Bush's New Balancing Act

By David Beckwith with Bush

After clinching the Republican presidential nomination in mid-March, George Bush seemed to disappear from the national stage. That low profile was fine with the cautious half of his campaign team. "The public isn't focused on the election yet," declared Bush's pollster, Robert Teeter. "This is a time for unifying the party, planning the convention, developing positions and reaching out to new groups."

But last week, prodded by his more aggressive advisers, Bush suddenly reappeared. He sat for interviews with newspapers and television networks and began slashing away at Michael Dukakis ("a very traditional liberal . . . he doesn't know much about foreign affairs"). An animated Bush sought to brush up his own image. "I kind of think I'm a scintillating kind of fellow. I think I'm a charismatic son of a gun," said Bush playfully to reporters. "But I'm not going to depend entirely on that to win."

Bush and his advisers began painting Dukakis as soft on defense and big on social spending, a return ticket to high inflation and interest rates. "Dukakis is just a Northern-fried Jimmy Carter," said Bush Campaign Manager Lee Atwater. Reason for the assaults: "Dukakis is starting to emerge as a stature candidate, slightly bigger than life," explained a Bush aide. "That has to be nipped. It's much easier to shape opinion about a candidate when he's still relatively unknown."

Bush's strategy calls for limning his differences with Dukakis in terms that are as dramatic as possible -- in part because the two have similar stolid images but Dukakis is better on television. The Bush camp foresees a close election, with neither side conceding any significant bloc of voters. "We're going after every traditional democratic constituency, including labor, blacks, Hispanics, Jews and ethnics," vows Bush Spokesman Peter Teeley.

A sweep of last week's Pennsylvania G.O.P. primary gave Bush enough delegates for the nomination. That prompted a belated congratulatory call from the Vice President's last remaining opponent, Pat Robertson. Although details must be worked out, Robertson will receive prime TV time at the convention in return for suspending his moribund campaign. Bush forces are planning several regional unity meetings in June to stroke supporters of the other Republican candidates flattened by the Bush juggernaut.

A trickier problem for Bush is how to use the 800-lb. political gorilla named Ronald Reagan. Some advisers doubt that Reagan will be very helpful in the fall election. They fret that Bush may seem diminished when placed next to Reagan, either literally or figuratively. Reagan was expected to endorse Bush this week at a Washington victory party, their first 1988 joint political appearance. Even so, Bush and the White House have worked out a plan for Reagan to put in only a brief appearance at the G.O.P. convention, thus keeping the spotlight on the nominee.

Bush and his advisers still haven't solved their major remaining problem: how to move cleanly but loyally away from Reagan and establish Bush's credentials as a forceful, independent leader. Traveling to such secondary media markets as Evansville, Ind., and Lima, Ohio, last week, Bush was pursued by questions about Iran-contra, Ed Meese, the trade-bill veto and the Administration's lackluster civil rights record. In each case, the Vice President swallowed hard and forcefully stuck with the boss. That can't continue indefinitely. "Reagan knows that Bush must eventually cement his own relationship with the American people," says Bush Political Director Rich Bond. "But like a lot of high-wire acts, timing is everything."