Reagan Says Race Inhibits Valid Criticism of Jackson

President Reagan, in his first substantive comments about the presidential campaign of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said Wednesday that critics have gone easy on the black Democratic candidate for fear their remarks would be interpreted as “some kind of racial attack.”

“I have to believe that a great many of us would find ourselves in great disagreement with the policies that he is proposing. . .,” Reagan told a gathering of newspaper editors during a question and answer session.

He said skeptics of Jackson’s liberal policies “would perhaps be more vocal about them if it wasn’t for concern that that be misinterpreted into some kind of a racial attack.”

Reagan’s comments showed him increasingly edging away from his longstanding silence on the campaign to elect his successor and touching on a sensitive, emerging issue. With the Republican presidential nomination essentially settled with the dominant standing of Vice President George Bush, Reagan is expected to become more involved in the campaign debate and begin openly criticizing the Democratic contenders.

A White House official said that although Reagan was unprepared for the question about the status of race relations in a year when a black man is running for President, his remarks reflected his gut reaction to the Jackson campaign.

Reagan also told the editors, “If you want to see effective leadership, take a look at Vice President Bush’s role” in helping direct the Administration’s anti-drug campaign. On another occasion Wednesday, Reagan told an audience of business executives that the economic policies offered by the Democratic candidates would reverse gains of the past seven years.

In fielding questions at the American Society of Newspaper Editors convention here, the President also offered his first response to new revelations by Larry Speakes, his former press secretary, that on several occasions he had fabricated quotes for Reagan and given them to the press.

‘Kiss and Tell’

Reagan said he was unaware of the fake quotes until the release of Speakes’ book, “Speaking Out,” and added: “I can tell you right now that I have no affection for these ‘kiss and tell’ books that are being written, and I find it entirely fiction.”

Earlier, in his speech to the editors, Reagan cracked that in his job, “you get to quote yourself shamelessly, and if you don’t, Larry Speakes will.”

Bush, during a campaign stop in Rochester, N.Y., also said he was irked by Speakes’ book. “This kid succumbed to, I think, the quest for money,” Bush said.

He said he does not allow his staff to release statements from him that he has not read. “They always bring it by me and say, ‘Don’t you think it will be brilliant if you say this?’ I say to them, yeah, but be sure I look at it.”

Speaking to a young business executives group Wednesday morning, Reagan said voters in the November election will have the opportunity to “determine what lies ahead for American business and the economy.”

“If the policies under which your companies have flourished are reversed, how could your companies’ bottom line not suffer? We cannot afford to have American businessmen once again treated like a bunch of hired hands laboring on the federal farm where the folks in Washington act as if what you produce belongs to them,” he said, without citing specific candidates or policies they have advocated.

Wants Focus on Content

At the editors’ convention, Reagan said: “I’m sorry that in the campaign that’s going on with one candidate of the black race, that it seems that more attention is being paid to the difference in color than is being paid to what he is actually saying.

“The candidates should all be based on what are their policies and what is it that they would propose to do,” he said, adding:

“I find great disagreement with some of the things that are being proposed by Jesse Jackson. But I also find a great deal of disagreement with his fellow candidates in that party, which is why I’d suggest that everybody should vote Republican.”

Jackson--and the other candidates to a lesser extent--have advocated scaling back the Administration’s military buildup and funneling more funds to social programs.

Two Other Candidates

Reagan did not mention the other active, major candidates for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, Gov. Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts and Sen. Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee.

Asked about Reagan’s criticism as he campaigned for the New York primary, Jackson said he “would like to have a color-blind debate with him and let him explain why after seven years we have the largest deficit in the history of this country.”

Staff writers Cathleen Decker and Douglas Jehl contributed to this story.