‘I’m One of You,’ Bush Proclaims in Push for N.H.

Vice President George Bush, struggling to avenge his loss in the Iowa caucuses, commandeered Sen. Bob Dole’s signature line Tuesday and told New Hampshire voters he deserved their vote because “I am one of you.”

Less than 12 hours after he had conceded defeat to both Dole and former TV evangelist Pat Robertson, a shaken Bush began invoking his Northeastern roots to audiences across the state, which holds the nation’s first primary next Tuesday.

Although his aides were fanning the fires of optimism, Bush was clearly concerned that the loss in Iowa could snowball in icy New Hampshire. He canceled Wednesday afternoon appointments in Washington and a Thursday appearance before Southern Republican leaders in New Orleans to meet voters in the North.

“I am one of you,” Bush told 100 people gathered in a store in Henniker. “I was born next door (in Massachusetts) and understand the problems here.”

He repeated the refrain seven times at two stops before reporters asked him whether he was courting political trouble by borrowing Dole’s line. Dole won the Iowa caucuses partly on the strength of an emotional plea to voters there that, with his Midwestern roots, he was one of them.

Bush grew defensive.

“It was supposed to be funny,” he said. “Maybe nobody got it. . . . I’ll drop the slogan.”

But the intent was plainly serious and, although he omitted the specific line in subsequent stops, Bush continued to press home the point. He tailored his remarks specifically for New Hampshire audiences, homing in on his loyalty to President Reagan--who is immensely popular among Republicans here--his support for the intermediate nuclear force treaty and his opposition to an oil import fee.

Visits Computer Plant

A visit to a Nashua computer plant was hurriedly arranged, and Bush stood in the subfreezing chill at 6:30 a.m., asking three dozen employees for their votes and having his picture snapped by an equal number of photographers.

Bush’s new New Hampshire approach is in striking contrast with the image he tried to portray in Iowa and elsewhere outside the Northeast--not that of a wealthy prep school-educated Yankee but of a Texas oil wildcatter with a streak of Western toughness.

Indeed, with a wry grin, Bush acknowledged those efforts. “Texas--I’m one of them, too,” he said to reporters who were ribbing him. “Massachusetts? Can’t vote in Massachusetts, born there . . . . I’m one of them, too.”

On specific issues, his New Hampshire strategy appeared designed to highlight his strongest differences with Dole, with whom he largely agrees on major policy matters.

Bush, for example, backed Reagan’s intermediate nuclear force treaty from the start, while Dole initially wavered before throwing in his support.

“I couldn’t stand around . . . and wait to see how the wind blew,” the vice president, in a pointed jab at Dole, told high school students in Hopkinton.

Against Oil Import Fee

Similarly, Bush has opposed an oil import fee--an unpopular idea in the Northeast, which is dependent on heating oil--whereas Dole has said he will support a fee if a rebate is given to residents of cold climates.

“I oppose it, and, if you agree, you ought to look at where these candidates stand as we get down to the wire,” Bush told GTE employees in a company cafeteria in Hillsboro.

But the biggest weapon in Bush’s push for victory in New Hampshire will be Ronald Reagan. Bush aides hinted that Dole’s occasional conflicts with Reagan might be used against him in New Hampshire. And, on Tuesday, more than 100,000 Republican households in the state began receiving brochures from the Bush campaign. On the cover is a picture not of Bush but of Reagan.

“I am one of you because in this state there is . . . steadfast, loyal support for the President of the United States, and I have that,” Bush said in Hopkinton. “I’ve stood right with him shoulder to shoulder.”

Through the day Tuesday, Bush aides tried aggressively to paint the vice president’s Iowa loss as a repudiation of the Reagan Administration by a quirky state, rather than an assessment by voters of Bush himself. But it was a hard sell.

Bush spent 38 days in Iowa before Monday’s caucuses, 10 more than he had in 1980, when he came from behind to upset Reagan.

On Monday, however, not only did Bush lose to Dole and Robertson, he lost about 10,000 votes from his 1980 total.

When asked in Nashua whether that indicated that voters wanted a new direction, Bush replied: “I’m looking forward, not back.”

Later, he added: “I’m not going to be discouraged by one blow in some other state. Every state stands on its own.”

Hope at the Back of the Pack

For those at the back of the GOP pack, Bush’s defeat was cause for hope.

Former Delaware Gov. Pierre S. (Pete) du Pont IV, professing to be undaunted by his fifth-place showing in Iowa, said Tuesday that Bush had been “mortally wounded.”

“I think the vice president’s campaign is over,” Du Pont said in a radio interview in Manchester.

“He’s going to get some votes, but when you are beaten as an incumbent vice president of the United States by a senator who is for an oil import tax . . . plus Pat Robertson, I think you ought to be a little worried,” Du Pont said.

Similarly, New York Rep. Jack Kemp, who finished fourth, said Bush’s popularity had peaked and that Dole was now the man to beat.

Former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr., who finished last, said: “The vote in Iowa demonstrates the vulnerability of the vice president in this race. The showing of Pat Robertson scrambles the prospects for a Republican victory in November.”

Dole Momentum Discounted

Bush and his campaign staff sought Tuesday to dispel the notion that Dole, who has trailed Bush in New Hampshire polls for months, would be carried by Iowa momentum to a second victory.

The vice president noted that he won Iowa in 1980, whereupon Reagan trounced him in New Hampshire. But several weeks--not eight days--separated the 1980 contests.

“I hope he (Dole) gets the same kind of bounce I did,” Bush said.

The state’s Republicans appeared girded for a weeklong political frenzy, with Bush battling for his political future, Dole trying to translate his Iowa victory into New Hampshire votes and Robertson seeking to score big in an area devoid of the large evangelical community on which he depends.

Bush himself spoke to the confusion Tuesday when he was asked who should be considered the Republican front-runner.

He paused for a few moments outside the Nashua computer company, smiled wanly and said: “I have no idea.”