TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/013089/01308900.051

Text File | 1992-09-23 | 5.7 KB | 115 lines

                                                                                NATION, Page 27

The Education of a Standby


Dan Quayle gets a cram course -- just in case


    The subjects made up an extraordinarily eclectic curriculum,
and the teachers may well have been the most high-powered bunch
ever assembled on or off a campus. For example:

    Basic Budget Economics. Professor: Richard Darman, about to
become head of the Office of Management and Budget.

    Advanced Foreign Policy. Professors: Henry Kissinger, former
Secretary of State; and Jeane Kirkpatrick, former U.S.
Ambassador to the United Nations.

    How to Look Good on TV. Professor: Steve Studdert, an
imagemaker for George Bush.

    Problems of the Modern Vice Presidency. Professors: former
Vice Presidents Richard Nixon and Walter Mondale.

    Plus a course in the politics of southern Africa (professor:
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Chester
Crocker), a tutorial on neoconservative thought (professor:
Irving Kristol of the American Enterprise Institute), and a
briefing on the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) by
Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb. And all for just
one pupil: Vice President J. Danforth Quayle.

    From Election Day to the start of Inauguration week, Quayle
virtually hid out in his transition office opposite the White
House. He gave no speeches or interviews, made no television
appearances. Instead he devoted most of his time to cramming on
subjects he will need to know a bit about if he is to give
cogent advice to President Bush -- or take over If Something
Happens.  At least three times on most weekdays, including
several sessions over lunch, Quayle tried to absorb the
expertise communicated by the most knowledgeable tutors his
staff could round up.

    That such crash courses should be necessary spotlights
Quayle's greatest difficulty. In his own words, delivered
during an NBC television interview last week, he is still "a
huge question mark" in the public's mind. That is putting it
mildly: to many people the campaign image of an intellectual
lightweight stubbornly lingers. In a Yankelovich Clancy Shulman
poll taken for TIME before the Inauguration, half of those
questioned had no particular impression of Quayle, and 30%
viewed him unfavorably. Asked if Quayle is qualified to assume
the presidency, 52% said no and only 30% said yes -- a poorer
ratio than the negative vote he drew in August (44% no, 33%
yes), when Bush had just selected him as running mate.

    As the Inauguration neared, Quayle evidently felt more
confident. At the start of last week, he agreed to a round of
TV, newspaper and magazine interviews. He was assigned by Bush
to get his first taste of diplomacy on a visit to Venezuela and
two to four other Latin American nations only a couple of weeks
after being sworn in. Though Quayle played the traditional role
of Just Barely Visible Man through most of the Inaugural
ceremonies, he delivered what some advisers called his own
Inaugural Address at the concluding gala Saturday night. Quayle
said he had come to appreciate Winston Churchill's classic line
that "nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at
without result." He ridiculed the "self-importance" of the
"Washington Establishment" -- rather odd for the Vice President
of an Administration dominated by such Establishment types as
Bush and most members of the Cabinet.

    As Vice President, Quayle asserts, his model will be --
surprise! -- Bush. Quayle will receive the same intelligence
briefings as the President and sit in on Cabinet meetings, so he
will be fully informed on policy. But, following Bush's wishes,
Quayle will keep his mouth shut except when talking one on one
with the President, whom he will serve as a general adviser on
the whole range of policy issues. Like his predecessor, Quayle
already has a standing once-a-week lunch date with his boss;
they will eat together every Thursday. Quayle will also have
some responsibility for space exploration and regulatory reform
issues.

    Quayle found especially valuable the tutoring of Democrat
Mondale. Among other things, Mondale urged Quayle to avoid
getting bogged down as head of dozens of presidential task
forces and commissions. In Mondale's view, such assignments
almost inevitably turn into trivial pursuits. It is no accident
that most of Quayle's tutors were right of center. His
instincts are deeply conservative, and though he insists he will
not act as a "spear carrier" for the right, one conservative
activist views him as a potential provider of "political
intelligence" about what is going on in the Administration. Bush
aides, however, see Quayle as an envoy to, rather than from, the
right, "another set of eyes and ears" for the President. Says
one: "If Dan Quayle can act as an address for the right wing of
the party and make them feel included, that's all for the best.
At the very least, maybe they won't be bothering the President
as much as they might otherwise."

    That will still leave Quayle with the problem of overcoming
his bad public image. His strategy: to make himself
increasingly useful to Bush; build on that relationship to win
the respect of other Administration leaders and then members of
Congress; and trust their confidence eventually to be reflected
in the news media and among the public. If he can make that
strategy succeed, the rewards can be great. Five of the past ten
Vice Presidents have eventually moved into the Oval Office, and
two more have been nominated by their parties for the White
House. So the whole nation has a stake in whether the Vice
President can gradually make the phrase President Quayle
something other than a trigger for laughter -- or dismay.