European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 8, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday june 8, 1992 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary George f. Will Bush Perot both lacking serious conviction to three nagging questions a is Ross Perot More a Liberal or More a conservative is he comparable to anyone in Public life what is the fundamental cause of George Bush a failure As president a i herewith suggest three entwined answers Perot has too few ideas to be either a Liberal or conservative but he has the mentality that has gotten liberalism into lots of trouble. Perot resembles Bush More than either could comfortably acknowledge. And Bush has failed because he believes in nothing much other than the process that proved its Merit by producing him As president. Perot says that As president a a in la be like a Mechanic who a under the Hood working on the  once when president William Howard Taft was listening to a Young aide pontificate about a the machinery of government a Taft whispered to a colleague Quot he really thinks its machinery a the things a Mechanic tinkers with under a Hood can be complicated but not wilful they do not talk Back or have interests convictions yearnings whims. Still Perot says that even the thorny matter of tax Reform will go swimmingly a we Start with a Blank Sheet of  then �?o1 would sit Down with the congressional leaders a the people who have made the tax code the mess it is a a and say a now these look like the Best ways to me. What do you think the Best ways Are a we would work All this through together see As opposed to the confrontational operation that goes on  confrontation seems inexplicably irrational and utterly unnecessary to Perot partly because it often arises from conflicting convictions and the Only Strong conviction he seems to have is that he should be Boss. A in my sleep a he told time Magazine a i am a better consensus Leader than anyone who a up there Fin Washington  Well reaching consensus should do a piece of cake if As Perot evidently thinks conflict is aberrant behaviour because people reasoning together a at least if reasoning under his Tutelage a will naturally come to agreement. Backward reels the mind to a president a a texan too a who was fond of echoing Isaiah a come let us reason  Lyndon Johnson really believed As Good liberals do that All people of Good will and Clear minds will reason the same Way to the same conclusions. Hence society can be made rational Why it can even be made into a great society by the actions of a government staffed with liberals armed with expertise. The theory needed some Fine tuning Johnson was driven from office by a nation on the verge of a nervous breakdown the texan currently president May seem quite unlike either Johnson or Perot but look again. Like Perot Bush believes he should be president not because of anything he believes but because of what he is. Like Johnson Bush believes that if the right sort of people a people like him and his friends a reason together agreement will result. All that is required is the splitting of differences which Are after All just differences about ideas which Arentt really important. Recently a a senior administration official expressed to the Washington Post his bewilderment a Bush has Given 20 percent More Domestic speeches this year than last and 40 percent More than Reagan did in this period and people say we still done to have a message. A hint to the bewildered official people believed that Reagan believed things and people know that Quality matters More than Quantity the bewildered official should read the procedural presidency of George Bush by Kerry Mullins and Aaron Wildavsky in the political science quarterly. They a attempt to make explicit the values and beliefs that would make sense out of George Bush a presidential  they say a Bush seeks the smooth integration of disparate parts. People Are resources to be folded into networks of advisers each part contributing to the whole like a Well oiled  machinery again. It is easiest to Mold plastic things and his pliable people include Many old friends at least 10 members of his Cabinet Are longtime acquaintances and in his first nine months in office he appointed a higher proportion of friends and supporters to ambassadorial posts than either Reagan or president Jimmy Carter Lis personalization of foreign policy explains his coddling of China a tyrants and his Lone reluctance to recognize that Mikhail Gorbachev had become yesterdays Man. His inaugural address a a they did no to Send us Here to Bicker a had a protean premise conflict is something Petty and ill mannered like bickering. Bush thinks government should resemble a Garden party friends enjoying the Proe Ess without the tiresome intrusion of convictions that cause conflict. Mullins and Wildavsky conclude that Bush a presidency a should put to rest the ancient canard to the effect that the Best politicians Are those with the fewest policy preferences because they can be most flexible in catering to Public  that could be the Bush presidency a epitaph. C Tho Washington Post James j. Kilpatric Klove affair with Perot is like teen Ager s crush a a it a absolutely phenomenal a said pollster Mervin Field. He was talking about the candidacy of Ross Perot. Then he posed a question that cannot be answered until november. A but is it infatuation or is it Long lasting love a at the moment Field added it looks like love to him. It does no to look that Way to me. The country a love affair with Perot in my own View has All the aspects of a teen agers crush. It wont last. At this Point in the race polls of Public opinion undoubtedly Are accurate. Field is director of the California poll. His figures May be relied upon. The astonishing numbers supplied by other polls Are equally believable a but in my observation they Are equally unreliable. Polls cannot measure the Gap Between what a fretful people say to a pollster in june and what they actually will do if they vote in november the Texas billionaire is playing the tunes his fans adore. He is talking a straight Texas  in a recent interview with Abc he was asked about Marilyn Quayle. The vice presidents wife had charged that Perot is out to buy the White House. The lady has a right of free speech he said mildly and then talking Texas he United at the camera with the look of Arshal Dillon disdaining decaffeinated Coffee. He just hated to see a grown men hiding behind their  that is fighting talk stranger and it is enough to make the Bobby boxers squeal. It is the contrast that enchants them. George Bush has suffered a bad run of the dithers. Bill Clinton smiles the smile of a travelling Salesman. The major party candidates Are As Pale As two mums in a vase with a flaming Orchid. Clinton and Bush say All the conventional things about a presidential Campaign. Perot says its mud wrestling son just mud wrestling. The politicians Are All talk and no action. They be pulled a con Job. Perot soars in the polls. More than one fourth of the democrats who voted on tuesday for Clinton say they would rather have voted for Perot. More than half of the independents who voted in 1988 for George Bush say they would leave him for their Texas Beau. So they say. Once the voters get to know Perot the figures will first slump and then fall. What now is perceived As self Confidence will tilt toward the Side of arrogance. It fits the Texas image for Perot to be laconic but responsible campaigns can to be built on bumper stickers. Does Perot know anything about the complexities of governance Tell us. Right now the people Are mad about everything. They done to know what they want but they done to want what they be got. Seen through the pollsters inconstant Eye this All looks Good. But in the polls of passing opinion As in the real world the polls so briefly reflect things Are not always what they seem. C  fjru�?~.>3 Syndicate