Western White House Avoids Competing for Public’s Eye : Far From Spotlight, Reagan Rides Out Atlanta

The spotlight that is shining on the Democrats in Atlanta notwithstanding, there is indeed a President of the United States.

He is ensconced--as he has been for just about a full year of his 7 1/2 years in office--in his mountainside ranch with its spectacular view of the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

As his term dwindles this week to a bare six months, Reagan is riding his horse and, as the need arises, running the government. And if the goings-on in Atlanta are tickling the attention of the rest of the country, the Western White House is trying to give the Democrats scant heed--even though the President’s assistants are taking care not to compete for a share of the public’s attention.

“This is going to be a tempting week, I can tell you that,” said Marlin Fitzwater, the President’s relaxed spokesman, before the convention started. “But I’m steeling myself right here. We won’t have any comment.”

Prefers the Horses

For his part, Reagan managed an eight-word pronouncement. Arriving in California Sunday, he was asked whether he would look in on the televised proceedings from the Democratic convention. “I’m going to look at the horses instead,” he said.

There is little on the surface to distinguish this vacation, one of Reagan’s final presidential journeys to Santa Barbara, from any of the dozens that have preceded it since 1981.

Between the cottages and tennis courts of the neatly manicured Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel where Reagan’s senior staff is quartered, a dark blue Chevrolet Suburban bearing District of Columbia license plates and sprouting a half-dozen antennas is still parked--part of the communications network that accompanies the White House staff wherever the President travels.

Well-polished, dark discreet-blue Chrysler New Yorkers, driven by Army sergeants from the White House motor pool ferry members of the White House staff quietly about town--to restaurants, the post office, and on rare occasions to the President’s Rancho del Cielo--just as they have on each of his previous journeys here.

Routine Schedule

Each day, word comes down from the ranch much as it did Tuesday morning: “After breakfast, the President attended to routine paper work and is now getting ready to go horseback riding. After riding, the President will have lunch with Mrs. Reagan and this afternoon, will clear brush on the ranch property.”

And the usual complement of White House staff members is here: Lt. Gen. Colin L. Powell, Reagan’s assistant for national security affairs, is spending the week, dispatching his daily written national security briefings to Reagan by secure channels. Kenneth M. Duberstein, the new White House chief of staff, is coming out today to relieve the new deputy staff chief, M. B. Oglesby, who has been on duty for the first half of the trip. And the new White House director of communications, Mari Maseng, will be coming out for a day or so.

Much as they would in Washington, staff members are meeting for one of a series of long-range planning sessions.

Mapping an Agenda

But this session is mapping out the agenda and themes of Reagan’s final six months in the presidency--and his contribution to the campaign of Vice President George Bush. Thus, while public attention is focused on Atlanta, the private efforts of the White House are drawn to the closing down of the Reagan presidency.

And, barring dramatic foreign policy developments, the last six months of this White House staff almost certainly will be dominated not by what the President does, but by the efforts of the two men trying to replace him six months from today.

The impact of events around the globe, of course, can instantly return public attention to the President of the United States--even in his final hours in office. That was certainly the case when Jimmy Carter was stepping down at the White House as the final scenes of the Iranian hostage drama were being played out.

This was brought home once again Monday, when White House officials awoke to word that Iran and Iraq, which went to war in the Persian Gulf before Carter’s term ended, appeared to be moving toward a cease-fire. It was news that led Fitzwater (dressed neatly but casually in a blue blazer, tie, striped shirt, tan slacks, and boat shoes--but no socks) to take the unusual step of allowing television camera coverage of his news briefing.

News Crew Dwindles

The event was covered, but by a skeleton crew, because the press corps that accompanied Reagan to Santa Barbara--a mere 53 people, including reporters, photographers, television and radio producers and technicians--is but a shadow of the teeming entourage that accompanied him earlier in his term, before the White House beat became what one television network reporter, departing to cover the Dukakis campaign, called “this news backwater.”

And when spokesman Fitzwater gave one of the three briefings scheduled for reporters during the week-long trip, one of his announcements was of yet another departure from the White House staff--this time of Daniel Crippen, a deputy assistant to the President who was among those brought in when Howard H. Baker Jr. became White House chief of staff and who is now one of those quietly leaving the White House, now that Baker has quit.

“Don’t have a replacement at this point,” said Fitzwater, with the air of a man who did not sound convinced that he ever would.