Bush Reverting to Less Personal Campaign Style : Aides Seek to Portray Him as Front-Runner to Check Robertson Threat

With only a few exceptions--for example, a half-hour lunch break at a Po’ Folks restaurant offering such Southern specialties as “Kuntry Fried Steak,” black-eyed peas and fried okra--the “see me, touch me, feel me” personal presidential campaign that propelled George Bush to the fore 10 days ago in New Hampshire is reverting to its more staid roots.

Rolling down the two-lane blacktops between stands of pines and dead kudzu vines across the South Carolina piedmont, the vice president tried Thursday to counter what his campaign sees as the biggest threat in the March 5 Republican primary here: Pat Robertson.

“I don’t know (that) we can do anything more than we’re doing now--highly visible, highly mobile,” said former Rep. Thomas Hartnett, a South Carolina Republican who is chairman of the Bush campaign in the state.

‘Uptown Greenwood’

Here in Greenwood, a carefully prepared crowd had been gathered in front of the Strawberry Patch, an upscale gift shop on a renovated section of Main Street. Banners of a subdued green hung from lampposts, proclaiming the neighborhood “Uptown Greenwood.”

The vice president climbed out of his armored limousine to shake hands and to remind the folks that South Carolina “is going to be right in the focus of the nation,” because the voting falls three days before Super Tuesday, March 8.

Bush is once again the centerpiece of the carefully controlled campaign of a front-runner, seeking the lion’s share of the 803 delegates who will be chosen on March 8 for the Republican National Convention. It has been days since Bush visited a truck stop, or climbed aboard an exotic vehicle as he did when he briefly commandeered an 18-wheel rig in New Hampshire.

It is a strategy designed to minimize mistakes. For the most part, it is back to the high school and college gymnasiums, carefully festooned with white-on-blue George Bush for President signs and packed with supporters turned out by a political organization that dates back nearly a decade to the late 1970s when Bush first ran for President.

Able to Define Message

The strategy also allows Bush to more sharply focus his message. For dealing with Robertson’s threat, the pitch is Bush’s loyal service to President Reagan, which plays well in the South. He also contrasts his experience in the executive branch versus the congressional experience of Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, his other chief rival on Super Tuesday. But he mentions neither rival by name.

Bush is following the conventional tactic of a front-runner, avoiding as much as possible specific attacks on his opponents.

“It’s not necessary for us to go after Dole every day,” Bush spokesman Peter Teeley said. “I don’t think it’s in our best interest to be constantly on the attack.”

In London, Ky., Tuesday evening, in the packed gymnasium of Sue Bennett College, Bush earned the loudest applause when he declared: “I have stood shoulder to shoulder with the President through thick and thin. Doesn’t matter what the issue is. That’s not the point. Loyalty is a strength, not a character flaw.

“If the price to become President is shoving Ronald Reagan down a notch or jumping away from him, I’m not willing to pay that price,” Bush said.

At a rally at Newberry College in Newberry, S. C., Bush said: “We’re selecting a President, not a congressman. We ask stability in a crisis . . . personal skills to deal with adversaries around the world. The job we’re talking about is commander in chief.”

Prefer Tighter Schedule

There is still the occasional impromptu “drop-by,” without the elaborate, minute-by-minute planning. One such event illustrated why Bush’s handlers would prefer to stick to a tighter schedule.

Bush joined a line at a basement carryout in the St. Louis county government building for skim milk and a doughnut. But the television cameras were two floors away, set up for a Bush meeting with student journalists. The event generated neither political electricity nor coverage by the electronic news media.

As the vice president waited nearly 10 minutes in line, few county workers looking for coffee to bring to their desks at the start of the workday approached him.

One, however, edged up close, took a look and then reported back to colleagues: “Yep, that’s him.”