European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 7, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes columns . Rosenthal Dukakis amylose but with integrity Honor intact Minneapolis these have been Good Days for Michael Dukakis he is giving the very Best that is in him. Day after Day a half dozen times every Day he pull together All his energies and talents and Speaks clearly and  10 the i people who come to hear  talks to them not As if they Are crowds of people but As if each gathering is just one person he is trying to reach. He never did that before and when he is asked about it he seems a Little surprised. It is not just a Good speaker s trick but something that came out of him Ashe entered the last weeks of the Campaign and moved toward the last weekend. Often he Speaks in the slogans that candidates keep repeating because they want to get a message across the Best America is yet to come and "1 am on  but he makes hard new Points too. He says he is ready to Lake stronger economic action against drug reducing nations than Bush is willing to . He raises a matter of National moment that the Republican Campaign deals with lightly or not at All the stunning run of mull billion Dollar Corpora lion buyouts and what it might mean in toss of jobs if a recession drowned the companies in their new Debu however you plan to vote you know that you Are listening to a serious Man dealing with serious matters. He likes that a lot better than the political  Are supposed to love which instead has made them disdainful of the whole Campaign. The governor s plane zigzags from Youngs town to Milwaukee to Detroit to Kansas City to min Neapolis before he flies off to Chicago. Then he Heads cast and then it is Back to the Centero the country without which he will be utterly and hopelessly lost. He talks in Union Halls and at democratic rallies tothe people he has to keep on his Side. Most of them have never seen him or any other National candidate before. He May have made the same speech 20 limes but for them it is the first time and the words seem fresh and important Dukakis Battles fatigue the fatigue of the poll that hound him everywhere he goes. He is righting for the Opportunity of today and the few Days ahead but he can never break free of the tyranny of the polls of yesterday that keep insisting that there really is no tomorrow for Michael Dukakis. The country seems made up not of people thinking things through but of huge blinking computer spewing readouts. James j. Kilpatrick he Speaks now of being a Liberal and talks of dead heroes. He does not realize that the Young people he needs so much Are not moved at All. Even some of the right Young men and women on his staff wish he would Stop All that Kennedy business. Bush can invoke Ronald Reagan As if he invented him instead of the other Way around. But the Young do not Vole for the dead. Dukakis gives no real explanation for Why he waited so Long to decide he was a Liberal ducking and weaving making himself look evasive. The answer sadly for his candidacy is that he really believed what he said in the beginning that the Issue in the Campaign was competence not ideology which Means Politi Cal philosophy and political judgments about Good and no new strategy can quite change the fact that theman believed what he said and american voters do not. In the end what May Hurt the governor most Isis foreign policy failure it is not that americans arc so interested what they like Best about foreign policy is forgetting it. But instinctively and correctly the country expects president to have a Clear concept of this country s place in the world How to achieve it and How to keep it. For that they will forgive a president for mistakes at Home and abroad As they did Reagan. Dukakis has not enunciated a concept of the unite states place in the world clearly enough to eliminate legitimate uneasiness about where he really  Mark of his failure on foreign policy and defense is that he allowed Bush to look Good running on a spotted record that was not even his own. If Bush is elected he will have to recover the reputation he had going into the Campaign As a reasonable and fair minded Man. In the White House Hewill have to show himself better than the Man who attacked his opponent s patriotism and presented Hamas a toddler of murderers and rapists. But if Bush is elected Dukakis will be Able to say what Walter Mondale said when the time came for him to pack up and head Home i go with my Honor my integrity and my family  now York Tim bullish on Bush no apologies no reservations most of the recent endorse ments for George Bush like most of the endorsements for Michael Dukakis have been halfhearted things editors Don t like the candidates they Don t like the Campaign they wish they had better choices the whole thing is so so Dis Mal. And sigh sigh sigh. Permit me a trumpet blast i like George Bush. No apologies. No reservations. Bush is the better Man. He is thebe Ltd Man by far. I Hope he wins by the landslide he deserves. And before someone hollers what about Dan Quayle let me add a word on that score. In the weeks since the new Orleans convention the Young senator from Indiana has exhibited maturity Grace and composure. He has absorbed a merciless drubbing and kept on h is feet Ino longer have the willies about him. Tuesday s Choice is Between Bush an Dukakis. The vice presidential nominees Quayle on the one ticket Loyd Bent sen on the of her Are supernumerary is. The Only presidential alternative is the libertarian Ron Paul and his candidacy nowhere is taken seriously. On Jan. 20,chief Justice Rehnquist will swear in the Republican Bush or the Democrat Duka Kis and for the net four years we will be addressing one or the other As or. Pre  course 1 wont George Bush in that role and to judge by the latest polls a Clear majority of the voters in a Clear majority of the Stales want him also. They want him for Many positive Rea sons because of his experience at the Federal level because of his character because he is the kind of Man that he is. I cannot claim Friendship with Bush we arc not that close but i have known the gentleman for Man years and have gained tremendous re Spect for him. His instincts Are  that says it All. I like his cast of mind. I like his essential toughness his Powers of endurance his Grace under pressure. I like Bush on the issues but his specifics Don t matter greatly. Both houses of the incoming Congress will be con trolled by the democrats. Questions of policy will be resolved jointly by the while House and the Hill. Ron the Domestic scene. Bush will pro pose modest expansions of the Federal role in education Day care of children and Protection of the environment Indefenso he will pursue modernization of our nuclear Arsenal. He will stand behind the strategic defense initiative. He will ask Congress to hold Down spending on entitlements while revenues generated by economic growth slowly catch up with outlays. \. " there is nothing wildly exciting  is a Prospect Only of responsible executive leadership. It is a truism of politics thai vote soften Are motivated More by the negative than by the positive. To vote for Bush i deliberately to vote against Dukakis. Or vice versa. The Long Campaign of 1988has provided abundant reasons at least in my View for hoping never to see Dukakis in the White House. Again i go Back to this matter of instincts of cast of mind of attitudes and convictions and character shaped by experience. Over he past to months Duka Kis has forged a Clear impression of Aman who would Waffle in a crisis he seems not to understand that the United states has National interest around the world and that in a crunch these interests must be defended wit National Power. Dukakis in a crunch would High Tail in to the United nations. The president almost certainly will have an Opportunity to nominate three members of the supreme court for me this is the Prospect that counts above All others to this awesome responsibility Duka Kis would bring the cast of mind of Aman who proudly professes himself a card carrying member of the Ameri can civil liberties Union. I do not Waul to see the Constitution twisted into the. Shape of the Acle. ,. ? i would vote against Dukakis in Par because of the governor s iceman personality a president must live with con Gress especially with a Congress con trolled by the opposition in a certain camaraderie. Jimmy Carter never grasped Iii aspect of life in the capital i cannot imag Ine Dukakis putting his  around anyone of the Barons who Rule the Hill. The. Picture will not come. -. Bush will have problems wit Congress of course he will. But these will be problems familiar to him. He will bring to their Resolution the courage of a fighter Pilot and the experience of & . No reservations i Laid Bush the opinions expressed in the column re and cartoon on this Page  those of the author Tad we in no my to be considered u representing the View of the Sim and Stripe or the United states govern meet