Bush Forces Happy to Take Back Seat to Dole Troubles

Just this once, George Bush’s forces were pleased to cede the front pages and media frenzy to Bob Dole.

As rumors and facts about the Kansas senator’s campaign plans boomeranged across the Illinois landscape, Bush spent Friday happily courting farmers, his weakest spot in a state where recent polls put him ahead of Dole by more than 20 points.

“I am not a farmer,” Bush said at the Illinois Farm Bureau here, in an obvious understatement. “Other candidates may know more about the details of agriculture. . . . (but) I know enough to listen.”

In a day dominated by questions of Dole’s future as a Republican candidate, the vice president tried to douse sparks of personal optimism as if they were prairie brush fires.

“I have determined not to get caught up in the way things seem to be going,” he said.

Harks Back to Iowa

Asked later if he expected a landslide victory in the Illinois primary Tuesday, he referred to his 1980 victory in the Iowa caucuses and his subsequent failure to win the nomination.

“I came out of Iowa eight years ago talking about big momentum, and the next thing I knew . . . (the) back of my head (was) on the canvas and my feet up in the air,” Bush said. “And I’m not going to do that now, even though things look good for me.”

Truth be told, however, Dole’s troubles were heady news to Bush’s campaign, reinforcing a pervasive sense of confidence that has built steadily since Bush’s sweeping victory on Super Tuesday.

Already in Illinois, the vice president holds the advantage in money, organization and in the polls.

But on Friday, Bush cautiously stuck to the topic of the day--agriculture--in talks here, at the McLean County Republican organization in Normal, Ill., and at a meeting with employees of a corn-to-ethanol facility in Pekin.

Defends Trade Policy

Besides vowing to listen to the concerns of farmers, Bush defended his free-trade policy as aiding the agricultural economy.

“We can compete and should compete with the rest of the world,” Bush said. “I believe we in government should not be putting up trade barriers but tearing them down.”

“A restrictive trade policy is going to lead to retaliation and I am absolutely convinced . . . the first area of our economic strata to be retaliated against will be agriculture.”

Bush also criticized Democratic candidate Richard A. Gephardt for farm legislation that the Missouri congressman co-authored with Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). The pending bill calls for tight mandatory controls on crop production and a doubling or more of current corn or soybean prices.

“It is a pessimistic approach and we’re an optimistic country,” he said.