European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 16, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes Anthony Lewis Bush should follow Reagan toward the Center a r a a a to tort a c t a Xvi or armr president Reagan has moved toward the political Center. Michael Dukakis is sticking close to it. By All signs the voters like it. But George Bush is coming on making the noises of the far right. It is a curious situation but much More than a curiosity. It says a lot about the political character of the vice presi Dent about the state of the Republican party and about the difference Between campaigning and governing in this coun try. Ronald Reagan campaigned in 1980 As the candidate of the fire eating right. He came to office As the most ideologically committed president in Many years. And there is no reason to doubt that he was committed. He meant it when he rejected the traditional bipartisan goal of arms control and said an arms race might be a better idea. He meant it when he spoke of the soviet Union As an evil Empire reject ing detente. He meant it when he scoffed at environmentalism when he denounced the supreme court for its protections of individual Liberty. In office he made appointments to carry out his beliefs. In foreign affairs there were Alexander Haig at state Cas Par Weinberger at defense a Parade of right Wing National Security advisers ending with John Poindexter. Domestically there were James Watt at Interior and de Meese As attorney general. The Reagan administration became in effect a novel Experiment in Ameri can government. The Experiment reached a conclusion that can almost be called scientific. You cannot govern this country from the extremes. The pull to the Center institutional political historical is too Strong. The president who preferred an arms race to arms control signed the inf treaty. The president who said soviet communists made a principle of lying and cheating became a Public Friend of their Leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Or consider the personnel. Instead of Andrew j. Glass the hyperbolic Haig we have plodding George Shultz. Instead of Weinberger we have the almost bipartisan figure of Frank Carlucci. Instead of zealots poin Dexler and Oliver North Reagan now has the non ideological Colin Powell. In Stead of Meese we wind up with an Eisenhower Republican Dick Thornburgh. The Only certified representative of the extreme right who remains High up in the Reagan administration May be the Man in charge of latin policy Elliott Abrams. His Monument is a Central America ravaged by War and More Dis trustful of the United states than Ever. What president Reagan found is that ideologues Are not very Good at running things. It is the old Republican centrists so despised by the right the Jim Bak ers and Dick Thornburgh who can actually get something done. Not just competence but understand ing of the american system of govern ment is necessary. The presidency is not the sole Power As the Radical right wish fully preaches these Days. The House and the Senate Are there too and effective Ness requires working with them. The courts will say no if officials take Short cuts to ideological ends. Meese made the Point wonderfully in his parting gesture when he commanded by regulation that special prosecutors be used to investigate members of Congress. To extend the Law to con Gress is a Good idea. But that requires legislation not a unilateral act. Meese expressed his contempt for the other branches of government his contempt for Law the attitudes that made him the most dismal attorney general in mod Ern history. The lessons of the last eight years arc so Clear that by All logic George bus i ought to be crowding the Center of the political spectrum. But that is not what he has been doing. The vice president has mimicked Meese s Sleazy comment that the Ameri can civil liberties Union is the Crimi nals lobby. He has attacked Dukakis for vetoing a Bill that would have defied a supreme court decision on religious Freedom. In foreign policy the vice president sounds like the Reagan of 1980. He cautions against the very rapprochement with Gorbachev s soviet Union that president Reagan and his people arc now undertaking. He accuses Dukakis of favouring unilateral  Why is Bush making All those right Wing noises my guess is that he is trying to impress the extremists who control the Republican party today who Supply the Money and choose the delegates. They Are suspicious of Bush. They doubt that he has the True Faith. So to appease them he must look reactionary. He must talk with the anti communist Fervour of a Jeanc Kirkpatrick. But is that the real George Bush no one can be sure. That is his problem. New York times news service Bush needs to Beffer define own goals values new Orleans matched against other times the world these Days is a reasonably tranquil place. And the Economy despite soft spots Here and there also seems quite sound. So with peace and Prosperity in the air How come George Bush remains an underdog in his bid to retain the White House for the republicans what must Bush do to alter the political mood and emerge triumphant in november that vital question vexed the vice president As he prepared to come to this steamy meeting site to accept his party s presidential nomination. In Advance of the Republican National convention much of the Bush Effort focused on undermining his democratic opponent Massachusetts g9v. Michael Dukakis. He has repeatedly accused Dukakis of being untutored in foreign affairs weak on defense issues and a big government Liberal style spender on the Domestic front. The Bush exercise in negative campaigning has not gone entirely unrewarded Bush has seen his deficit in Public opinion polls narrow from the High teens where it stood after the democrats nominated Dukakis last month at a unified convention in Atlanta to single digit Levels. Nevertheless political experts tend to agree that Bush needs to better define his own goals and values. He must do so if he is to quell nagging concerns among still undecided swing voters that he somehow does t measure up in stature to Ronald Reagan the popular president whom Bush has loyally served for the last 7 /2 years. I m not going to run away from Ronald Reagan Bush told an interviewer for the can network last week. Yet some savvy gop insiders bolstered by hard Survey data fear that Bush s True problem May be that he has lived too Long under Reagan s magisterial Penumbra. Citing what they Call Bush s stature Gap some analysts see his relatively weak Public image when matched against Reagan s imposing reputation among the voters As a key reason Why democrats who had backed Reagan in 1984 favor Dukakis by margins that approach 4-to-1. In his speech to the convention thursday night to be nationally televised in prime time Bush is certain to assail Dukakis if not directly by name in a major bid to move these wavering Reagan democrats Back into the Republican fold. Top Bush aides say the speech will spark a Broad offensive on foreign policy and defense issues against Dukakis which Bush intends to pursue in the debates and right up to the final Days of the ensuing Campaign. Such a strategy these advisers assert is calculated to win Back the ethnic Middle class voters who tradition ally favor a Strong . Defense policy and a no non sense approach toward America s adversaries abroad. At the same time it pleases so called movement conservatives some of whom have voiced suspicions that Bush s patrician Yankee background has honed him into a closet political moderate. I have to be better at projecting my passions my concerns my strengths Bush told a group of Washington editors last month. And if i can t do better at it who knows what will happen Bush s problem is that in a television age a nominee must do More than Analyse his shortcomings in a forthright manner before an audience of political writers. To succeed he has to alter what Media analysts term the body language an ability to communicate in a non verbal Way a sense of solidity and fortitude of grit and guts. Bush s imperative need to change voter perceptions covers Many fronts. Some Are seemingly trivial others arc clearly profound. They Range As his advisers see it from altering the Way he smiles in Public it s too forced to an ability to identify his candidacy with such key gender dominated concerns As improved child care. It All adds up to what political consultants Call a candidate s Comfort level among voters. For the Sake of Bush s own political Well being that level re Mains much too Low. Bush s Choice of a running mate one of the few genuine surprises left at this made for to conclave May Send a signal of How Bush wants to be perceived in the Long run and May prove More important to his prospects than whatever direct Campaign help his part Ner can add to the ticket. In 1980, Reagan flirted with choosing his longtime rival former president Ford As his running mate. He ended up picking Bush who was then widely seen As a moderate. Both actions helped Reagan by raising his Comfort level among people who had previously viewed him As a somewhat doctrinaire conservative politician. While that is far from Bush s problem in 1988, tin Comfort level question among Reagan democrats has to remain uppermost in his mind if he is to pull even with his democratic rival and surge ahead to Victory. Cox news service