European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 15, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Paga 10 the stars and stripes Friday january 15.19bs columns Jim Fain there has got to be a better Way to nominate for years Many of us have taken Solace in the cliche that however Gro Tesque the Rube Goldberg electoral con Iraq icon for choosing presidents it some How  the proof the u. S. Survives and by comparison with most living standards thrives. Well t am beginning to think Ilain t so that there May be More Luck and mitral resources in our destiny Nan there is Merit in the system by which we try to choose our governance. Not the Basic constitutional Frame wort you understand. The Republican Structure with final choices reserved to the electorate Powers intricately balanced among branches or government and individual liberties independently giant Nuccil. That s sheer Genius and has blessed this country. No i m talking about the Odd proce dures we have adopted for nominating Anil Eluting presidents. The proof of that pudding is singularly lacking in recent Yean As the selection process has Bee modified i be covered presidential elections since 1956 and have seen one elected John Kennedy who i thought had the makings of an exceptional Leader. He never realized 111 is potential As president because he had nothing to work with in the Way or a congressional Edge. Had he been re Csc Clad in on Ami cold water landslide in 1964, As he cheerfully expected he would have made a difference believe in our history. Eisenhower do spill All the revisionist historians was an intellectual lightweight whose two terms were virtually a sabbatical. Johnson was an Al most pathologically insecure Man who got carried away both by Vietnam and the Over Promise of his great society. Niwen is pathologically insecure. That we ducted him president after such pro longed exposure to his character is uninteresting indictment of democracy particularly since Hubert Humphrey was a respectable alternative. That we re elected him is a measure of How seriously William Safire mister it dwt the system has been degraded. It left us with no alternative save Mcgovern. Ford was a decent nonentity chosen Only because Nuon correctly figured he would cough up a Pardon. Jimmy Carter was a technician who used the arcane trivialities of the nominating system to leap from obscurity to while House to obscurity. Reagan he s an actor playing the greatest role of All Lime. It s All smoke and mirrors with him. Hell spend the rest of his life playing testimonial Din ners. He s done More harm to the econ omy than i would have thought one per son could. It s such a shambles now there s a question whether a rational per son would seek the presidency. As for the candidates Why ask Bush and Dole Are supposed to be the prizes but compared to what there s a surly Quality to Dole that be trays pettiness. Bush is too vacuous to count. He comes across As an airhead with All that preppy nonsense. He insults our intelligence with Alt his stonewalling about arming the Ayatollah. Babbi Simon Dukakis and Gore seem like decent Folk of middling ability and sane cast of mind. None would get the Call if you were casting Lincoln or even for but As the rationalizes arc fond of pointing out Harry Truman did t look Ali that great going in. I think there s got to be a belter Way maybe wholesale reforms in the sys tem. A National schedule of regional Pri Maries and free prime Lime on to for a set number of format debates would be a Start. Co n King Hussein to blame for palestinian deaths who is to Hume for the loss of More than a score of palestinian Arab lives in the past month to footage Points a Finger at israeli soldiers Israel blames i to agitators Arab apologists blame the Rea Gan administration for not advancing inc peace pro  nobody places responsibility for the frustration that led to the noting where it most belongs with King Hussein of Jordan. For decades he has refused direct negotiations with Israel demanding instead an International conference Hal would array Arab Stales and the soviet Union against his adversary with the outcome foretold the absorption of the West Bank of the Jordan River into his East Bank nation. His excuse for refusing to negotiate is that inc Arab world has not designated him inc spokesman for the palestinians he claims to need the cover of an International gathering for direct talks. Israeli doves led by labor s Shimon Peres have striven to accommodate the King without encouraging Moscow to impose a pro Arab solution Peres suggests an opening Fig Leaf conference to assemble the Par lies ostensibly to permit Jordan and Israel to Deal directly about the palestinians. Prime minister Yitzhak Shamir sen that plan As a trap the russian would surely Bull in on the Side of the arabs at the first sign of impasse. He and his liked prefer to let the divided moslem world come to Israel to work out the Camp David plan of autonomy with out sovereignty. Three months ago the . Secretary of slate came up with a daring proposal to break the logjam and to give frustrated arabs in inc disputed territories Hope for self Rule. His approach called first for the cooperation of the israeli prime minister then the King of Jordan finally soviet Leader Gorbachev. Slate depart ment aides were convinced the Ptan would never pass the first veto Point in Jerusalem. George Shultz went to Israel and put in to Shamir. Come to the Washington Summit in Decem Ber meet with Hussein in the presence of Reagan Gorbachev and Egypt s president Mubarak thereby accommodating the King s demand for an International forum and then Deal directly with Jordan. Thai was an agonizing moment for Shamir. He knew the danger of soviet grandstanding at such a gathering and was aware of Shulti s Espousal in 1982 of a scheme that would undermine the Camp David solution. Pressure of combined Sovil american egyptian jordanian demands would be enormous. You know our problems the israeli prime min ister told the american Secretary of slate i Trust you. Well  next Slop for Shutlz was the London Ajjan enl of Hussein. On the evening of oct. 19, he invited the kingly the Washington Summit meeting which would pro vide a High intensity International conference Sel Ling. Think about it overnight the Secretary suggested. In. Sulu then entered the room to startle the two men with the news of the 300-Poinl collapse of new York s Slock Market and the meeting broke up the following Day at his majesty s estate outside London Hussein delivered his answer. No. His Bluff had been called the King was Noi about to negotiate on behalf of the palestinians because they were More valuable to his regime angry in i hair Jam packed Camps than participating in his nation s life. Shutlz glumly went on to Moscow. Had Hussein agreed would Gorbachev have gone along with a Pas Sive role opening direct talks Between Hussein and Shamir Well never know. And so the world ignored the palestinian arabs and their frustration spilled out in violence abetted by the Plo. Israel has been made to look the villain with the . Insisting Only that . Condemnation not be phrased in a Way Hal would justify sanctions. Hussein emerges the innocent observer. What do a score of palestinian lives mean to him he slaughtered 20,000 of them when they challenged his Power two decades ago. To this Arab Monarch inc palestinians arc pawns in his game of remaining in Power Wem Bank riot Are More in his personal interest than peace talks. His callousness matches Hal of his fellow moderate King hand of saudi Arabia who has told the world Why a settlement is needed in the persian Gulf to permit the moslem world to reunite to crush the israe Lis and retake Jerusalem. When nut you Sec a picture of an Arab youth fling ing a Rock think of the Man whose interest served by keeping palestinian angry in i hair Camps Hussein the Little King whose stature shrinks with each passing year. How Yort to in