Social issues, especially those touted by the Christian right, also play a key role in the political plans for the conservatives. But it is this issue which Edwards is the most reluctant to discuss.

One of the major elements of the Christian right agenda is opposing abortion, a position Edwards shares. But his voice is lowered, and his analysis is personal rather than political. Here, perhaps he reveals how explosive an issue the Christian right agenda may prove to conservatives.

Richard Cohen

The balloon-bedecked stage of the Grand Ol' Opry in Nashville, Tenn., became a backdrop for Ronald Reagan one night during the 1984 presidential sweepstakes. That evening the image of the President standing next to Minnie Pearl and singing happy birthday to Roy Aikens flashed on television screens.

That same day, in that same state, campaigning for the same office, Walter Mondale, standing in front of a non-descript wall, spoke to a subdued gathering of farmers about agricultural issues. Juxtaposed against the singing Reagan, the viewers of dinnertime news also consumed the image of a droning Mondale.

"Pictures speak louder than words," explains Richard Cohen, the casually dressed senior political producer of CBS.

Cohen, who was responsible at CBS for coordinating campaign coverage and decided what images made on air, is spending the semester as an Institute of Politics fellow at the Kennedy school.

"We were manipulated" by those who ran the Reagan campaign to pass a favorable picture of their candidate along to the American viewer, he says.

"The clear strategy was to wrap Ronald Reagan in the flag," Cohen says of the Reagan campaign strategy. "They made Ronald Reagan the nation."

Although Cohen admits he and the rest of network news "was suckered in" by the Reagan campaign, helping the president avoid discussing issues, he does not accept blame for misinforming public.

If someone wants to be informed they have to make an effort to listen to the radio and read newspapers, Cohen says, adding it is not enough to rely on 22 minutes of network news.

But Cohen, who is on a leave of absence from CBS, has other doubts about the direction television news is taking, enough to say he doesn't think he will return to CBS.

"TV news has joined other institutions in the white-breading of America," Cohen says. He blames profit pressures and increased competition for the change.

Specifically, he faults TV news for being "bland and non-controversial."

Pointing to the television fairness doctrine, which says TV news should deal with "controversial issues of public importance." Cohen claims current TV journalists take the loosest interpretation of that mandate.