Gerald R. Ford had Ronald Reagan. Michael S. Dukakis had Jesse L. Jackson. And George W. Bush has John McCain.
Presidential candidates win nominations by cleaning up in the delegate race.
But then they often find themselves with a cleanup effort of a monumental scale. Right now, McCain is willing but not eager to go along. In more than 100 New Hampshire town meetings, the Arizona Republican boasted about his failure to win the ''Miss Congeniality'' prize in the Senate. The two men talked last week and the discussions were slightly less contentious than those between President Clinton and Hafez Assad of Syria. In diplomatic-speak, they were not cordial but correct.