Time - Man of the Year/Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso/moy/081092/08109924.000

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                                                                                THE U.S. CAMPAIGN, Page 24

What's Wrong With Bush?


Nothing -- except a free fall in the polls, a sputtering economy
and a near revolt within his panic-stricken party. No wonder
his mood is grim.

By DAN GOODGAME


    As a stony-faced George Bush struggled through a week of
plunging approval ratings, sluggish economic-growth figures and
angry sniping from his fellow Republicans, his personal
physician, Dr. Burton Lee, mused on the fierce "predatory"
impulses that politicians and journalists share with beasts of
the jungle. "The second somebody looks like he's on the ropes,"
Lee said, mixing metaphors, "the hyenas come circling and
howling around him. Then some people say, `Oh my, he doesn't
look well!' "

    In response to persistent and unsubstantiated rumors that
Bush is ill, Lee insisted that the President was in "excellent
health." But Lee and others close to Bush can also see what is
evident to anyone who watches TV news: the President is under
enormous strain. Bush often said after the Gulf War he felt he,
like his hero Abraham Lincoln, had been "tested by fire." But
in that case, Bush was battling on the foreign-policy turf,
where he is most sure of himself and for a cause in which he
deeply believed. "This is in some ways a harder test for him,"
says a Bush campaign official. The President is now "forced to
compete on the Democrats' home field" of domestic and economic
policy. He also must absorb "a really unsettling rejection" of
his campaign -- not only in opinion polls but even among his
erstwhile Republican allies in Congress, who are alarmed at new
surveys that show Bush is hurting their re-election chances.

    The Bush-Quayle high command tried to counter this brewing
insurrection last week by dispatching campaign manager Fred
Malek to Capitol Hill. Malek gave House Republicans an upbeat
private briefing and a slick brochure trumpeting the President's
accomplishments. But many G.O.P. lawmakers felt patronized and
berated Malek and his campaign colleagues for the message
"vacuum" that has allowed Democrats Bill Clinton and Al Gore to
pull some 30 points ahead of Bush in the polls. Minnesota's Vin
Weber said several of his colleagues sarcastically urged the
Bush-Quayle campaign to stop "sitting on our lead." Meanwhile,
some of Bush's conservative critics -- including columnists
George Will and A.M. Rosenthal, direct-mail impresario Richard
Viguerie and policy analyst Burton Pines -- suggested that he
step aside in favor of a stronger candidate. Terry Eastland,
author of a new book on the presidency titled Energy in the
Executive, speaks for many fellow conservatives when he observes
that "Bush has not put forward a positive reason for people to
elect him to a second term, other than his foreign-policy
record, which is simply not enough." There is no evidence,
however, that Bush is even considering quitting.

    Bush looked relieved at the chance to flee Washington last
week for swings into Texas and California. His speeches,
forcefully delivered and with less of the mangled syntax to
which Bush is prone, were generally well received. Yet bad news
stuck to Bush like a cheap summer suit. In Waxahachie, Texas,
he lobbied for reinstatement of the $8.2 billion
superconducting-supercollider research project, which would
create more than 7,000 jobs nationwide. By an awkward
coincidence, however, General Dynamics had one day earlier
announced that it would lay off 5,800 workers from its F-16
fighter plant in nearby Fort Worth.

    Moving on to California, Bush defended high levels of
peacetime defense spending as, in effect, a make-work jobs
program -- an effective pitch in a state with a large aerospace
industry. But once again, the President's timing was
unfortunate. He arrived just as a newly published statewide poll
put him 34 points behind Clinton, the most lopsided margin in
that state's polling history. Then Bush's message was
overshadowed by the release of a new economic report showing
that gross domestic product grew only 1.4% in the second quarter
-- half the rate of the previous quarter. Even Bush advisers
concede that is not sufficient to reduce unemployment, which
stands at 7.8% nationwide and 9.5% in California.

    Bush and his economic advisers continued to try to divert
blame for the economy to everything from Congress to the end of
the cold war to Saddam Hussein to the German central bank. In
a hard-hitting speech in New Orleans, Clinton portrayed the
Administration's economic excuses as a Bush character flaw,
proof of "the failure of the President to assume responsibility
for the future of this country."

    Under this double-pronged assault from foes and "friends,"
Bush has generally maintained a flinty stoicism. "It's tough
now, but I know it's going to be O.K.," he calmly told one
group of advisers. "I've been through this before, and I know
my timing is right. This is my last campaign, and I'm going to
run it my way."

    Still, small cracks are showing in the President's facade.
Confidants say he privately sounds "wounded" by a public that
takes for granted his leadership in the Gulf War and his prudent
oversight of communism's collapse. Sometimes this petulant
attitude slips out in public, as when Bush recently observed
that despite his signing a historic nuclear weapons treaty with
Russian President Boris Yeltsin, the public remains fixated on
the economy and asks, "What have you done for us lately?"

    Bush is especially annoyed at the disloyalty of
Republicans he has supported for decades by campaigning for
them, attending fund raisers, even leading their families on
private tours of the White House. He recently addressed a fund
raiser for Senator Alfonse D'Amato, for example, only to have
the New York Republican blast him days later for spending too
much time on the golf course. Says Thomas ("Lud") Ashley, a
close Bush friend since both men were at Yale: "George is norm
ally a very even-tempered guy, but he's also a very loyal guy.
And when he doesn't get loyalty in return, that does tick him
off."

    Ashley, who recently spent several days with Bush at Camp
David, believes the President is getting good rest on the
weekends -- jogging the wooded paths, hitting golf balls and
taking frequent naps. But against the urgings of Dr. Lee, Bush
last week heeded the fears of his political handlers and
curtailed a planned 11-day vacation at his oceanfront mansion
in Kennebunkport, Me. Instead he scheduled several new campaign
trips and ordered his speechwriters to serve up tougher rhetoric
for his surrogates and him. "I've been going through a little
javelin catching . . . from the political opposition," Bush said
Friday. "They've been dishing it out for 10 months. Let's see
if they can take it." He also retaliated against at least one
ungrateful Republican: word was sent to D'Amato that he could
forget about any more help from the President.