Fighting Mike's Fight: How Bush Can Lose
Gold, Victor
THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR VOL. 21, NO. 8 / AUGUST 1988 Victor Gold FIGHTING MIKE'S FIGHT: HOW BUSH CAN LOSE An old campaigner explains there is an alternative to slugging on Dukakis's...
...There's nothing wrong with including planks about education and the environment in the Republican platform of 1988...
...Victor Gold is The American Spectator's national correspondent...
...Bush's leadership would mean...
...When last seen, Jerry Quarry was doing a song-and-dance act at Don Ho's in Honolulu...
...Just Reagan, peace, and prosperity...
...Call time...
...They] also expect the platform to reflect the Vice President's contention that the Republican party must become committed to the environment...
...Ali, as we know, was one of the best boxers (as opposed to sluggers) in heavyweight history...
...George Bush already has an identity and any attempt to change it at this late date is likely to leave him open to counter-punches...
...El THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR AUGUST 1988 15...
...It's just important to recognize that, fairly or unfairly, these issues play to Democratic not Republican strengths, i.e., if the elections of 1980 and 1984 had been run and decided along those lines, George Bush wouldn't be Vice President of the United States...
...Instead, he opted to slug it out with the slugger, and lost...
...C all it the Quarry Strategy...
...Bush's aides" to "spell out what Mr...
...Obviously, Quarry's best chance at beating Ali was to force him into a slugging match...
...Remember "vision of the future...
...But a fighter with a problem: he had a bad habit of missing the obvious, playing directly to his opponent's strength and away from his own...
...Once, in the not-too-distant past, there was a heavyweight contender named Jerry Quarry...
...Now consider George Bush, when last seen being advised by unnamed "aides" to "move in directions that President Reagan has not tried," the better to "reflect a more humane party...
...This translates, if George Bush is to win, into a campaign based on the question, Do you like the policies of the past eight years that have brought the country peace and prosperity, or do you want to change...
...which brings us to the final point that needs to be made before the Bush-Dukakis match moves into its middle and late rounds: Whichever way you cut it, history will look back on the election of 1988 as a referendum on the Reagan era...
...The Democrats' fight plan, you see, is to talk Iran-Contra, Noriega, Meese—whatever it takes to obscure the Reagan record...
...Tell the Republican contender to inhale-exhale ten times, sit back, unwind, and listen...
...New York Times, June 22, 1988...
...What's more, unless his "aides" succeed in obscuring it, Bush's identity should give him the winning edge this fall...
...Get out the corner stool...
...This time a year ago—in fact, up until Bush flattened his Republican opposition in the Super Tuesday primaries—experts were saying that his candidacy wouldn't get past the early rounds because it lacked "vision...
...For example, they say it will stress that the Vice President will make such issues as education a priority and that it will receive more Federal money than it has under President Reagan...
...Instead, he opted to box the boxer, and lost...
...He is, nothing more, nothing less, than Ronald Reagan's Vice President, a key figure in an administration that has given the American people eight years of—but let a non-partisan observer finish the thought: At the concluding ceremony of this year's economic summit in Toronto, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, noting that "the Reagan era" was drawing to a close, described it in glowing terms as a period that will go into history "remembered as one of peace and prosperity...
...BUSH SUPPORTERS SEEKING PLATFORM TO REFLECT A MORE HUMANE PARTY Supporters of Vice President Bush are hoping to use the 1988 Republican platform to make two key statements: that Mr...
...Two examples: the first, Quarry's fight plan in his match against Muhammad Ali...
...Inhale-exhale, repeat ten times: Peace and prosperity, peace and prosperity . . . You wouldn't know it if all you listened to was Michael Dukakis and his allies in the liberal news media, of course...
...Before he moves into the middle and late rounds, let's remind him—along with those unnamed "aides" in his corner—exactly what this match is all about: how he got here, how his opponent got here...
...Bush's aides, the platform will attempt to spell out what Mr...
...A review is in order, quick and to-the-point: a strong dose of between-round smelling salts to lift the media miasma and clear the mind...
...That theory having beenknocked out of the ring, we now hear it said that George Bush is suffering from some sort of identity crisis...
...It's that simple...
...Frazier, on the other hand, was one of the sport's most feared sluggers (but only a fair boxer...
...All other roads lead to Don Ho's...
...Next, let's take up this business—also attributed to Bush "aides"—of their candidate's need to establish his own "identity" in order to win in November...
...Bush is a leader who is ready to move in directions that President Reagan has not tried and that the politics of Michael S. Dukakis are out of touch with the majority of American voters .. . As envisioned by Mr...
...Not more federal money for education, George, not the environment...
...Obviously, Quarry's best chance at beating Frazier was to outbox him...
...Don't misunderstand...
...That's simply an old campaign canard in new semantic dress...
...Wrong again...
...Who is he...
...Bush's leadership would mean...
...Among other things, according to the Times, this translates into trying to beat a Democrat by promising to spend more federal money on education (an attempt to out-dance Ali), and trying toout-bid Michael Dukakis on issues concerning the environment (trading left hooks with Joe Frazier...
...the second, his fight plan in his match against Joe Frazier...
...First, let's talk about those "humane" (sic) issues the Times says are "envisioned by Mr...
...Good size, strong heart, could deliver and take a punch...
...8 / AUGUST 1988 Victor Gold FIGHTING MIKE'S FIGHT: HOW BUSH CAN LOSE An old campaigner explains there is an alternative to slugging on Dukakis's terms...
Vol. 21 • August 1988 • No. 8
