Little Else in Campaign to Focus On : Character Issue Shaping Strategy in Both Parties

“Everyone knows who Gary Hart went to the Bahamas with,” grumbled Illinois Sen. Paul Simon after evidence of Hart’s philandering forced him out of the Democratic presidential campaign last May. “I’m not sure anywhere near as many Americans understand Gary Hart’s leadership on the issue of arms control.”

Yet as Simon has discovered in his own quest for the presidency, the “character issue”--a catch-all covering almost any action or utterance that seems to reveal a candidate’s innermost self--has taken on a major role in the unfolding melodrama of President-making, 1988 style.

With voters at last getting ready to have their say starting with next week’s Iowa caucuses, concern with character seems to loom larger than any other factor. The character issue has already devastated some candidacies and boosted others.

Among the Democrats, not only was Hart forced to quit running because of charges of adultery--though he has since re-entered the race--but Delaware Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. has also been driven from the contest because of his apparent plagiarism and misrepresentation of his academic credentials.

On the other hand, some Democratic contenders, including Simon and Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, have managed to turn the interest in character to their advantage.

As for the Republicans, character seems to dominate the competition between Vice President George Bush, the front-runner, and Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, his chief rival. The contest boils down, said one party professional, to “one guy (Bush) saying, ‘I’m not a wimp,’ and the other guy (Dole) saying, ‘I’m not an s.o.b.’ ”

In this match-up, even Dole advisers concede that Bush appears to have greatly helped himself, at least for the time being, by facing down CBS anchor Dan Rather on network television last week. “Bush hit a home run,” said Dole pollster Linda DiVall.

The importance of the character issue, analysts say, reflects certain fundamental realities about the current struggle for the White House.

One is that there is not much else for candidates and voters to focus on. Major ideological differences within each party are absent; the candidates are in general agreement about ends, and their haggling over means is not particularly dramatic.

Nor is there an overriding issue, such as war or depression, to command the voters’ attention. It’s not that the nation lacks problems but that the problems are so complex and inter-related that it is next to impossible for candidates to propose solutions that are both appealing and credible.

“In the Great Depression, great ideas were generated,” said Columbia University historian Henry Graff, a specialist in the presidency. But given the conflicting global and domestic pressures of the 1980s, he said, “problems come at you from left and right, and the public knows there is no quick answer.”

Iran-Contra’s Role

Finally, the Iran-Contra fiasco, which was widely interpreted as reflecting flaws in President Reagan’s leadership style, has contributed heavily to concern with the personality traits of presidential contenders.

For some voters, the Iran-Contra affair revived memories of Watergate and the disgrace of Richard M. Nixon. “People are saying, ‘We don’t want to have to go through again getting rid of a President because he is a bummer,’ ” Graff said.

Evidence bearing on a candidate’s character, for better or worse, appears to carry greatest weight when it is linked to other perceptions or information about a candidate.

Hart’s dalliance with model Donna Rice agreed with the impression that he was quirky and irresponsible. As for Biden, his borrowing of another politician’s rhetoric without giving credit and his inflating of his scholastic record lent credence to the suspicion that there was less to his candidacy than met the eye and the ear.

Conflicting Perceptions

The 1988 campaign has also demonstrated that candidates pay a price when perceptions of their characters run counter to other impressions.

The candidacy of Democratic Gov. Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts was set back when it turned out that, without his knowledge, one of his top aides had circulated a videotape exposing Biden’s plagiarism. This was particularly damaging because Dukakis and his aides had stressed his executive and managerial skills as prime qualifications for the presidency.

Contradictory impressions also caused problems for Simon, who used his bow tie, his frumpish appearance and his professed commitment to traditional Democratic principles as evidence of his consistency as a candidate and his genuineness as a person. “In a sense, he’s gone further on character than anybody else in the race,” said Democratic political consultant Ann Lewis, an adviser to the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

But now Simon’s opponents have charged that his ideas for spending on social programs cannot be reconciled with his promise to balance the budget, an accusation that challenges the image of consistency that the candidate has been trying to foster.

Simon’s recent problems point up what Ed Reilly, pollster for the Gephardt campaign, calls one of the principal rules governing the political uses of character. “You make a mistake,” Reilly said, “if you separate character from substance.”

Gephardt’s Fortunes Sag

This is a lesson that Reilly’s candidate, Gephardt, learned the hard way. Gephardt’s candidacy got off to a fast start last year as he proposed tougher trade legislation, production controls for farmers and oil import duties. But then his fortunes sagged last fall, and his strategists concluded that his radical attacks on the status quo did not square with his public image as the consummate Washington insider.

To shed his remote, “Mr. Insider” demeanor, Gephardt was prodded into speaking with more passion.

To help make Gephardt’s populist message more convincing, his aides turned out a two-minute biographical commercial seeking to demonstrate that while he was functioning as an insider in the House, Gephardt was also promoting the cause of outsiders on such issues as tax reform, trade and farm policy.

“From the farms, the factories, the neighborhoods, comes the yearning for change,” says the narrator. “And now our cause finally has a voice.”

Note Shifting Positions

With his policy positions and his character sending the same message, Gephardt was back among the front-runners in Iowa last week, although his rivals were hard at work pointing out Gephardt’s shifting positions on such issues as abortion in an effort to undermine his image.

Softened Manner

Another candidate who has used the character issue to help solve his political problems is Jackson. Mindful that he antagonized many voters in 1984 with his attacks on party rules and hierarchy, Jackson has softened his strident rhetoric and his manner. “Even his speaking style is low key and good natured,” said UC Berkeley political scientist Austin Ranney.

Former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt has also capitalized on the interest in character by taking unpopular positions on issues, as a demonstration of his candor.

Advocates Sales Tax

“There is going to be one obvious litmus test of political character in this campaign on the budget deficit,” said Babbitt adviser Greg Schneiders. He contended that his candidate has met that test better than his rivals by advocating a national sales tax and other revenue-raising measures.

But others question how many votes Babbitt will get that way. “He certainly has gotten a lot of admiration for his character, but damn little support for his proposals,” said Richard Moe, an adviser to Gephardt.

For Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr., the character issue revolves around his youth. At 39, Gore is the youngest of the 1988 crop of presidential candidates, and he tries to take advantage of that by none-too-subtly comparing himself to John F. Kennedy, the youngest President ever elected.

Gore gets points for energy and earnestness. But sometimes rivals contend that he sounds just plain pompous--”like a high school valedictorian,” gibed an aide to another candidate.

Recognize Importance

Even as the Democrats were absorbing the early impact of the character issue, both Dole and Bush, the top Republican contenders, were quick to recognize its importance. Each had character or personality problems that in a sense were the obverse of their strengths as candidates.

Thus Dole’s chief assets as a candidate are his forceful personality and his knowledge of the inner workings of government. The negative side of that coin is that he sometimes seems harsh and mean-spirited and that he appears at times to be nothing more than a crafty mechanic.

The solution to that problem, his advisers concluded, was to reveal his personality to the electorate. “What Bob Dole has got to do is go beyond the confines of the U.S. Senate and talk about himself in terms that the average person can understand,” said pollster DiVall.

That is just what Dole has been doing, putting particular stress on the hard times he endured while growing up in the Depression and as a badly wounded World War II veteran to show that he understands the plight of the disadvantaged. He has been particularly effective in Iowa, where he now leads Bush in the polls.

As for Bush, his strengths are his broad experience in government and, most particularly, his close ties to Reagan. Bush’s basic problem, according to David Keene, who helped run his 1980 presidential campaign and now works for Dole, is that “he has difficulty defining himself.” Others translate this into wimpishness.

Shows Strength

Whatever the problem is called, Bush has labored to solve it, particularly in the televised debates. “He has been very good in the debates, in which he has shown strength,” said Peter Teeley, Bush’s communications director.

Teeley cites with pride Bush’s confrontation with former Delaware Gov. Pierre S. (Pete) du Pont IV in the first Republican debate in Houston last October. When Du Pont complained that Bush had failed to show any vision in his candidacy, Bush put him down by calling him “Pierre”--Du Pont likes to refer to himself as “Pete”--and by ridiculing Du Pont’s proposal for Social Security reform. “It’s a new idea, but a dumb idea,” Bush said.

As for the other Republican candidates--Du Pont, New York Rep. Jack Kemp, former television evangelist Pat Robertson and former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr.--they are so overshadowed by Bush and Dole that they have paid little attention to character concerns and instead focused on issues, hoping to appeal to hard-line conservatives.

“If it were only a matter of personal qualities, Jack wouldn’t have a chance” against the two well-known leaders of the race, said Jeff Bell, Kemp’s campaign coordinator. “His real nature is to run on issues anyway.”