European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 6, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes columns Jim Fain Reagan show supreme never mind the mess Washington Given our Druth ers we d hold Back the Dawn Ronnie. What s a few billion More to pay theban past Midnight Waltz us around the Piazza one to time. You and we Veblen Jack Armstrong and Betty coed at the prom for eight years the longest Runof Puppy love since Andy Hardy. Historians will probe a Mother lode of Paradox in Ronald Reagan s leaving of fice the most adored of modern presi dents. He napped through the loosest administration since Harding one As bar of accomplishment As sparkling in Public relations. With him performance in the White House assumed its theatrical meaning. Other than Aura at which he had coequal the Gipper won his Only Success by trampling Over his ideological dead body to become buddies with the evil Empire. Otherwise he left the nation i worse shape than he found it. His flacks credit the superpower warming to his defense and foreign poli cies but when did they Ever bother wit facts aside from marginal arms improvement begun by Jimmy Carter we grew weaker not stronger during the Reagan Raj. We lagged in productivity and economic Power crippled ourselves with debt buried our Heads in drugs Anklet our schools decline. Nor did Reagan do us any favo when he kept the Faith. His passion for Star wars retarded arms agreements an fattened the most wasteful Pentagon in history. His Contra fixation upset Latina Erica alienated Congress and distracted diplomacy from useful tasks inthe mid and far East. Once Bush takes Over both these Reagan obsessions Willet pauper s burials the Gipper s Apost Asies wreaked evermore damage. By embracing keynesian economics to pump prime Prosperity he David Broder piled up More debt than All previous presidents combined. By abandoning his vow never to pay Ransom he boosted terrorism made hostage taking Profita ble and rendered the . Impotent even absurd before the world. All of which we immediately forgave him because he s such an engaging old fellow Wise cracking when shot Able to laugh at himself if not admit error Capa ble of gulling himself about himself to reach total sincerity however s fully convinced he never meant to Ransom hostages that Only a shortage of boots prevented Contra Triumph that homeless Folk freeze because they crave night air and that the Only Barrier be tween us and a missile Astrodome was funding for a few More roofers. His Pitchman skills were Ideal fora to presidency. He never made Star Dom in Hollywood s gilded Era but up staged Clark Gable and Errol Flynn at their Peak by hanging on Long enough Toland the fattest role of All. He owed a lot to the press agent Sid of his House. They quarantined him from the Grubby at All costs. You did t hear much from him on the pan am disaster for the latest example others got to Deal with the operational nitty Gritty especially when things were going sour. Ratings not results were the name of the game. He also profited from comparison with recent Peers. People driven enough to suffer modern campaigns tend to be thoroughly unlovable. Witness Johnson Nixon and Carter. So we gave our hearts to a genial Hoof. He sat the throne Well and per formed protocol with a showman s our love in a Safe place lord High Pooh Bah. Never mind the mess. Old left footed George can clean up. Nobody wants to dance with him anyway. Cox news service pundit parades his most notable goofs of 88 Washington every halloween kids try toward off the evils of encroaching Winter darkness by dressing up As ghosts and goblins. And two month Slater this column tries a similar trick or treat approach by parading some of the notable goofs an gaffes of the previous year. Mentally you see i m still stuck in second Grade. Goofs and gaffes had i aplenty in 1988. Years Divisi ble by four Are always great for entries in the dunce Cap Derby. Presidential campaigns May bore the Vot ers but they stimulate the Best work from those of us who have made a career of being wrong. Like the classic crooked politician who seen his opportunities and took pm i started my course of Terrancy As soon As the first voters went to their caucuses in Iowa on feb. 8. I had shrewdly High tailed it out of the state 24 hours before the voting and gone to Manchester n.h., to prepare for the following week s new Hampshire primary. The distance and perspective gained by this move paid big dividends when i boldly wrote of the Iowa results vice president Bush became a vulnerable front runner with returns from the caucuses showing Bush Trail ing sen. Bob Dole of Kansas and television evangelist Pat Robertson i approvingly quoted new Jersey s re publican gov. Thomas h. Kean As saying that Iowa throws everything in the Republican party in cocked Well something was cockeyed for sure but Idin t know it was me. The misreading of Iowa May be excused because of the haste with which it was delivered. Second thoughts often Are better and with 24 hours to think it Over this is what i said of vulnerable Republican front runner Bush eight years ago he came into new Hampshire As the Winner of Iowa and lost Here because he had Noth ing of substance to say to people. This year he comes in As the loser in Iowa and he still has nothing of substance to say. Loyalty to Reagan and a vague commitment to be the education president will help Inthis state but they Are not enough to sustain Bush for just Long enough to make him president it turned out. The Broder bid for the 1988 Booby prize which began so auspiciously in the Iowa new Hampshire period staggered badly in the following weeks As i wan dered into unfamiliar Fields of perspicacity. But i showed i had not lost the Knack when the democratic race took a dramatic turn in Michigan. Jesse l. Jackson s breakthrough Victory in Michi Gan saturday has transformed him into a formidable contender for the democratic presidential nomination and prompted Shell shocked party leaders to question Massachusetts gov. Michael s. Dukakis ability to compete with him began a March 28 Story on which i generously shared byline credit with colleague Paul Taylor. If Jackson can continue to connect in this Way he will be formidable we wrote. Well perhaps. It took eight Days after Iowa for new Hampshire voters to disprove my judgment about Bush s vulnerability but Only four for connect Cut voters to a transform Jackson and show that Dukakis could indeed compete. Party leaders emerge quickly from their Shell Shock this reporter did not. In fact it was not until May 17 that the old Crysta Ball was Back in working order displaying vivid mirages. By then Bush and Dukakis had cinched the nominations and the question was their vice presiden tial choices. Dealing first with the democrats i wrote that two months before their nominating convention the focus in preliminary discussions is on Sens. Brad Ley of new Jersey and John Glenn of Ohio far More than on Sam Nunn of rereading the 1,200 words in that account i no see that i mentioned virtually every living Democrat who might be on the ticket with Dukakis. All but one that is sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas. Five Days later there was another breathless bit of foresight beginning Dixie democrats Are put Ting put the Welcome mat for prospective presidential nominee Michael s. Dukakis. After hiding from their National ticket four years ago Southern democratic officials Are telling the Massachusetts governor s aides that vice president Bush does not have their Region electoral votes locked up unless Dukakis decides to i m sure Bush Campaign manager Lee Atwater read that Story and it clearly affected his strategy. Recognizing that the Odds were against Bush Atwater largely wrote off his native South balancing the Bush ticket with a Little known senator from Northern Indiana Dan Quayle. I expect Atwater was astonished when the South gave All of its electoral votes to the Bush Quayle ticket. I know i was. The general election produced its own bumper crop of blunders including one which Washington Post political researcher Colette t. Rhoney believes should be designated As the goof of the that was the assertion that in the first presidential debate Michae Dukakis proved that he could deflect George Bush s efforts to place him outside the mainstream of Ameri can that piece is a Strong contender admittedly but there were other howlers of similar proportion during the fall too Many to chronicle Here. Let me just say that i think i m on a Roll that will carry right Over into 1989. As the president elect would say read my c Washington Post writers group
