Bush Calls Dukakis Speech ‘Very Good,’ but Puzzling

George Bush praised Michael Dukakis’ acceptance speech as “very good” today but said he was puzzled by the Democratic nominee’s pointed insistence that a vice president shouldn’t hesitate to tell the boss when things are awry.

“I don’t know what that was all about, but I’m sure it wasn’t complimentary,” Bush deadpanned to reporters.

‘Won’t Sit Silently By’

In his speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination in Atlanta on Thursday, Dukakis drew thunderous cheers when he declared: “We’re going to have a vice president who won’t sit silently by when somebody at the National Security Council comes up with the cockamamie idea that we should trade arms to the ayatollah for hostages.

“We’re going to have a vice president named Lloyd Bentsen who will walk into the Oval Office and say, ‘Mr. President, this is outrageous, and it’s got to stop.’ That’s the kind of vice president we’re going to have.”

Bush, the certain Republican nominee, suggested that Dukakis could benefit much from the advice of Bentsen, the senior senator from Texas.

“If he’s suggesting that Bentsen can change his views on gun control, that’s good. That would be an effective use for Lloyd Bentsen,” Bush said.

The vice president sought to portray Dukakis as far more liberal on most issues than Bentsen.

Ask if he wanted to suggest that the Democratic Party was running against itself, Bush said: “It’ll be running against itself by the time we get through.”

At Italian Festival

The vice president spoke with reporters as he campaigned at a lakefront Italian festival here.

Asked his impression of Dukakis’ speech, Bush said: “I thought he gave a very good speech. He did a very good job.”

Asked why he arrived at that assessment, Bush, balancing a plate of scrambled eggs and sausage as he moved through the crowd, quipped, “Because he didn’t say anything nasty about me.”

Bush, as he has done in the past, defended his access to President Reagan. Democrats have long accused him of being silent or contradictory about his role in the Administration’s controversial decisions, including the aborted arms sale to Iran.

“I didn’t take it as personal criticism,” Bush said, “because I have a relationship with the President where I can walk in, tell him anything I think. And then he knows I’m not going to go out and talk to the press.”