How George Bush can win

National Review, Oct 5, 1992 by William J. Bennett

Fortunately for the President, there is a deep divide in this country on a few bedrock issues--and he is on the right side of them. Our three analysts offer tips on how to make the differences apparent.

HE ADVICE offered herewith is based on a simple premise: George Bush is now on course to lose this election. The President is plagued by a sluggish economic recovery and an environment in which 80 per cent of the American people believe the country is on the wrong track.

The good news is that the President has begun to engage the opposition. Jim Baker's return to the White House probably ensures at least a competent, well-coordinated re-election effort. Republicans can draw some comfort, too, from a volatile political environment in which a candidate who is behind in the polls one week may well be ahead the next. And there is always the possibility that Bill Clinton will hit an iceberg of his own making, having to do with matters of character and credibility.

A skeptical nation seems to have adopted a wait-and-see attitude or, perhaps more accurately, a "show me" attitude. And that's fair enough. A Republican victory in the fall will require changing the direction, the tone, and most importantly the psychology of the campaign. Especially, it will require a confident, coherent philosophical case for the President's re-election. Here are some thoughts on how, even at this late hour, George Bush might best make the case.

1. The "vision thing." The GOP achieved dominance in the 1980s because we were viewed as the party of energy and ideas. The President should reject the advice that the road to re-election can be paved with vague generalities and last-minute handouts. The campaign should instead seek its second-term mandate by mounting a vigorous intellectual defense of Republican ideas. The motto should be not "Four More Years," but "Four Different Years."

The elections of 1980, 1984, and 1988 were not simply about tax cuts or family values; they were about a world view that wanted to see America strong: strong militarily, to face up to aggression abroad; strong economically, to improve the material condition of our people; and strong morally, to keep America good as well as mighty. This fundamental view Of American society remains as sound in 1992 as it was in 1787, and the Republican Party ought not to be intimidated by those whose vision of America is opposed to ours.

The President should not back away from putting some flesh on public-policy bones. He should spell out in detail his proposed tax cuts, curbs in discretionary spending, and entitlement reforms, There is a direct correlation between the confidence a political figure has in his ideas and his willingness to talk in detail about them. Our Republican ideas are better, a lot better, and so we should embrace them, fight for them, bleed for them--and then we will win with them.

2. Use the power of incumbency. We have heard a lot lately about the downside of incumbency, as the word "change" is invoked like an incantation. But there are obvious advantages to incumbency. Chief among those is the opportunity to act and to lead, to point to the future.

One way to shape events is through a series of executive (and in some instances unilateral) actions. For starters, the President should announce that he will enthusiastically adopt the "growth plank" (advocated by Jack Kemp and Vin Weber, among others) as his second-term economic blueprint and throw the full weight of his office behind radical education reform and school choice, legal reform and deregulation. The President should veto the Democratic tax bill, declare an economic emergency, and call the Congress back into session. He should exercise the line-item veto; veto the Public Broadcasting Reauthorization bill; suspend the Davis-Bacon Act; and issue an executive order that puts an end to racial quotas in federal hiring. All of these actions-but especially putting an end to racial quotas--would send the media into a frenzy. "Willie Horton II," they will cry. Let them. Race relations are deteriorating in America in part because of a lack of courageous candor from our leaders. A media firestorm will thrust these issues to the top of the national debate, and that would be very good news indeed. Provided President Bush sticks to his guns, he won't run out of intellectual ammunition.

3. Make Bill Clinton an issue. The real chink in Bill Clinton's political armor is his public character. The portrait now emerging is that of a man who is unwilling (or unable) to take tough stands, to make hard decisions, or to say "No" to special-interest groups.

Governor Clinton straddled the fence on the congressional vote to authorize the use of force in the Persian Gulf ("I guess I would have voted with the majority if it was a close vote. But I agree with the arguments the minority made."); equivocated on his support for the North American Free Trade Agreement; flip-flopped on parental notification for teenage abortions; backed away from his June endorsement of raising corporate average fuel-economy standards for automobiles; and reversed his support for school choice for public, private, and religious schools. This kind of political opportunism has introduced into the campaign what Newsweek columnist Joe Klein aptly calls the "squish factor." Without compass and without anchor, Governor Clinton will surely be swept away by the eddies and currents of the radical (and still dominant) powers of the Democratic Party: the education unions, the labor unions, the American Bar Association, the so-called civil-rights establishment, the feminist movement, and the Democratic leadership in Congress.