‘88 Contenders Trying to Build Own Identities

Short, bespectacled and a bit jug-eared, Democratic Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois is quick to admit that he scarcely fits the ideal of presidential appearance. Unkind critics even jeer that Simon, with his bow ties, resembles television comic Peewee Herman.

Yet last weekend, after Simon joined other 1988 Democratic presidential contenders for a flesh-pressing, stump-speaking steak fry in Des Moines, some of those present remarked that Simon’s appearance could be an asset in this era of blow-dry politicians.

“Anything that separates a candidate from the rest of the field,” reasoned Phil Roeder, the Iowa Democratic Party communications director, “can help that candidate get ahead.”

Points Up Key Element

Trivial though it may seem, the reaction to Simon’s appearance points up what at this still-early stage of the 1988 presidential campaign is probably the definitive element in the competition for both the Democratic and Republican nominations:

The net result of Gary Hart’s sudden collapse on the Democrats’ situation and of the Iran- contra scandal on the Republicans’ is that each of the 1988 candidates confronts essentially the same daunting task--establishing a political identity that will set him apart from the pack and energize his efforts to mobilize voter support.

Hart’s departure clouded the Democratic picture because, as a result of the celebrity and attention he had gained in 1984, Hart provided a reference point with which the other candidates could contrast themselves.

“With Hart out, each candidate is on his own,” said William Carrick, campaign manager for Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.).

The Republican campaign originally started out as a contest to prove who was best suited to inherit President Reagan’s mantle of leadership--until the GOP’s loss of the Senate in 1986 and the continuing revelations stemming from the Iran-contra affair demonstrated the limits of Reagan’s political appeal.

Republican presidential candidates, while still paying tribute to Reagan, now must carve out their own images and views of the future. They must create what former Republican Gov. Dick Thornburgh of Pennsylvania describes as “a post-Reagan agenda, along with a sense of competence and leadership.”

‘Product Differentiation’

“What they (both Democrats and Republicans) are all looking for is product differentiation,” says Harvard public policy professor Gary Orren, borrowing a term from the world of commercial merchandising that often seems appropriate to the hoopla and sloganeering in the marketing and making of presidents.

The two basic elements of a political message--personal imagery and substantive themes--must reinforce and complement each other to produce a winner. That is roughly what happened for Ronald Reagan in 1980, when his vow to get government off people’s backs reflected his personal image of rugged individualism, and before that, for Jimmy Carter in 1976, when his “born-again” Christianity buttressed his pledge to give us a government that could be trusted.

Already the striving to match those achievements is under way, with the results so far demonstrating mainly the difficulty of the task. Among the Democrats, for example, where no candidate, except for the Rev. Jesse Jackson, has any significant level of national name recognition, former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt has launched a statewide television effort in Iowa nine months before the Democratic delegate selection process begins in that state.

Themes Dovetail

Although no one knows how this endeavor will turn out, opponents point to one potential drawback. Babbitt’s theme, “Let’s put America in charge again,” closely resembles Gephardt’s slogan of “Make America first again,” and thus may fail to provide Babbitt with the distinctiveness he and other long shot candidates need.

On the Republican side, some of the candidates are far better known than most of the Democrats, notably Vice President George Bush and Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas. However, as political analysts point out, the name recognition they have achieved in their present roles is a far cry from establishing their presidential goals and qualifications in the minds of voters.

Here is a brief look at the individual message-making efforts going on in each party and the obstacles they face, starting with the Republican candidates whose campaigns at present are regarded by opponents as the best organized and most advanced:

--Bush. The best known of all the contenders, the vice president will be spending many of his weekends this spring addressing college commencement audiences. What Bush will gain from all this, campaign manager Lee Atwater hopes, is to give the electorate a sense “of where he sees the country going.”

Additional details will probably also be filled in on Bush’s outlook when, after he formally declares his candidacy this fall, he enters some of the debates with other GOP candidates, confrontations that are expected to be an important part of the campaign schedule.

But as Thornburgh points out, Bush is still inhibited “by his need to keep himself close to the President.”

This imperative is underlined in the minds of some voters as Reagan finds himself in increasingly hot water because of the Iran-contra affair. Under these circumstances, Bush’s attempt to set himself apart might take on the appearance of disloyalty.

At the same time, Bush must deal with questions about his backbone, or what his critics claim is his lack of it. Atwater contends that “the more George Bush is exposed to voters, the more people will see what he is really like.” But Bush, meanwhile, has to worry that some new Iran-contra disclosure, beyond hurting Reagan, might link Bush himself to the scandal in a way that could prove fatal to his political hopes.

--Dole. For the time being, Dole seems to be in a more comfortable position than his rivals. “There’s the least pressure on Dole because everybody is looking at Bush to see how he handles his relationship with Reagan,” says GOP pollster Linda DiVall, who is neutral in the campaign.

Unaccustomed Role

But, as interest in the campaign heightens, Dole’s advisers expect that he will have to develop a message and thus explain himself in ways that he is unaccustomed to as a Senate leader. If Bush’s candidacy should falter, some analysts wonder whether Dole could stand up to the exposure and demands that he would face as the new front-runner.

In particular, such attention might make it more difficult for Dole to maintain his current delicately balanced relationship with both the GOP center and its right wing.

--Former Delaware Gov. Pierre S. (Pete) DuPont IV. He remains unknown nationally. But as a result of his tireless campaigning and barnstorming, DuPont has positioned himself to emerge, should the front-runners stumble, as the Republican Party’s own apostle of new ideas. Some of these are likely to earn him more enemies than friends--such as his plan to phase out farm price supports and his proposal for mandatory drug testing of teen-agers.

A more fundamental problem, as pollster DiVall points out, is that DuPont’s ideas seem to be driven more by “the need to get attention” than by any consistent point of view. Thus, should he ever get the attention he so desperately is seeking, DuPont might strike some voters as more of an opportunist than an innovator.

--New York Rep. Jack Kemp. So far, his candidacy has turned out to be the biggest disappointment of the 1988 Republican campaign. A year or so ago, Kemp was seen as Bush’s chief rival; he has lost that spot to Dole, and his campaign has serious financial troubles, which mirror its difficulties in establishing a clear thematic appeal.

David Keene, senior political consultant to the Dole campaign, contends that Kemp has generated so many ideas going in so many different directions--immediate deployment of “Star Wars,” establishing urban enterprise zones, getting back on the gold standard--”that he confuses people,” or, as another Republican professional says, “tires people out.”

Kemp’s national coordinator Jeff Bell contends that Kemp is just warming up, though Bell concedes that he is not yet sure what the focus of the candidate’s message will be. “I can’t tell you now because I don’t know what will be hot in 1988.”

Of the other Republican candidates, television evangelist Pat Robertson has already had an impact in the early organizational skirmishing in Michigan, but it is questionable whether he can be effective in a primary state where he would have to get support outside his own close-knit circle of followers.

The Jim and Tammy Bakker scandal at least temporarily served as a distraction from Robertson’s efforts to broaden his base and basically, as his chief political adviser Marc Nutle concedes, Robertson’s candidacy suffers from “a continuation of that vague penumbra out there . . . that television evangelists are not credible” as presidential candidates.

Former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. also faces a credibility problem as a presidential candidate, largely as a result of not having run for elective office before.

Former Nevada Sen. Paul Laxalt has a network of supporters built up during his service as Reagan campaign chairman. But he is known nationally only as an ally and confidant of the President. He has yet to present an independent viewpoint that can be used to generate a message.

Here is the situation among the Democrats:

--Babbitt. The Arizonan has worked harder and longer than any of his opponents, except for Gephardt, but apart from an impressive organizational structure in Iowa, he has little to show for it so far. The $250,000 Iowa television drive, which is to be tied to phone calls and mailings to likely participants in the delegate caucuses next February, represents a considerable gamble--with both the candidate’s limited financial resources and his prestige at stake.

Babbitt’s advisers are hoping this investment will lift him from obscurity. But the manager of one rival campaign who viewed the commercials questions whether they are pointed enough. “They are very soft and rather subtle and they highlight Bruce’s personality, which not everyone thinks is his strong suit,” the rival says.

--Delaware Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. Early financial reports showed him to be the best financed candidate and many consider him to be the most inspiring of the bunch, with the possible exception of Jackson. But he has only just begun to spell out his positions on issues, and he has yet to make any showing at all in polls, statewide or national.

Senior adviser John Marttila says the thrust of Biden’s effort will be to tap what he calls “the pent-up idealism” in the party and the country. Biden, at 44, also seems to be trying to make an generational appeal to Baby Boomers, but Babbitt, 44, Gephardt, 46, and Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr., 39, are also positioned by age at least to bid for that same constituency.

--Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis. A relatively recent entrant in the campaign, Dukakis nevertheless is regarded as potentially formidable because he is reputed to be especially well-suited to combine the appeal of traditional liberal Democratic doctrines with the less ideological problem-solving in fashion today. “Idealism that works” is how the governor’s campaign manager, John Sasso, describes it.

But Dukakis’ qualifications to be the prime advocate of compassionate competence are not greatly different from those of Babbitt and Gephardt. When asked how “the Duke,” as his intimates call him, will separate himself from his competitors, Sasso says candidly: “That depends on what they do as much as what we do.”

--Gephardt. No candidate has made more out of himself than Gephardt, reflecting his unsparing commitment of time and energy to early barnstorming and his shrewd decision to take a hard line on correcting the U.S. foreign trade imbalance. If anyone has an edge in Iowa, it is Gephardt, but the question as the campaign enters a new phase is whether he can hold it.

Needs Broadened Base

One potential Gephardt problem: The trade issue may lose some of its appeal now that Hart, who has had sharp differences with him on trade, is no longer around to argue with. Gephardt critics have contended all along that he was only a single-issue candidate, and he may now have to try to prove them wrong and develop a broader message sooner than he thought.

Among the other Democratic contenders whose candidacies are as yet undeclared, Jackson might seem to have the clearest political identity because of his race and his militant populist rhetoric. But that identity won him few white votes in 1984, and he is striving to modify it to broaden his appeal in 1988.

Gore, as the only white Southerner in the race, has obvious potential in super Tuesday, the big Southern primary in early March, but making good on that opportunity depends on his fashioning a message that will first win him votes in Iowa and New Hampshire.

As for Simon, if anything sets him apart besides his appearance, it is his espousal of traditional Democratic liberalism. But he needs to demonstrate that he can find a way to sell voters on those beliefs better than Walter F. Mondale did in 1984.