For Starters, Bush and Ex-Rivals Forge a United Front

DENVER — “Last time we were all together, we were debating. . . . We were in New Hampshire,” recalled Kansas Sen. Bob Dole. “Some of us haven’t seen each other since.”

Pause.

“And some of us haven’t wanted to.”

But gather they did on Friday and Saturday--Vice President George Bush and four of the men he vanquished in the primaries, along with several hundred party activists from 14 Western states and an assortment of leading GOP strategists. This was the Republican National Committee’s 1988 “Unity Conference,” a kind of political pick-me-up mini-convention where the Republicans donned their game faces and set out a plan for making up lost ground on Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis and the Democrats.

Bush Sees Less Ferment

The unity conference lived up to its name as far as unity goes, and it lent credence to Bush’s claim that the GOP undertakes the 1988 autumn campaign with less ferment than at any time in recent history.

Even Dole, whose competition with Bush in February and March was acidly personal, seemed to hold back little in praise of the vice president.

“By testing him, we strengthened our candidate,” Dole said. “We all traveled many, many miles during the months we were out there. We saw America, we talked to America. . . . And what did America have to say to us?

“Well, there was one message some of us didn’t really want to hear. But we all did, loud and clear. The voters in our primaries told us they like George Bush. They like the fact he has been part of the best eight years in this country’s recent history. . . . America likes the calm and reassuring continuity George Bush represents. And America decided that George Bush has ‘The Right Stuff.’ ”

One after another, Rep. Jack Kemp of New York, former Gov. Pierre S. (Pete) du Pont IV of Delaware and former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr., they joined in tributes to the man they once faulted so easily and so often. Only Pat Robertson, among the major contenders, declined to attend, and he sent a letter saying that he would appear at the next two conferences to follow in other regions of the country.

Focus on Dukakis

Unity did not end with praises of the candidate. From top to bottom, Republicans at the conference found themselves strongly in agreement with Bush that the way to win in November is by convincing the country that Dukakis is a liberal.

Or, as Bush campaign manager Lee Atwater put it, “a double-dipped, Frost Belt, George McGovern-style liberal.”

Many Democrats and some pollsters have laughed at such a strategy. How, they ask, can an understated, deliberate man like Dukakis, who claims he is true to conservative principles, be transformed into some frothing leftist radical in the public’s eye?

Haig was one conference speaker who agreed that it would not be easy to scare America about Dukakis.

“I must warn you, he’s assembling a brain trust of substantial capacity. I know many of these fellows. . . . They are moving him back to the center,” Haig said.

Change Called Key Issue

Against that, Haig continued, the Republican challenge is: “That George Bush does represent safe change and (we must) work as effectively as we can to demonstrate that Mr. Dukakis is a man of radical and dangerous change.”

Bush took the stage with his four former rivals Friday night and defended the tack and tone of the GOP game plan.

“Already we’re hearing charges of mudslinging from the other side. That’s the oldest political ploy in the game. . . . I am not going to be deterred from telling the truth,” the vice president told the buoyant crowd of 1,000.

“Gov. Dukakis--he and Jesse (Jackson)--have been out there dumping all over me for six months. They can dish it out. Now let’s see if they can take it.”

Atwater delivered a long strategy speech to the GOP activists, and he said that Republicans have plenty with which to surprise moderate-minded voters about the liberal in Dukakis.

“Once we start outlining these issues, people are going to come back to George Bush in droves,” he said.

But Atwater said there was a ticklish problem in making the public accept some of the charges.

Believability a Factor

“It’s not believable to a lot of people that this guy as governor vetoed a measure that would have allowed students to say the pledge of allegiance in class,” Atwater said of Dukakis.

“That doesn’t have the ring of believability. So we’ve got to get out and talk about it now. If you wait until the last few weeks of the campaign, voters will say this is a last-minute smear. But its absolutely true and we’re going to go with it.”

The reference is to Dukakis’ 1977 veto of legislation that would have required teachers in Massachusetts schools to lead the pledge of allegiance. He did so after being advised by the state Supreme Judicial Court that such a law would violate the constitutional rights of teachers. The Legislature, which was bitterly feuding with Dukakis at the time, easily overrode the veto; after doing so, members of the state House of Representatives broke into a rendition of “God Bless America.”

For all this bravado, however, Atwater braced the party activists for months of gloomy news from public opinion polls.

“We may never be ahead again in this campaign in the polls. That would not surprise me at all. And we may never this summer be closer than 10 points behind,” he said.

Expects Late Start

Atwater said, however, not to despair because “this election is going to start very late for rank-and-file voters. . . . It’s clear as a bell to me that voters are not focused on this election.”

Bush also waved off concern about early public opinion polls showing him trailing.

“I don’t believe them. One major survey shows two-thirds of the people think Dukakis is more conservative then I am,” he said.

That gave Bush the opening to tell one of his favorite jokes in this poll-crazy campaign. This is the one where people confuse him with a guy named Busch.

“When they asked people what they liked about me, 40% said I was a good vice president, 40% said I had some experience in foreign policy. And 20% said I make a good beer. So I discount these polls.”