Race Winding Up at a Frantic Pace : ‘Stop and Think’ About the Stakes, Bush Tells Voters

Commencing his closing arguments to the American electorate, Vice President George Bush asked voters Sunday to stand back from the advertisements and sloganeering and “paraphernalia” of politics--to “stop and think” about the lasting stakes in the 1988 election.

Think about the economy, Bush said.

Think about peace.

On these two political imperatives, Bush constructed his summation speech as he traveled through four time zones and made final appearances in the Far West.

“This election is about big things,” the Republican presidential nominee said.

It was his desire this day, Bush explained, to “lighten up” his attacks but not the campaign pace in these last 48 hours. However, as has often been the case when he vowed in the morning to ease up, he was back on the relentless attack by afternoon.

Crowd of About 10,000

The centerpiece of Bush’s day was a rally at Warner Center Park in Woodland Hills, where the crowd of about 10,000 was one of his largest audiences of the campaign. He also attended a Covina ethnic festival that attracted several thousand more. Those, plus a morning breakfast rally in Colorado Springs, Colo., were Bush’s final bid for votes in the West.

He stayed on the road until nearly midnight, traveling to the Midwest, where he will spend most of the final day in his campaign against Democratic nominee Michael S. Dukakis. He will also be seen on a half-hour commercial to air tonight on the major TV networks.

“When you strip away all the rhetoric--hot-shot bites on television, his and mine--the campaign is about where we are going to go in the country,” Bush said in Colorado Springs.

“And I say it’s a choice between a future of growth and opportunity and hope, or a future of recession, stagflation, highly centralized federal government and, I would add, decline.”

Later, in Woodland Hills, Bush grew harsher still in tone.

Of Massachusetts Gov. Dukakis, Bush said: “He says he wants to do for the country what he did for Massachusetts. Please, God, save the Republic. We don’t need that.”

Defends Tone of Campaign

Still later in Covina, Bush was unrestrained in defending the tone of the 1988 campaign:

“I’m getting sick and tired of my opponent’s complaining about the rough and tumble of the campaign . . . . Look, my friend, if you can’t take the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen!”

Chatting informally to reporters aboard Air Force Two on Saturday night as he made his way west, Bush confided the obvious--he is weary from the relentless pace of the campaign windup.

“It’s the total tension,” he said.

“The last three days were in the highest degree of tension. We work very hard. Sometimes I get extraordinarily tired. But it’s understandable. But I feel I’m in good physical shape. Sometimes I sleep; sometimes I don’t.”

Bush had one noticeable problem, however--his voice. Already hoarse, it began to crack by midday Sunday.

Campaign officials--who admittedly are of uncertain reliability in such matters--spread word that a much-ballyhooed surge in the polls by Dukakis had halted.

“Our numbers have stabilized,” one Bush aide said.

This seemed to bring a sense of relief to a campaign that showed signs of jitteriness in the last couple of days.

‘There Are More Democrats’

“We knew this race was going to get tight. We’ve said all along there are more Democrats than there are Republicans in the country,” campaign manager Lee Atwater said.

National surveys offered differing points of view. A Washington Post-ABC poll gave Bush a 54%-44% lead nationally, with a virtual lock on the electoral votes needed for election. A Gallup Poll called it 53% to 41% among likely voters, whereas the Wall Street Journal-NBC poll had the spread at only 5 points--48% to 43%.

“I cannot believe that in 48 hours the polls open,” Bush told an early morning rally Sunday in Colorado Springs.

“I ask, go put this election in perspective. And when you go into that voting booth, stop and think about what you’re doing . . . . “

“You know I’ve been all over this country. I’ve spoken to millions of Americans. We’ve seen all the parades and the debates and the interviews and the advertisements, all the other paraphernalia of modern campaigning.

“And, as I near the end of this very long, arduous journey, I think of the larger issues that this election is really about.”

Derides Sound Bites, Backdrops

Even though he had mastered them, Bush derided the snippets of quotable wisdom and the pretty backdrops that often seem the overriding aim of the candidates.

“It’s about issues, not ads; it’s about the values and the philosophies of mainstream America, not about sound bites and photo ops,” Bush said of the campaign.

” . . . Everything is kind of controlled. It doesn’t matter if you give a good speech or a lousy one--just whether some demonstrator gets hauled out of the hall.”

Speaking about the economy, Bush recited the high inflation, 12.5%, and high interest rates, 21.5%, that preceded the Reagan Administration. He contrasted this with Friday’s announcement that U.S. unemployment was at a 14-year low of 5.2%

“That’s good and that means almost every American who wants a job has a job.”

Bush described the choice as one between Dukakis, who “really believes that more government is necessary, more taxes” and the vice president’s own pledge against taxes and his faith in the power of private-sector economic expansion.

‘It’s a Challenging Time’

But Bush said his “thoughts keep coming back” to national security and foreign affairs.

“The new President, believe me, will be tested on all fronts,” Bush said. “ . . . It’s a challenging time for the United States of America.”

In a harshly worded criticism of his Democratic opponent, Bush charged that Dukakis was not comfortable with an activist, internationalist U.S. foreign policy.

“He is uncomfortable with our unique role of leadership in the world. He is uncomfortable with America’s power,” said Bush.

Despite his fatigue and his expressed frustration with the demands of today’s telepolitics, Bush gloried in the impending electoral process, quoting the words of a great British leader to his goodby crowd in Covina:

“Winston Churchill once said that at the bottom of all tributes paid to democracy is a little man walking into a little booth with a little pencil making a little cross on a little bit of paper.

“No amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion can possibly diminish the importance of that point . . . .

“On Tuesday, you have a chance to make a point.”