Fighting Reagan passes crusade to Bush

Press, 16 August 1988, Page 10

Fighting Reagan passes crusade to Bush

NZPA-Reuter New Orleans Ronald Reagan has arrived at the Republican national convention to pass his mantle to George Bush and is doing it in a fighting style an adoring party wishes his often lacklustre Vice-President would emulate.

Mr Reagan, in his last starring role as President, was at the top of his form yesterday as he addressed 10,000 cheering, chanting Republicans in a hall decked out with giant busts of himself, Dwight Eisenhower and Abraham Lincoln, plus Mardi Gras floats of revolutionary war heroes and Alice in Wonderland. With ease and charm, Mr Reagan moved from ridiculing the Democrats as a party dominated by “strident liberalism and negativism” to praising Mr Bush as a man of “strength, vision and true grit.”

“This isn’t a campaign, it’s a crusade, a crusade for America’s future,” Mr Reagan said, amid nostalgic cries for “four more years.” “We aren’t just good managers. We are the keepers of the flame, the protectors of the dream — the American dream that some day freedom will be the blessing and birthright of every people in every nation across God’s greening Earth.” Mr Reagan’s arrival speech fired up Republicans who have come to New Orleans less than confident that Mr Bush

can beat the Massachusets Governor, Michael Dukakis, in the November 8 election. Mr Reagan said he had no doubts. “I am confident that both Dukakis and I will be out of Government jobs next February,” he quipped. He makes his farewell speech to the party today, the first full session of the four-day convention. Mr Bush does not arrive in New Orleans until tomorrow, leaving the party time to pay homage to the man who restored it to the White House after the scandal-tainted years of

Richard Nixon and made political conservatism a powerful force in the land. As Republicans waited for Mr Bush to arrive, party conservatives and moderates waged a bitter fight over who he should select as his VicePresidential running mate. Conservatives, led by the Right-wing New Hampshire Senator, Gordon Humphrey, demanded that one of their own — preferably the New York Congressman, Jack Kemp — be selected. “We are going to lose

unless Bush reaches out to us,” Mr Humphrey said. But other party professionals argued Mr Bush would be better off picking a moderate who can appeal to Democrats. Mr Bush does not plan to announce his decision until Thursday morning, the day after he is formally nominated. Among those he is said to be considering are Mr Kemp; the Senate Republican leader, Robert Dole; Indiana Senator, Dan Quayle; and Wyoming Senator, Alan Simpson, a close personal friend who insists he does not want the job.