, with state after state intoning its numbers, boasting of its virtues.
Nebraska, the football capital of the world.
Montana, the first state to send a woman to Congress.
And waiting as convention secretary Dorothy Bush carefully tally the vote.
Well, Dorothy Bush is still on the job after 40 years, but they're counting the votes very differently now. The Democrats have gone high tech.
Just touch the screen when you are ready to begin your vote.
Each state delegation has a touch screen computer that lets the chair do everything from calling the podium to counting and casting the ballots.
So does this mean that tonight's nomination will be over in a nanosecond?
No, tonight they do it the old fashioned way, state by state with glowing tributes to Iowa corn and Idaho potatoes.
Why? For the same reason Joe DiMaggio puts on his old uniform on Old Timer's Day or tourists ride steam locomotives.
It's a journey back down memory lane to a time when we didn't know who the nominee would be until they actually counted the votes.
Peter? Thanks, Jeff, as we said, thank goodness.
When we come back, the language of politics and the tenor of the church.
And later in this broadcast, George Bush not taking the convention bait.
And Judd Rose on some of Atlanta's finest dining.
This is World News Tonight with Peter Jennings from the Democratic Convention in Atlanta.
Brought to you by AT&T.
When I talked about how we deal with our customers or any customer I'd have, you get to know them personally.
And eventually it becomes a relationship where they're not just ABC company, they're people.
They know that I got all these products and these different things behind me.
But they are talking to me, Rory Cartwright.
And I'm going to sit across the table and I'm going to say, I'm going to take care of you.
When you take away all the titles, it's really down to two people interfacing with each other.
What'll it be?
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There is no other place we can imagine quite like a political convention for studying how well people communicate in public.
From the time they come into this hall until they leave, many hours later, there's always someone talking.
Often haranguing, occasionally pleading, sometimes cajoling, berating or praising.
The name of the game is inspiration.
Some folks have it and some folks don't.
Jesse Jackson has it.
Here's ABC's Richard Thrillkill.
You must not surrender.
You may or may not get there, but just know that you are qualified and you hold on.
He's one of the most inspiring speakers of this generation.
How come?
Well, it helps if you're a preacher and master of the cadence and crescendos of a Black Baptist Church sermon.
We must never surrender.
We must go forward.
Simple, compelling themes repeated over and over, spoken with passion and urgency to reach out and grab an audience with a kind of controlled hysteria.
Use some of that money for long-term health care.
Use some of that money to wipe out these slums and put America back to work.
It's a talent that can be taught.
I've had my trials, my tribulations, my ups and downs, my losses.
The Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, had the talent and taught it to his son.
One day right now in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
The Reverend Jackson learned in part from listening to the Reverend King and learned well.
His speech to the Democrats four years ago was the best speech of his life.
And come November, there will be a change because our time has come.
And now another Jackson is learning how.
Those who say this is an age of cynicism and despair are wrong.
A new generation, my generation, is coming.
We have not given up the dream.
It can be taught, this manner of speaking, but it's also a gift.
You have it or you don't.
It helps if you're from the South, but not always.
I am a Southerner. I'm a Baptist.
Some people even like to say that I love to preach.
And it's not a gift of race.
There are a lot of black speakers who will never be Jesse Jackson.
Whom do we trust to spend our money wisely, to restore balance to our economy, and to invest in our future?
Finally, you've got to have your heart in it.
At the beginning last night, you had the feeling Reverend Jackson was reading for the record.
We meet tonight at the crossroads, a point of decision.
Shall we expand, be inclusive, find unity and power?
Or suffer division and impotence?
At the end, Jesse Jackson threw away the script, spoke from the soul, and captured the convention.
We must never surrender!
America will get better and better.
Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive!
Richard Threlkeld, ABC News, New York.
In case you missed Mr. Jackson's speech, he will soon be available in your home video store.
An Illinois company has bought the rights to market it.
And while we're on the subject of political speechifying, live and unedited, David Brinkley.
Governor Dukakis' big speech is tomorrow night when he accepts the party's nomination.
But he is already out with a disclaimer that he has never won any gold medals for oratory
and cannot come even close to the Jesse Jackson speech.
Well, does that matter?
Does a successful president need to be a spellbinding orator?
We'll look at our last 50 years of presidents. How many could make a good speech?
Roosevelt, yes. Truman, no. Eisenhower, no. Kennedy, yes. Johnson, no. Nixon, no.
Ford, no. Carter, no. Reagan, yes.
So in 50 years we have had three presidents, Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Reagan,
who could make good speeches and all three were by most measurements successful presidents.
But it's not clear what that proves, if anything.
Since it is known that a good political speech is one that tells the truth.
And if it is eloquent, that's nice too, but not really necessary.
Eloquent political speeches are rare.
Eloquent, truthful political speeches are more so. Peter?
Thank you, David. See you at 9 o'clock Eastern time when our convention coverage begins again.
When we come back, the vice president who is back from vacation and taking the high road.
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As we continue, where is George?
No, we don't mean to pick up on a campaign slogan that Senator Kennedy tried to devise here this week for use against George Bush this fall.
We're finding out that George Bush, after four days of fishing in what's described as isolated Wyoming,
has emerged to comment on what the Democrats have been saying about him.
Here's ABC's Carol Simpson.
Last night, Democratic delegates were chanting, where was George?
Asking where George Bush was during some of the Reagan administration's less than finer moments.
Like when arms were sold to Iran and deals made with Panamanian General Noriega.
Bush surfaced today at a Ukrainian cultural center in Warren, Michigan.
He swore to reporters that he had heard nothing about the Democratic convention or the attacks on him.
I'm not being cute with you.
I literally was out of contact for four nights and three days, and I recommend it to everybody.
Bush was told that Senator Ted Kennedy had called him a know-nothing, do-nothing vice president.
That's the beautiful thing about the forest, the actual wilderness.
You don't have to listen to Ted Kennedy. It is wonderful.
While Bush wouldn't respond to Democratic attacks against him, White House spokesman Marlon Fitzwater did.
To the Democrats' question, where was George?
Fitzwater said George was cutting taxes, not raising them, and he said George was pushing arms control, not cutting defense.
Bush had one explanation for the Democrats' name-calling.
It might show a little desperation. Why else would you do that? Why not run on what they're for?
Bush said the Democrats' attacks may backfire in November.
He said when things get ugly and nasty, the American people don't like it.
Carol Simpson, ABC News, Warren, Michigan.
In other news today, the FBI has arrested a total of eight men who they said were linked to pro-Libyan activities in the United States.
But when six of the suspects appeared in court this afternoon, the government had new and even more dramatic charges.
Here's ABC's Dennis Trout.
The suspects were taken to court in Alexandria, Virginia, shackled hand and foot.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Henry Hudson said 42-year-old Musa Hoamda, the owner of a Virginia travel agency,
was actually a Libyan intelligence agent and involved in a plot to assassinate a high government official.
Sources tell ABC News the official they plan to kill is Oliver North.
When he was on the National Security Council, North was instrumental in plotting a U.S. Navy bombing raid against Tripoli, Libya, in April 1986.
Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi vowed revenge for the attack.
And prosecutors claimed another defendant was collecting the names of Americans in addition to North who were involved in putting together the Libya bombing.
For now, the suspects are being held without bond.
Officials say if released, they would endanger the lives of informants who helped investigators break the case.
Dennis Trout, ABC News, Washington.
Carlos Lader, the man convicted of being one of the leaders of Colombia's Medellin drug smuggling cartel, was sentenced in Florida today to life in prison plus 135 years.
Lader was also asked to pay $425,000 in fines.
On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average came back up over the 2100 level, gaining about 13 and a half points, and the trading was fairly light.
When we come back, small but significant steps towards peace in the Persian Gulf.
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The United Nations Security Council today expressed its profound regret and deep distress over the deaths of the 290 people on board Iran Air Flight 655.
It is 17 days now since the plane was shot down by an American warship in the Persian Gulf.
The resolution did not blame the United States, which joined the other 14 members of the council in voting for the resolution.
In the Persian Gulf today, both Iran and Iraq have staged new attacks against each other,
while diplomatic efforts intensify in an effort to bring about a ceasefire.
Here's ABC's John McQuethy.
The pace of diplomacy quickened today as UN Secretary General Perez de Cuellar made his announcement of a crucial first step toward a ceasefire.
I am dispatching immediately to Iran and Iraq a United Nations technical team.
That team is to report back to him in a week with a deadline for when the shooting must stop,
as well as dates for when the estimated 60,000 prisoners can be exchanged.
Also today, Iraq sent a letter to the Secretary General urging immediate face-to-face talks between Iraq and Iran, talks that would go beyond just a ceasefire.
And from Iran came a statement purportedly from the Ayatollah Khomeini,
who admitted that changing his position and agreeing to a ceasefire was like taking poison.
He indicated that he only did it because things had become so desperate in Iran that the survival of the revolution depended upon it.
Despite all the diplomacy, the fighting continued today with each side again mounting air attacks.
The United States urged both sides to cool it.
This is clearly a time for restraint and caution by all sides.
Nothing should be done to jeopardize the chances for peace.
But war has become a way of life for both sides, as has hating each other.
Changing that, officials say, so that a ceasefire can grow into a real peace could take years.
John McQuethy, ABC News, the State Department.
South Africa's Foreign Minister, Pik Bota, announced today that his country has formally accepted an agreement which will grant independence to Namibia, or southwest Africa,
and provide for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from next door Angola.
A similar announcement was made in Angola.
The agreement is only an outline of principles and in principle,
and analysts say that there are still major obstacles before the three regions can agree on what will actually and finally happen.
There was another indication today of just how seriously the Soviet Union is taking the continuing unrest in the Soviet Republic of Armenia.
The Armenians have been demanding the annexation of a region populated by Armenians in neighboring Azerbaijan.
Today, the Soviets stripped one of the Armenian nationalist leaders of his citizenship and said that he could well be expelled from the Soviet Union.
When we come back, we'll have our final report from Atlanta.
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Tonight on Nightline, if you can get people laughing with you and at your opponent, then you're scoring big political points.
Ted Koppel in Atlanta looks at how that game is being played.
You're finally here this evening, historic Atlanta.
Now, you know that whenever we come on the road to one of these great media events, we in the media always take a somewhat closer look,
closer look than usual, at least, at the city we're in.
Last night, our report on the black personalities who've helped to mold Atlanta into such an important and tolerant place.
Tonight, we go tongue-in-cheek, somewhat deeper into Atlanta culture.
Here's ABC's Judd Rhodes.
This is where the Democrats come to order.
This is where the rest of Atlanta comes to order.
Two chili steaks, chili dogs, large PC.
It's lunchtime at the world's largest diner, the Varsity, where since 1928, Atlantans have cast their votes for...
Greasy hot dogs, greasy fries, greasy onion rings.
They all make it worthwhile.
Yes, a trip to the Varsity is a visit to ancient Greece.
A lot of people say it's greasy, but they still come here and eat it.
It was the place to go when I was a teenager.
You know, when you first got your first car and you had your date, your first date, and you could drive somewhere after a movie or after a game, it was the place to come.
From its humble beginnings as a hangout for students of Georgia Tech, the Varsity grew and grew some more.
Now, it consumes two city blocks, and its customers consume...
Two miles of hot dogs a day, a ton and a half of potatoes, a ton of onions, and more coke than any single outlet in the world.
If the Varsity is an institution, so are some of its employees.
A beloved 50-year veteran, Flossie Mae Rayford, sings the menu.
Sort of.
Ham, bacon, chicken, salad, ham, ham, the middle lettuce, tomato, bar, beef, cube, oh, of course, I've got the yellow jacket on, seat, make better, man.
Hot chocolate and coffee.
Stop, you're in my way.
And then there's Irby Walker, king of the express line.
His motto...
Hey, you money in your hand and you're already in your mind.
What do you have? What do you have?
So what will the Democrats have?
Well, when George Bush was here earlier this year, he had a chili dog.
Even Dukakis fans could support that.
At the Varsity, a greasy hot dog and fries is just the ticket.
Judd Rose, ABC News, Atlanta.
And that's our report on World News tonight. David Brinkley and I will be back at 9 Eastern time to continue our coverage of the Democratic Convention.
I'm Peter Jennings. Hope you'll join us then. Have a good evening.
Some people are afraid to vote because they don't want to make the wrong choice.
Just think of it this way. If you vote, you might make the wrong choice.
But if you don't, you already have.
Please join me in watching the conventions and be sure to register and vote.
The big night for Mike Dukakis at 9 Eastern time will be here live.