European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 13, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Paga 10 columns the stars and stripes George will beef of Rofey for Dukakis is to stick to the facts polling revealed that Only exit pollin21 percent of the southerner who voted Tor Mike Dukakis understood him to be 3 it Hoo the children off to bed i must use the a word Liberal. Bui Ai t demo cratic age says voters think two things come from Maisac Hustu. Lobsters and liberals so Dukakis nay be in trouble when voters notice he is not a lobster. Liberalism like conservatism come la think about it has come id be identified with a certain indifference to reality 1. So Dukakis Best bet is to stress his serious Side. That will require setting aside to the cars of his tatty candidacy Tylij candidacy has been based on his identification with the no silly not Wade bogs. The supposed Miracle n the state s Prosperity. Good governors he seems to say can provide Prosperity. Given so such we would All be wading around in milk an Honey. This it an implied rebuke to the governors men of them democrats or All those states most mates that Art no experiencing Dukakis is in danger of blurring the democrats bread and butter Issue which is that republicans Are response bile for whatever ails the Economy. Now Dukakis is postulating the Primacy or at cast the Potency of state government sin delivering Prosperity. Governors can and perhaps Duka Kis did make a different i creating business climate favourable u growth. Competition Between Stales in attracting businesses is a fact of federalism. So it docs not discount Dukakis achievement to say that Massachusetts Prosperity Ispan of and not even the most spectacular pan of a Region a phenomenon. He should feel free to Promise the Moons president. But it is imprudent of him to say that As governor he personally Deli Cral the Moon to Massachusetts. Another potential problem for Dukakis is that other Arrow in his quiver tie one about radically shrinking the deficit by enlarging the iks enforcement apparatus. The subliminal message of hat proposal is that we can Curt our fiscal incontinence in a Way that will require no one to pay Mare than his or her current lax obligation. This is Jusi another exercise in free lunch cry. As such it makes for a Muzzy William f. Buckley be mows to Toothe Seth. Known old air Rop by his own Law Zokou we Tab her Dukakis image. He has been a Cully described by Joe Klein of new York Magazine As the sgt Joe Friday of american politics. I i " the detective on the old dragnet television show Dukakis Cerns interested Only in the fact. A he is not cuddly butty Golly he is we know because be says so competent As All gel out. But the tax enforcement proposal matches Reagan and raised him in the Panacea department. The deficit is largely result of Reagan t Panacea the self financing Lai Cut that was t self financing that theory was that the Cut would be so instantly and powerfully Limu native that economic growth would prevent Revenue loss. Thus candidate Reagan said Flint mich., May it 1980 we would use the increased revenues the Federal government would get from the Tan decrease to build our defense the generic idea behind Republican free Luncher was still is in Pat Moynihan j words the Peculiar proposition that Lai cuts no matter How gnat More or leu automatically replenish them selves with no Cost to Revenue,., that an Given level of Revenue can be obtained at two Levels of taxation one High one Republican infatuation with this idea produced what Moynihan Calls a role re Versal suddenly republicans were spouting professors notions while Democrat crumbled about the inapplicability of airy the Ritj n the real world. That was he Republican contribution to what Moynihan Calls the leakage of reality in american life our seeming weakness at grasping the probable consequences of what we do or fail to after two terms in opposition the democrats proper role for which Duka Kis sometimes teems to cast himself is the role of plumber slopping the leak age. But Loose talk about his responsibility Tor he Massachusetts Miracle the Economy not the red son third base Manana about the tax enforcement Panacea aggravates the Are essentially three ways to win the White House. You can build a bios constituency Brick by Brick Over Many years. Or you can have a burning you can have an enchanting personal Ity. Remember we like Ike Dukakis has none of he three. We like Mike joke is a fail Strong for what the voters now feel or what Hisch thy Persona it Apt of make them feel. And we do not find Dukakis altogether disagreeable ii a slogan that somehow lacks zip. Dukakis can Appeal Only Only to the Public s sense that some Farsi need to be faced and that he. Set. Friday will do so. No one off called sgt. Friday he a word. Bush must be Able to create a style of his own those of us who after the caucus vote in Iowa declared it too Early to count George Bush out arc d Rawn to emphasize different Points now that Bush Halsall but secured the Republican nomination. And the principal Point to make is thai Bush is publicly seen As being most awfully Boring. Along with practically everybody else i have reflected on what happens to vice presidents most acutely having lived through what was seen As the Public decomposition of Hubert Humphrey. In 1968, Humphrey was widely scorned by the left intelligentsia for the sin of having Kepi company with Lyndon Johnson whom said Inu disc Liisia loathed above All living Crea Tures and most dead creatures. But others Loo lost Faith in him. It seemed impossible that this political Springhead this Gusher of literal idealism of spontaneity and effervescence should have acquired so Flat dimension. Would Winston Churchill have become a Wallflower if he had been an american vice president there Are those who Tell you that not Only is there a appearance of Etiola Tion among those who serve As vice president it actually happens to you. I doubt this to be True and have the direct St Evi Dence of ii. The Story Worth careful attention for Rea sons staid and wonderful is this. On a particular Day in the Winter of 1970 i found myself sealed at lunch Neil to sen Stuart Symington i asked him whether head lunch in the night before on Waller Cronkite s lbs interview with former president Johnson. Not Only had he done so said Symington he had Dune so in the company of h Umphry. Oil what. I asked _ who would not have asked had been Humphrey s reaction to what lbs had said about Why Humphrey had lost he election a Richard Nixon Johnson had said to Cronk Ilc that Humphrey Loai because of the speech he delivered in Denver in which he expressed reservations about the Way in which we had committed ourselves in Vietnam. How did he take it Symington howled. Hubert said to me after the broadcast Slu 1 really wish i was president right now. Because if i was i would order division of . Marines to lift Cleopatra s Needle from London Fly it to Texas and Slick it up the of Lyndon Johnson " George hush faces two problems the first internal the second external. Already the kind of forces that advised Tomsu a Dewey in 194s to be Bland the most Memora ble sentence of Dewey i Campaign the future lies before us Are at work on Bush. Encouraging whatever it is within him that seek out the prudent alternative. The Day before super tuesday reporter David Hoffman of the Washington Post was writing of complaints from the Field of dust s somnolent appearances Hoffman described Bush in Springfield mo., reviewing the world s fishing fair Bush s Only comment ill Tell you something. I thu country Ever loses its interest in sports or Ever loses its interest in fishing we got real trouble and 1 Don t think that s going to Ever i mean a couple of months of fishing fairs and the people would vote for Ralph Nader there Are Broad alternative avenues open to a presi Dent in the years ahead and Bush should on his own for his own account advise us which of those Appeal to him the most. The most important question to answer Ishow arc we going to guard against the decomposition of our Alliance in Europe the second is How arc we going to cultivate the most valuable of All american resource which is the latent vitality of conservative impulses to self help Industry patriotism Honor and the inc Grimy of the family Thil is not to suggest that president Reagan will not be giving his own speeches touching on these subjects. But Bush ought to be Nurmi Ilid to enunciate what distinctive policies be would pursue after his inauguration. There should be a freshness of approach in these that attract following of its Owtis Bush will never Luines fully compete with the great communicator. Accordingly he should seek out a style of his own. Bui he can Only do this confidently after assurances from the president that he will not misinterpret b decision to strike Oul on his own As an act of parricide. Bush should not be understood As seeking to slay his father whom he properly reveres. But he should be seen As preparing to leave his father s House prepared to inhabit his own
