A Party in Search of Itself.

As the 1976 political season opened, the Democratic party seemed to be suffering from an identity crisis. The polarization of the liberal and conservative wings of the party remained; the air of defeat in 1972 lingered. Liberals looked unenthusiastically to Humphrey or Massachusetts senator Edward M. Kennedy for leadership; conservatives, equally glum, turned toward Wallace. These venerable party leaders appeared exhausted: Wallace still struggled to regain the vitality stolen from him by the assassination attempt in 1972, and Humphrey, tired of perennial candidacy, declined to run. Kennedy, young and able, carrying the glamorous name of his brothers, was the potential front-runner. As he had in 1972, however, Kennedy also declined to run. He cited family problems; but there was also the likely prospect of an attempt on his life and the lingering scan-dal associated with a 1969 automobile accident...