European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 14, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes Helen Thomas Reagan has impressive list of accomplishments president Reagan will leave office soon con Vinced he has made America a belter place. The gain in jobs and lessening of tensions with rus Sia a new nuclear arms reduction agreement even coming close to ending the cold War Are nothing to in ital he also returned Imperial trappings to the White House spruced in up and embellished the Aura of the presidency. Whether americans feel Good about themselves de pends on the individual. But if jingoism patriotic shibboleths and a stress on the importance of praying in school and a ceiling he pledge of allegiance in class an he key to a better nation one cannot say he a not tried. During nearly eight years in office Reagan has tried to live up 10 his Promise to get the government off our backs by freezing the level of Federal workers and eliminating red tape and reducing income axes. He also erased regulations affecting health and safety according to some critics. Reagan s Low esteem for the bureaucracy Many have been reflected in the Type of appointees he chose to head agencies and departments. Some 100 of the administration s top officials were tired or forced to resign under a Cloud of allegations of wrongdoing. Most of All he has succeeded in turning the country 10 he right with his Reagan revolution pushing Back to basics in schools moral values in family Fife and individual Freedom and Las Sci Faire for business. His judgments have been Black and White. The death penalty is Good. Gun control is bad. He took an assassination attempt in stride after being shot in the Chest and amazingly kept this sense of humor in the ordeal. He underwent a Colon operation and prostate surgery while in office bouncing Back in  president s ability to look Only on the Bright Side has kept him Happy and optimistic. Vulnerable and at times naive he has maintained a Nice guy1 image completely disarming his detractors who Dis agree with his conservative policies Reagan ended his political Odyssey and his ail out Campaign for vice president George Bush on a Happy note convinced that he had left a legacy Worth pre serving and that his popularity evoked Calls for eight William f. Buckley or. Uhf immemorial Washington More  is the Glass half empty or half full the dark Side of the picture shows he will leave office with an intractable $ i so billion plus deficit and a National debt of $2.6 trillion. The budget deficit tripled after he took Over from Jimmy Carter. But Reagan s answer is that con Gress is to blame since it holds the purse strings. The lawmakers can just say no. One of Reagan s major Campaign promises was to balance the budget but he has never submitted a balanced budget. The impossibility of it All entered on his decision o spend ii trillion on new weapons pro Grams in five Yean and to raise the Pentagon budget 9 percent during his first year in office while using his tint year popularity to win a tax Cut. The Domestic picture is not entirely Rosy despite the drop in unemployment. Some 3 million homeless Are on the streets a problem thai increased enormously on Reagan s watch. Some 20 percent of the nation s Chil Dren live below the poverty line. While superpower relations improved under Rea Gan his policies in the Middle East and Nicaragua Nave been a failure. Attempts la oust panamanian ruler Manuel Antonio Noriega have been a bust. Two foreign policy efforts to which Reagan Point with Pride were his invasion of Grenada to depose a leftist regime and his bombing of Libya to Leach libyan Leader Moa mar Gad Haff a lesson. He won National and International support when he backed democratic forces to dethrone Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos and the Duvalier regime in Haiti. In the summing up like most presidents Reagan claims he has not changed. But clearly his attitudes on the Art of the possible in foreign affairs taught him there Are More limitations than he first believed Possi ble for a nuclear Power. Reagan will leave office with the feeling that some work remains to be done hut not Loo Many re Grets. To United Prill  Bush netted More popular support than Reagan h Ere Abe a few of the statistics that congealed on election Day and caught the Eye of this pundit the figures arc Courtesy of the new York times. George Bush did better in the popular vote in 1988 54 percent than Ronald Reagan did in 1980 51 percent. I will drop the word percent from now on " nationally the gender Gap All but disappeared so Bush. 49 Michael Dukakis which is a Good thing since the women outvoted the men 52 to 48. Contrary to expectations. Bush did Only slightly better than Reagan-1980 with Blacks 12 to 11but significantly better than Reagan-1984 12 to 9. Bush did Best with the 45 to 59-year-Olds 57-42but he prevailed Over Dukakis with every age group coming close Only with those 60 and Over so-49. Bush did Best with College graduates 62-37least Well with postgraduates 50-48and with those who did not Complete High school 43-56 Bush did better than Reagan 34 with the jewish vote 35-31but not As Well As Reagan 80 3j-3.9 Bush did almost exactly As Well with Union House holds As Reagan 80 42-43. The wealthier the voter the More pronounce Day in favor of Bush. But at incomes Between $ 12,500 and $25,000, Bush began 49-50 to overhaul Dukakis Bush got far fewer democrats than Reagan 84 17-24Bush split the Blue Collar workers with Dukakis almost exactly 49-50. Dukakis heaviest patronage was among the unemployed 62-37. Bush s was among homemakers 5b-4l. Bush won 21 percent of democrats who voted in their primaries. Whereas 15 percent of Black men voted for Bush Only 9 percent of Black women did so. Bush s draw with women was least among the the in