European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 17, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 stars and stripes monday March 17, 1986 David Broder Republican presidential hopefuls try out 1988 lines the sound that filled the Oryland hotel in Nash Ville was not country music but the voices of seven of the Republican presidential hopefuls trying out their tunes for 1,400 gop activists from across the South. Here Are some first impressions of the performers As they Start their auditions for the 1988 primaries. George Bush draws the Lead off spot at the Southern Republican leadership conference and establishes immediately that he is a High class act. An offstage amplified voice intones ladies and gentlemen the vice president of the United states and a record of ruffles and flourishes is played. He turns Over his second Trump by reminding them that he has been working for the gop since Barbara and i organized the first Republican primary in Midland Texas in 1952." Loyal service to president Reagan and years of party chores Are Bush s claim checks for the nomination and they May be enough. But he reads his speech on Aid to the contras in wooden fashion. What will happen if he has to Campaign As Plain George Bush and not As an Extension of the omnipotent Reagan maybe his manag ers can get him nominated before that happens. If not watch out. Howard h. Bakerjr. Fifteen months after he retired the former Senate majority Leader looks More rotund and relaxed than Ever two reasons Why even some of his Home state Tennessee boosters wonder if he really will run for president again. To counter the scepticism Baker Calls a news conference to introduce a top notch new Hampshire political pro former attorney general Tom Rath As director of his exploratory committee. If Rath and sen. Warren Rudman r-n.h., can Engi Neer a Surprise for Baker in the 1988 new Hampshire William f. Buckley primary he might ride the momentum into the mid March Southern primary and subsequent caucuses where he can play the Good old boy. As of now the Odds Lookas Long As his Belt. Pierre s. Dupont in on paper he looks like a potential Gary Hart the hardworking dark horse with a new generation theme who might pop into Contention when a front runner fades. But his Early morning speech the second Day is a hymn to the Virtues of Success in the american marketplace hardly a theme a Dupont needs to drive Home. Curiously he neglects to Tell the Story of his skill in making Supply Side principles work for eight years As governor of Delaware so the delegates leave knowing Little More than that he is an Earnest pleasant fellow. Alexander m. Haig the former White House chief of staff and Secretary of state looks every Inch a president Silver hair Silver tie deep Tan and Sharp Blue Blazer. He deflates his reputation for egotism with effective self mocking humor and boldly challenges some of Reagan s stands. He says the doubling of the National debt in the past five years can t be blamed on Jimmy Carter that the All Volunteer military won t work forever and that Rea Gan was right to accelerate Star wars research but wrong to make it such a High profile project. Will the republicans nominate someone who was squeezed out of the Reagan administration and occasionally ridicules the party s hero for sleeping overtime doubtful. Pat Robertson in a smash debut on the Politi Cal scene the to preacher steals the Day s headlines and loudest cheers by attacking democratic National chair Man Paul g. Kirk or s Knock on evangelical christians moving into partisan politics. Southern Republican leaders covet Robertson s constituency but Are sceptical they want him As their candidate. It s notable that even with this crowd no other contender hits the social issues nearly As hard As Robertson. If they continue to give him that ground for himself could he carve out a piece of the primary vote he s an intriguing a Factor. Robert j. Dole the Senate majority Leader displays the maddening penchant for put Downs that marred his earlier National campaigns in 1976 and 1980. He boasts that he led the Senate with a 92 percent Rea Gan support score but he cannot resist adding that Means he s wrong Only 8 percent of the it would take a psychiatrist to explain Why the Kansan a gifted and often courageous legislator with real convictions persists in playing the cynic and the Clown in pub Lic. He does what is easy getting laughs and avoids what is hard explaining Why his views on taxes deficits and civil rights Are Good policy for the republicans future. The audience loves Dole the entertainer those who think he might in fact make a president feel cheated. Jack Kemp he May not be the legislator Dole is but Kemp like Reagan understands that what fuels a political party is vision inspiration optimism. It is late in the Day when the Buffalo congressman Speaks but he has them cheering when he says republicans have a nobler Mission than defeating democrats. We can bring the Hope of Freedom to men and women of every color Kemp also shows Why he is a High risk candidate his Mouth sometimes outruns his brain As when he says of his High Speed circuit of the issues Well i be Given Youa grand tour de whether the gop Chase will prove to be just a tour or a tour de Force i Don t know. But it in t starting out Dull. C the new York times alternative to nuke arms is conventional arms we should All feel obliged to soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev for having done More than any peace committee combination of Christian churches or even presidential speechwriter to detoxify nuclear arsenals. What has happened is that the Western Community in Europe has awakened to the fact that one can feel most awfully and definitively dead under the persuasive Power of conventional arms. In War talk people tend to use round figures fair enough. They talk about 100 million dead in Europe in the event that the soviet Union decided it wished to resume its Mili tary imperialism Westward. The Over whelming predominance of the soviet army not Only in manpower but in tanks and other Mobile machinery in fighter Craft and artillery suddenly reminded european leaders of what the alternative actually is to doing away with their theater weapons. The alternative is to rearm conventionally. Now it is one thing to sit comfortably in a seminar on War and peace at Aspen or Harriman House or Brookings and say that really moral Hygiene requires that we abandon our nuclear weapons and Exchange them for conventional arms quite another in democratic exchanges to put such counsel into effect. If the French and the West germans the italians and the Low countries were to build conventional forces sufficient to deter existing soviet forces they would need to enact a uni Versal conscription Swiss style and b in crease their military budgets by depend ing on the nation in question something on the order of 100 percent to 200 percent. The fact of the matter is that they Are unwilling to do this. And suddenly they realize that Summit ering Over their Heads Washington and Moscow Are talking about arrangements whose hypothetical impaction Europe would be exactly that assuming that Europe did t have the Power to makes own decisions. Well Francois Mitterrand in France has through a spokesman made his Posi Tion perfectly Clear. The United states he says in effect has t the Power to disarm France. And he goes on we Don t care what the soviet Union does with its is 20s. It can Burn every one of them up in the presence of the world Council of churches we re still not going to pledge a to do away with our atomic Arsenal b to Promise not to enlarge it or c to Promise not to modernize it. And an incidental Benefit of the development Here is that we Are face to face with what it is that disturbs the world Community to wit the motives of soviet leaders. A country that can continue to do what the soviet Union is now doing to Afghanistan is not a country Western Europe is disposed to take chances with by unilaterally removing the Force it feels is the operative deterrent Force against an invasion of Europe namely its nuclear weapons. What it has most greatly to fear is the removal of american weapons which weapons the Pershing us and the cruise missiles Are at a technological level of sophistication not now available to the european Powers unless they were to engage their scientists in massive research an development. What kind of Luck would or. Reagan have if he attempted to talk the soviet Union into conventional disarmament Here he would run into lobbies. The soviet Union needs a Large heavy army to keep its citizens employed and also to keep its citizens and those others it dominates subdued. The Specter of a great soviet army is necessary to the total picture of the great Power. For that reason the soviet Union would never disarm it any More than the soviet Union would consent to pare Down its nuclear strategic Force to the Point of finding itself at less than parity with the next larg est nuclear Power in the world. But meanwhile we must be grateful for the introduction of reality into the Pic Ture. That reality is that nuclear weapons have served the cause of peace. C King features Syndicate m m not stopping till i catch up with you
