A Letter From the Publisher

By Robert L. Miller

They are known as the boys -- and girls -- on the bus, but the TIME correspondents covering the 1988 presidential campaign have spent so much time on airplanes that they occasionally yearn for the pleasures of an overcrowded Scenicruiser. Los Angeles correspondent Michael Riley has developed a love- < hate relationship with Michael Dukakis' 737 campaign jet, which the press corps has dubbed "Sky Pig." "When it's 100 degrees on the tarmac, condensation on the inside of the plane creates a tropical rain forest in the aisle," says Riley. Sometimes the plane seems to fly about as well as a log in one of those rain forests, and reporters have nervously taken to timing its takeoffs. The plane has no stove, so there are no hot meals. Not so bad, you say? Riley's rejoinder: "Try swallowing chicken teriyaki cold."

Washington correspondent Michael Duffy's traveling travails have involved bytes of a different kind. He recently arrived at Washington National Airport half an hour before takeoff, only to discover that he had forgotten his laptop computer. Luckily, Duffy found a Good Samaritan who stood in line for him while he sped home and picked up the machine. "Reporters without computers are like candidates without sound bites," says Duffy. Los Angeles bureau chief Dan Goodgame, who has covered both Bush and Dukakis, avoids such pitfalls by packing two light carryon bags. He is also careful to eschew the gonzo antics of some of his peers. Says he: "Socially, I suppose I'm one of the 'bores on the bus.' "

Goodgame seems to be in the majority this year. "A good time now is getting together with a colleague and transcribing a rally tape," notes Washington correspondent David Beckwith, who first boarded the bus in 1972. Since then, the traditional locker-room atmosphere on the bus has softened. Says Washington correspondent Alessandra Stanley: "Many of us 'girls' have sat in the back and listened to men compare notes on diets, aerobic exercise routines and their infants' teething problems, and watched them indignantly demand yogurt and Perrier from stewardesses vainly trying to push Bloody Marys and peanuts."

In the end, however, the hardships are well worth the chance to observe the candidate up close, to see how he responds to setbacks and success, unexpected attacks and opportunities; all that can be gleaned only on the campaign trail. Sums up national political correspondent Laurence I. Barrett: "For a political reporter in a campaign year, the only place to be worse than the plane is anywhere off the plane."