Race enters home straight

Press, 24 October 1984, Page 10

Race enters home straight

NZPA-AFP Washington The President of the United States, Mr Ronald Reagan, and his Democratic challenger, Walter Mondale took their campaigns to opposite ends of the United States, yesterday, both claiming victory in their foreign policy debate on Monday in Kansas City, Missouri. Posing before a prototype of the controversial Bl bomber at the Rockwell plant in Palmdale, California, Mr Reagan appealed for another four years in office which, he said, would send a message of strength to the Soviet Union.

Across the continent in Philadelphia, Mr. Mondale accused the President of being ignorant of foreign policy issues and of failing to control his own Administration.

"If we were to stop now in midstream, we would send a signal of decline, lessened will, and weakness to friends and adversaries alike,” Mr. Reagan said.

“We would never be able to convince the Soviet leadership that it is in their interest to sit down and negotiate equitable arms reductions.”

Calling Mr. Mondale’s plan to call for an immediate summit meeting with the Kremlin “nonsense” Mr Reagan repeated his assertion that the Democratic challenger was weak on defence and opposed to the B1.

Mr. Mondale said on Monday that he was against construction of the supersonic bomber because “for 15 years, the Soviet Union has been preparing to meet the Bl.”

Mr. Mondale told a Philadelphia rally yesterday that viewers of the debate had seen “a commander-in-chief who is not commanding and who is not a chief.”-

Mr Reagan, he said, was “the most detached, most remote, most uninformed President in modern history,” who refused to' take responsibility for his foreign policy errors and could not discuss a main issue without making mistakes. Accusing the Reagan Administration of conducting a secret war in Central America “so secret, apparently, the President hasn’t heard about it,” Mr Mondale derided Mr. Reagan’s explanation that a Central Intelligence Agency manual for Nicaraguan rebels had been penned contrary to his orders.

“Mr. President, that is your manual. You bought it and paid for it,” Mr Mon-

dale said.“lt’s your secret war, those are your terrorists and it’s your quagmire we’re heading for in- that region, and now it’s your turn to be held accountable.”

Mr Mondale, who abstained on Monday from claiming victory at the debate, said that after thinking about it overnight he had decided, “I won.” Although most analysts agreed with Mr Mondale, they were unanimous in saying that his performance on Monday had not been sufficient to bridge the huge ain the public opinion that have Mr. Reagan leading him by margins varying from nine to 25 per cent.

Analysts said that that had been because although Mr Mondale appeared to be more in control, the President had held his own despite a rambling closing statement and a confused, at times erroneous, explanation of the C.I.A. manual.

“Ronald Reagan won by not losing,” wrote a columnist in “The Washington Post”. Another said “This debate was... not the electionturning event that some had anticipated. Mondale needed that turn... Reagan did not. And in that sense, Reagan was probably the winner.” But on the presidential plane flying him to California yesterday, Mr Reagan shrugged off suggestions

that he had already won the election with his performance on Monday. “I never say that, I’m superstitious,” Mr. Reagan joked, while his chief of staff, James Baker, adopted a tone both cautious and confident.

“The election is not over,” he said, but he acknowledged that the Kansas City debate “gave us the momentum to go into the final two weeks.” This time “won’t be sufficient for (Mr Mondale) to win a million votes a day,” the number of voters Mr Baker believes that the Democrat must convert to his cause daily between now and November 6 if he wants to win the election.