Bush Says Reagan May Appear With Him at Convention

George Bush criticized the Democrats’ platform as “a document of deceit” today and suggested that there still may be a chance that he and President Reagan will appear together at the Republican National Convention next week.

Initial plans called for Reagan to leave New Orleans before Bush returns next Tuesday. However, the vice president told reporters aboard Air Force II that he would view such a joint appearance as a plus for his campaign.

Bush, trying to put his stamp on the GOP platform, flew to the Republicans’ convention city today to call for “a statement of solutions” that he said would contrast with the invisible policies of rival Michael S. Dukakis.

‘Stealth Candidate’

“He’s the stealth candidate,” the vice president said, “for while he can’t decide about the stealth bomber, he favors instead stealth policies--they can be neither seen nor heard.

“His campaign jets from place to place, but no issues show up on the radar screen.”

He said Dukakis spoke for 50 minutes in Atlanta “and failed to mention the most important issue of our time: how to make the world a safer place.”

“We need to make this campaign a plan for the future, a statement of solutions, not an exercise in evasion,” he said. “We should make our principles and our policies crystal-clear to the American people.”

Various Positions

Bush ran through a litany of positions he had espoused during his campaign, suggesting their inclusion in the platform.

These ranged from tax credits for child care to a ban on offshore dumping, a reduction in the capital gains tax and imposition of the death penalty for drug kingpins.

“If we want to stop our kids from putting drugs in their veins, they must first have good ideas in their heads and moral character in their hearts,” he said.

Before Bush’s arrival, the platform committee heard testimony from witnesses including Contra leader Adolfo Calero, who urged the party to renew its pledge of support for the Nicaraguan rebels.

Calero told the committee that the Contras could revive their dispersed army of 17,000 and bring down the Sandinista government within a year “if we receive the proper support.” He said afterward that the rebels need $100 million in new U.S. aid.

He told reporters that Dukakis, an adamant opponent of Contra aid, “doesn’t understand the Sandinistas, apparently. He doesn’t understand the threat they represent.”

Other witnesses, including anti-ERA activist Phyllis Schlafly and the chairman of Ford Motor Co., were lined up to press their views on the committee.

Bush traveled here from his summer home in Kennebunkport, Me., to make the unusual personal appeal to the platform writers, meeting a week in advance of the Republican National Convention.