A TV star was made in Mario Cuomo, the Democrats' keynoter. "I believe it's the best I've ever heard," said ABC's David Brinkley, who has heard 17 keynotes. "The speech," said humorist Mark Russell on ABC, "introduced the English language to American TV." Cuomo proved that talking heads need not be dull. Then Jesse Jackson, in the words of NBC's Tom Brokaw, "took the place apart and put it back together." Then came Gary Hart. It's no wonder that Walter Mondale's forces let Hart speak next, for the Senator brought the standard of speech making back down to Mondale's usual level; he proved that WASPs give duller speeches. Mondale, the man with the clarinet voice, gave perhaps his best speech ever. But that's damning him with faint praise. Fritz is not a TV kinda guy; the near-charisma he does in fact have in person gets lost on the tube. It's no wonder that, while talking about education, he said that "parents must turn off their televisions."
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