How Jackson speech played in US cities

There was a strong mix of enthusiasm and skepticism in this city after Jackson's fence-mending speech. But even those with deepest reservations about Jackson credit him for pulling the Democratic Party together and for a dramatic performance. Black Angelenos interviewed, especially young men, were most stirred.

''It was a great speech,'' said one vigorous young Jackson supporter, waiting for a bus to work. ''It changed a whole lot. It changed everything around.'' The change, in this man's view, is the pulling together of the Democratic constituencies.

The sharpest reaction encountered was in the heavily Jewish Fairfax district of the city.

''I didn't buy everything he said,'' a Jewish woman putting an armful of early-morning groceries into her car noted. She had been ''incensed'' during the primary campaign at what she viewed as Jackson's disparaging remarks about Jews. ''About the only credit I'll give him is for trying to unite the party. I think that's good because I'm not a Reagan fan.''

A conservative Republican real estate developer, walking along Wilshire Boulevard toward downtown, called Jackson's speech ''dynamic,'' but looks upon it distantly. ''I think he has become a national figure, and that his star is on the ascendancy.''

But did his own impression of Jackson change? ''No, I'm too far on the other side.''