Election Seen as Referendum on Reaganism : President Campaigns for Own Place in History

MESQUITE, Tex. —  Amid the dust and din of a rodeo center here, between the hoots and cheers, President Reagan played the crowd softly last weekend.

The election was close, he said, “and I’m on my final campaign swing. And although, come January, I’m going to be riding off into the sunset, I feel a little like I’m on the ballot myself this year.”

He is. Not by name, of course; the named candidate is George Bush, Reagan’s loyal vice president, or as Bush used to say, the “co-pilot.”

Reagan ran his last race for office four years ago. Now he’s running for history. That race will continue beyond Tuesday’s election, but for him to win a significant early judgment, Reagan must have Bush follow him into the Oval Office.

Different in California

Larry J. Sabato, political science professor at the University of Virginia, noted that Reagan did not have a Bush to carry on his policies when he left the California governorship in 1975 after two terms.

Instead, said Sabato, Reagan’s successor, Edmund G. Brown Jr., “reversed Reagan’s policies and severely criticized him” on many fronts. “That memory is very much alive for Reagan,” Sabato said. “He knows if he wants to be remembered well, he’d better put Bush in office.”

Reagan is doing everything he can.

In the final days of the 1988 campaign, he is running so hard it is easy to forget that he, not Bush, is the surrogate.

Urgency was added to the President’s efforts last week, as perceptions grew that Michael S. Dukakis, the Democratic nominee, was gaining on Bush. Concerned that California’s 47 electoral votes were up for grabs, Bush strategists persuaded the White House to hastily organize today’s final California trip, even though the President had recently spent a week in the state.

Asked about the return trip, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said: “We don’t want to take any chances,” and added: “There is some sentimental value” in the trip.

Sentimentality is only part of Reagan’s final campaign days. At 77, he has traveled roughly 25,000 miles on the campaign trail since Labor Day.

Last Friday, he went from the White House to rain-soaked Illinois, to New Jersey, and back. On Saturday, it was out again to soggy Michigan, on to Texas and back to Washington for a day’s rest on Sunday before flying to California today and back to Washington tonight. At each appearance the crowds have been wildly enthusiastic, if not always huge. But even when they were small, local reporters were on hand to spread Reagan’s words through the media markets.

The President’s trips have been vintage Reagan--a touch of humility, a bit of humor and several shots at the “liberals.” As in the “riding off into the sunset” speech here, he makes lines work that most politicians would not even try.

The humor often is corny, though not self-conscious. Self deprecating without fawning, Reagan has turned his age into an asset.

Looking for Platform

He told one of his oft-repeated jokes here about a Republican candidate who gave a speech on a pile of manure because “he couldn’t find any platform.” Reagan said that at the end of the speech a farmer who had listened said that was the first time he had ever heard a Republican speech. And the GOP candidate said it was the first time he had ever given a Republican speech from a Democratic platform.

To laughter and applause, Reagan said: “Well, all that, as they say, is history--or should I say, ancient history, which at my age is a subject that I’m regarded as an expert in.”

‘Four More Years!’

At most of Reagan’s appearances, fans shout, “Four more years!” as Reagan smiles and promises that once he is out of office, he will continue to work for conservative causes.

“He’s cool,” said Heidi Epsha, 16, of Mt. Clements, Mich., as she and her friend, Kris Flemming, also 16, waited for Reagan Saturday at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich. “I like his personality.”

So does Kyle Baird, a warehouse supervisor for a Dallas food distributor. Holding his 15-month-old son, Jacob, at the rally here, Baird said he voted for Reagan because of the “prosperity we’ve had in the last eight years” and because Reagan is “not wishy-washy.”

Not all of those who come to see Reagan love him; he gets heckled from time to time about his Central American policies and cuts in social spending.

Suffers From Allergies

Sometimes after a long day, Reagan, who suffers allergies, wheezes distressingly as he did when accepting a Simon Wiesenthal Center award recently in Los Angeles. Also, the former actor is known to flub his lines occasionally. But his fans do not mind.

Suburban appearances far outnumber those in cities, and Reagan’s crowds are remarkably monochromatic. One notable exception to the mostly white crowds was a Chicago luncheon in September for “ethnics” and a recent appearance in Baltimore for Alan Keyes, a black senatorial candidate.

In his speeches on behalf of Bush and other GOP candidates, Reagan preaches the gospel of good times, and it is well received. And lately, Reagan has been calling the election a “referendum on liberalism.” It could also be called a referendum on Reaganism. Saying as much Saturday in his speech at Macomb Community College, the President hailed his policies of increased defense spending, lowered taxes and limited government, declaring that “all the progress we’ve made is on the line.”

Not only could Bush carry on Reagan’s policies, Sabato said, he could act as Reagan’s “buffer zone” against unfavorable historical treatment should the economy sour in the next four to eight years. “If anything happens, Bush takes the blame,” Sabato said.