Fervent Pleas End Grueling Contest : Americans Will Be Better Off, Bush Promises

HOUSTON —  Nine years after he first set off in search of the presidency, George Bush closed out his 1988 campaign on Monday with a last scurry through the Midwest and a Texas homecoming that paid tribute to the “big dreams” of ordinary Americans.

And in a half-hour televised appeal to voters that was the campaign finale, Bush put a forward-looking spin on a tested Republican theme and pledged to answer the biggest of American dreams.

“Americans are better off than they were eight years ago, and if you elect me President,” Bush vowed, “you will be better off four years from now than you are today.”

Bush concluded a journey that took him from an embarrassing defeat in the wintry Iowa caucuses to the tumultuous election eve celebration here still holding a commanding lead in the polls.

Felt Chances ‘Good’

The vice president told reporters that he felt “good” about his chances.

“It’s in the hands of the gods and the American people,” he said.

Bush, speaking to thousands of Houstonians in a three-level shopping mall Monday night, reflected on the marathon course of his campaign.

“You learn a lot in a campaign like this and I’ve learned that people have big dreams for the United States,” he declared.

“I’ve learned that most Americans, an overwhelming majority of Americans, believe our best days are still ahead--and I believe that,” the vice president added.

As he did on a campaign day that stretched from Michigan to Ohio to Missouri and then here, Bush in Houston emphasized the stakes of today’s election.

“You hold the very future of this nation in your hands,” Bush said.

The half-hour television special, broadcast on the three major networks, offered testimonials by Bush friends and family--a revisiting of the themes aired at the Republican National Convention in August--and a three-minute monologue by Bush, but it omitted any mention of his running mate, Sen. Dan Quayle.

Relentlessly Upbeat

On the road Monday, Bush was relentlessly upbeat, even effusive, as Election Day approached and the last of the campaign rallies faded from view.

“We’ve traveled a lot of miles, traveled a lot of miles and gone the extra distance,” Bush told several hundred screaming supporters in Ashland, Ohio, his wife, Barbara, grinning at his side.

“But I never felt any better in my life. That adrenaline is flowing, our family is together, the country is coming in behind our candidacy and I want to win this election!”

Press Secretary Sheila Tate offered one reason for the candidate’s buoyancy: Overnight tracking polls by the campaign showed that the vice president’s margin over Dukakis “held steady” at 8 to 10 points, she said.

Administration Deeds

In last-day appeals to voters in the closely contested Midwestern states, Bush sought to bolster his fortunes by repeating a litany of Reagan Administration deeds and alluding to the risk he said was represented by the “liberal governor”--his commonplace description for his Democratic opponent, Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis.

“I ask you to cast a vote for opportunity, for world peace, for continuing the dramatic American experience of peace and prosperity,” Bush urged voters.

Despite the polls, the vice president was sufficiently wary to issue preemptive strikes against any unspecified, last-minute moves by Dukakis, who also delivered a 30-minute national address Monday night.

“I am not going to respond to these outrageous charges of the opposition that you always hear just before an election,” Bush said at an early-morning rally in Southfield, Mich.

“There’s too much at stake. There’s too much to do.”

Ties Foe to Carter

Bush also peppered his remarks through the day with derogatory remarks comparing Dukakis to former President Jimmy Carter.

Citing his own campaign promises to expand the economy, spur investment in education and clean up the environment, Bush declared:

“We won’t be able to do any of those things if we turn back now to the failed policies of Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale or the policies of the liberal governor of Massachusetts.”

But much of Bush’s approach on this final campaign day was positive, dwelling on improved economic statistics, an arms control agreement with the Soviet Union and what Bush called a heightening of worldwide “prestige” for the nation, which he credited to the Reagan Administration.

“We have come so far in the last eight years,” he told Michigan voters.

‘Moving Forward’

There and in Ohio, he said the central question for voters was whether they wished to keep the nation “moving forward.”

“You can’t help but go around this country and feel that America can solve every problem we’ve got if we keep the economy moving,” the vice president said.

As he has increasingly in the last two days, Bush also strongly asserted his claim to “mainstream” voters and their values.

The vice president ended his campaign here in the Texas city where his most recent effort began on Oct. 12, 1987, when he declared to no one’s surprise that he was running to succeed Ronald Reagan.

Political Renewal

But the campaign was rooted eight years before, when he challenged then-nominee-presumptive Reagan for the Republican nomination. Bush’s first effort foundered by late spring of 1980, but his political renewal was guaranteed when Reagan chose him, after much deliberation, to be his running mate.

This political season, Bush faced down a handful of Republican opponents and by late May was boring in on Democrat Dukakis.

Dukakis led in the polls much of the summer and forced Bush to adopt an aggressive, at times nasty, campaign style that drew broad disdain from many voters but succeeded in defining the candidates in terms flattering to Bush.

As the campaign closed, Bush had moved ahead and was holding his position, having apparently blunted two successive mini-surges by Dukakis.

Signs of Fatigue

While his campaign schedule was curtailed in recent days to forestall exhaustion, Bush showed signs of fatigue Monday when he garbled a few lines.

But the day obviously held some emotion as well. In St. Louis, he veered into reminiscences:

“I’ve been campaigning a long time--sometimes there’s ups and sometimes there’s downs. Sometimes you get written off by all the great experts and sometimes you bounce back.”

And after the early-morning rally in Michigan, Bush and his wife were ushered into an expansive room, normally used as a theater, now barren except for the couple and a Secret Service agent.

In the midst of all the empty seats, absent the balloons and blaring air horns and confetti that mark a campaign event, the Bushes posed for a photographer. George Bush suggested a title for the picture:

“The Last Rally.”