European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 21, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday january 21, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary William f. Buckley  syndrome infects candidates one trouble with politics is that its nature is so awfully sycophantic a. Take new Hampshire. Now we Don t doubt that president Bush is enraptured by the Beauty of the state. Why because it is a very Beautiful state. But he wants us to believe that it is the spinal Cord of his geographical attachments to his native land lying As it does Between Massachusetts where he went to boarding school and Maine where his principal non official residence is. Although As he would now put it he is a a fixing to begin a to say the same thing about Texas if he campaigns there and about other states if he campaigns there Estes Kefauver when he campaigned for president used to forget in which state he was speaking so that he would dumb found an audience in Montana by a Dithy iambic tribute to Wisconsin which he had left that morning. So it goes. Pat Buchanan has cognate problems insisting that he is an outsider in Washington . Now As it happens it is True that he is exactly that As a conservative dissenter from doctrinaire liberalism but it is no More communicable coming from a native washingtonian who has spent half his life in the White House to the people of new Hampshire than his anathema on the Purchase of foreign cars. Uttered by someone who owns a Mercedes Benz. It is a truly consuming disease scrambling for votes. Take Pete Dupont formerly governor of Delaware. Now 1 have spent a fair amount of time with gov. Dupont in the last couple of years and he is a Man of total directness i swear when talking to him you Are convinced that he has just finished consuming a month s Supply of truth serum. But when i asked him How Many nights he had spent in the state of Iowa when running for president in 1988 and he answered 103, 1 gasped and asked How he could stand it. He actually said he enjoyed it. I did no to press him on the Point because i did no to want to shatter my own illusions about him. This has nothing to do with the pleasantness of life in Iowa but i deny that anyone can enjoy 103 nights in a state other than where his Home is a Tlatov deny it. And now Bush wishes to give the impression that he is up on country music and Rock lyrics a that he is familiar for instance with the nitty Gritty dirt band which he Calls the nitty ditty nitty Gritty great Bird band. When Whittaker Chambers at age 60 decided to go Back to College he found himself opposite an 18-year-old farm girl dissecting a Guinea pig in biology lab. She was shy but after a few sessions she decided to share with the elderly Man opposite her current passion. A emr. Chambers done to you think that Itsy bits teeny weeny yellow polka Dot Bikini is like maybe the Best Ever a Whittaker Chambers nodded his head gravely and said he had Seldom been More taken by a song than that one. That Sok that a personal diplomacy designed not to Hurt feelings or disparage confidences a like affecting to be familiar with the Ball scores when being told about them by an enthusiast lest your utter ignorance and indifference to same appear a form of condescension. George Bush happens to be a Superior human being. There is no one who has associated with him in the 50 convivial years since he was at school close to the state of new Hampshire who demurs on this Point. He is attractive generous Loyal animated warm. The problem with politics is that genuine qualities tend to be hidden by the distractions of synthetic endearments by an attempt to sink ones own natural diction into the vernacular of the Region. To go too far in the other direction is to make the mistake that doomed Corio lanus who could Tell Only the truth defend Only virtue cat Chize against any weakness who for his efforts gets killed by his own Side. No. No no that Isnit what we want or what the voters want. But one has to suppose that the voters of new Hampshire Are prepared to weigh Bush a to the extent that they Are opining on him. As distinct from his administration a for what he is. He does not need to spend All Day on Street Corners and in production plants saying things designed to endear but Likely to alienate. Robert tafts wife was accosted on the first Day of her Campaign for the re election of her husband As senator from Ohio in 1950, a vital race in which or. Republican was the object of much organized vituperation particularly at the hands of the labor unions. She was asked at a huge Assembly of women a mrs. Taft is your husband a common Man Quot she looked up visibly nut off. Quot of. No a she said. A the is not that at All. He was first in his class at Yale and first in his class at Harvard Law school. I think it would be wrong to present a common Matt As a representative of the people of  the faces of the professionals around her turned Ashen after her first words. They were astonished at the standing ovation it brought. C Universal press Syndicate Mary Mcgrory Quayle has Chance to capitalize on image How Conners Tif myth won Geo kit try amp is up atm on me Toop. \ x 1,1x two Mac says  he haste Fuji for he a to 6e a Quot Bur when i Pomr  he5 vjusmmn6>to6ef u &Quot.16nop6 him and for to wifi am i a a Sircar 1 a  a Dan Quayle has never had a better Chance to show he has the stuff. A the vice president has just been outfitted with elevator shoes so he can Rise to the occasion of the 1992 Campaign. The presidents stomach upset in Tokyo has thrust him into the spotlight and a series in the Washington Post by two of the paper s most distinguished reporters has put him in a new Light. A of overwhelming value to Quayle a Veteran gop operative Jim Lake Calls the Book length series by David Broder and Bob Woodward. Quot they show him to have the dedication the discipline and the strategic thinking that went into seeking the Job of vice president. It shows him designing a strategy sticking to it in a thoughtful Way. It shows the Campaign was an  others say the stories will not change the Basic thinking about the vice president who flew up to new Hampshire to Deal with right Wing challenger Patrick Buchanan while Bush regroups. If they show his cunning a and that of his wife Marilyn a in ingratiating himself with George Bush in 1988, they leave exposed his Basic flaw which is a kind of emptiness. When he attained his desire and was named vice president Quayle acted like a fraternity House Clown. The first sight a stunned country had of the fair haired boy from Indiana was of his punching his principal in the bicep. The Campaign was a fiasco a montage of hard bitten pros trying to House break him of rebellions and gaffes and sneers from the bleachers. Quayle a debate with sen. Lloyd Bentsen a Texas turned into a rout when he Unwar ily compared himself with John Kennedy and was flattened by the most famous line of the season a a you re no Jack Kennedy  Liberal democrats have called Post friends to complain that the paper is pumping up Dan Quayle with puff pieces Quot but for All the detail and Friendly explanation the vice president is the same after As before amiable ambitious and constitutionally incapable of thinking on his feet. The president is in no danger of death unless it would be of embarrassment for having become sick at a japanese state dinner and sliding out of his chair onto the floor before the whole world. Barbara Bush and Marlin Fitzwater did a masterly Job of Cooling it she by carrying on at the banquet he by making what sounded like full disclosure about the presidents condition. What nobody said was the obvious that it is time Tor George Bush to Start acting his age which is 67. He is engaged in some eternal olympics in which he competes against himself and the advancing years. He seems to fear his Tellow citizens will think less of him in he  athletic. Last May the nation shuddered when he experienced heart f Ibri lations while jogging. He does not understand that the Prospect of his successor unnerves them. Someone should Tell him that there is a big constituency for him to log time in a  Lounger. The country can handle a president who reads and thinks. Now there is a vicious Circle. After a health crisis Bush feels he must redouble his activities lest the voters think he has health problems. Restless As a teen Ager he does not grasp the soothing Quality of inactivity. His Choice of Quayle remains a mystery to much of the electorate. To Bush the selection probably seemed inevitable. The president spends much of his life worrying about the right Wing. Quayle a Young handsome born conservative biddable a did no to have to scheme All that much to get Bush a attention. Quayle a blandness particularly when compared with the razor Sharpness of another contender. Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas recommended him further. No inconvenient obsessions loomed Quayle and Bush Are soulmates in one  re Spect each knows what he wants to be and neither knows what he wants to do. As for his personal history Quayle is one of the most married men in Washington. Marilyn Quayle shares All political decisions. She was an equal partner in the plot to seize the vice presidency. In the recriminations and rationalizations that take up much of the series she takes the lady Macbeth role a Quot infirm of purpose give me the Dagger a in knifing Secretary of state James a. Baker Iii As the author of their hapless ass from the moment of the nomination. Still Quayle a survival of the e scrutiny of two reporters of the status of Broder and Woodward will give him added stature among political pros in his party. He had the imagination to see that he would be judge against his image so that he could not lose. As Bush regroups after his Tokyo fall Quayle has a matchless Opportunity to shuck the lightweight late night talk show joke. His big Chance has come. L univ Hal pm  by thu Ilu