Reagan, on Stump for GOP, Targets Carter, Gorbachev

President Reagan, running against Jimmy Carter as well as Mikhail Gorbachev in the GOP drive to hold onto the Senate, charged today that potential for progress at the Iceland summit would have been thwarted if “the liberals in Congress” had undercut his arms policies.

Racing to the rescue of Sen. Paula Hawkins (R-Fla.), Reagan thrust the summit outcome to center stage of a final campaign blitz.

Hawkins, one of the Class of ’80 Republicans swept to Washington on Reagan’s coattails, trails by as many as 11 points in a hard-fought and expensive reelection contest against popular two-term Gov. Bob Graham.

Reagan, in a pointed, personal attack, quoted Graham as having told the 1980 Democratic National Convention that the nation had entered “the twilight of the petroleum era” and needed the likes of Sen. Edward Kennedy, former California Gov. Edmund Brown Jr. and “all the wise warriors of their party” to endure “a period of austerity.”

“You know,” Reagan said, “hearing that lighter-than-air liberalism, I can’t help but think that if you liked Jimmy Carter, you’ll love Bob Graham as senator.”

Earlier, campaigning in Oklahoma for Sen. Don Nickles, Reagan said he resisted “immense pressure” in Reykjavik to abandon his “Star Wars” space shield “simply to have a trophy to wave.”

“Americans realize that no deal is better than a bad deal,” he told thousands of cheering supporters at the University of Oklahoma. “We are working for the day when we can just say ‘yes’ to a good agreement. I am confident that with all the progress we’ve made, that day--the yes day--will come sooner than anyone expects.”