A founding member of the Democratic Leadership Council, set up to counter what some saw as the party's overly liberal tilt,he has succeeded in the past as a political middle-of-the-roader.

The public persona of Mr. Schlesinger, the reasonable man, the middle-of-the-roader who can draw on a wealth of knowledge and experience in advancing his views, is, in other words, very recognizable.

All you had to be was a garden-variety middle-of-the-roader who marched against the Vietnam War because he thought it was wrong, but who also went into the army at the height of the war because he believed then, as he does now, in the essentiality and nobility of national service.