Wanted: a Leader

Someone needs to seize control of the White House, and there is just one person who can do it: Ronald Reagan.

There is one person who can stop the Administration’s slide into the quagmire of disarray, indecision and drift: Ronald Reagan.

Only one man can bring together an Administration at war with itself all over the lot on issues like the Strategic Defense Initiative, the ABM treaty, catastrophic health care and a host of others: Ronald Reagan.

No one is asking for miracles. The country does not need or want risky surprises like a Grenada invasion to make the people feel good for a while and to divert attention from the nagging questions about the Iran arms deal. The people do not expect the Administration to renew itself with a vigor reminiscent of 1981. Nor do they expect the Administration suddenly to remake itself into something different from what it is.

The people do not demand a wave of dramatic new initiatives from an Administration whose domestic agenda is essentially depleted. The people do not expect a passive, detached President to become a master of detail overnight.

The people recognize the problems facing the Administration. With less than two years to serve, top aides naturally seek employment outside government. The recruitment of talented newcomers is difficult. The people understand the toll that age and illness can take, even on Ronald Reagan. And history has demonstrated that Ronald Reagan tends to retreat into himself when he has been ill served or misled by his aides.

What the people do want and need is relatively simple. It is a President who emerges from the dark isolation of the White House to square with them on the Iran arms issue, to demonstrate that he knows what went wrong and where, and to tell them what has been done to correct the defects. Nothing fancy. No self-flagellation. Just the facts.

Then they need a President who will take charge of the SDI-ABM treaty debate, a President who will realize the dangers of rushing into an unproved technology in a manner that threatens the prospects for real arms control. They need a President who will go before the people and explain the risks and potential benefits of SDI and make a decision supportable by the evidence and informed public opinion.

They need a President who will deal pragmatically with Congress on the budget deficit, the trade imbalance and the economy in general.

Above all, the people need a President who is out in front, whom we can hear as well as see on occasion in photos handed out by the White House press office. The people need a President with a strong, able chief of staff who is directing the Administration team and is not himself hunkered down in order to save his own skin or salvage his own false pride.

In his State of the Union address the President used the final moments to extol the miracle of the American Constitution as exemplified by the opening words: “We, the People . . . .” But the voters can give guidance only from time to time through their electoral power. Once a government is chosen, it must lead. It must make the decisions and be accountable. What the country needs to hear now is not “We, the people . . . “ but “I, the President . . . .”