Bush Promises New Policies to Build on Reagan’s Record : Establishes His Political Independence

Vice President George Bush, in an eloquent and forceful speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination, Thursday night vowed to build on President Reagan’s record but also pledged a more caring and compassionate government.

Delegates to the GOP convention here cheered repeatedly as Bush said he would pursue new policies to raise ethical standards, fight bigotry and curb pollution, and provide more aid for the disabled.

“I mean to run hard, to fight hard, to stand on the issues--and I mean to win!” Bush declared.

Bush’s speech ended the four-day convention on an upbeat note after two days of controversy over his selection of Sen. Dan Quayle, the 41-year-old senator from Indiana, to be his vice presidential running mate.

Running as Underdog

The vice president, who until the GOP convention here had been running behind Democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis in the polls, said: “There are a lot of great stories in politics about the underdog winning--and this is going to be one of them.”

Earlier in the evening, the convention had ratified his choice of Quayle to be his running mate, and Bush said he was proud to have the senator at his side. He hailed him as “a young leader who has become a forceful voice in preparing workers for the labor force of the future.”

Bush, who considered the speech his most important ever, had expressed some nervousness over delivering it but also predicted that he would “hit it over the fence.” If the crowd’s reaction was any gauge, he did. He was interrupted by applause 71 times, several times for prolonged periods.

Many delegates expressed delight at his performance. Van Hipp, South Carolina GOP chairman, called it “the speech of his career” and said Bush “just hit a grand slam in the ninth inning and it was a 3-2 count.”

The vice president succeeded in using the convention to establish his own political independence and finally emerge after 7 1/2 years from Ronald Reagan’s long shadow. And that was one of Bush’s major goals.

But his first major decision as he neared the nomination--his selection of Quayle on Tuesday to be his running mate--raised questions that appeared to dampen his hopes of using the convention to build momentum for the campaign.

Ever since the selection, the Bush campaign has been dogged with questions about Quayle’s qualifications and about whether the vice presidential nominee had used his wealthy family’s influence to secure a cushy Indiana National Guard post to avoid the Vietnam-era draft.

The controversy overshadowed other activities of the convention, distracted from the Bush and Quayle acceptance speeches and put the Republicans on the defensive at a time when they hoped to be on the offensive against Dukakis.

Many delegates here, as well as several GOP political strategists, voiced concern that the senator would be a drag on the ticket. For one thing, Quayle, an aggressive campaigner with strong credentials on defense issues, has been counted on to lead an attack on the Democrats on national security questions. But the furor over his National Guard service could neutralize him on those issues.

Rumors were rampant Thursday that Quayle’s nomination might even be withdrawn. Only the release of a prepared text of Bush’s acceptance speech late in the afternoon squelched the rumors.

Goes Into Seclusion

Quayle went into seclusion during most of the day Thursday, ostensibly to work on his acceptance speech. But campaign sources said he was closeted with strategists trying to devise a means of defusing the National Guard issue.

The senator, cheered lustily by the delegates as he delivered his acceptance speech, made only a brief reference to the controversy, declaring: “As a young man, I served six years in the National Guard. And, like millions of Americans who have served in the Guard and who serve today, I am proud of it!”

Bush’s speech was far from the mold of President Reagan and other leading conservatives. He did not attack the role of the federal government, never mentioned free enterprise nor the Nicaragua Contras and did not dwell on the arguments for the Strategic Defense Initiative.

“His vision was the heart of moderate Republicans,” said Times political analyst William Schneider. “The speech could have been delivered by Nelson Rockefeller or Gerald Ford.”

Candor, Loyalty

Bush said that for 7 1/2 years he had helped Reagan “conduct the most difficult job on earth” and that the President had asked for, and received, his candor, and also had received his loyalty.

“But now,” Bush declared, “you must see me for what I am: The Republican candidate for President of the United States. And now I turn to the American people to share my hopes and intentions, and why--and where--I wish to lead.”

The vice president drew stark comparisons between his own views and those of Dukakis on such emotional social issues as abortion, school prayer, gun control and the death penalty, and also spoke of the economic growth of the Reagan-Bush years as compared to the period of double-digit inflation and high interest rates of the Jimmy Carter presidency.

But Bush kept his argument on a relatively high plane, generally avoiding the harsh language that many previous speakers at the convention had used in describing the Democrats. Bush never mentioned the names Dukakis or Carter.

‘Just the Facts’

He said he would “try to be fair to the other side,” and, in a facetious aside, he added: “I’ll try to hold my charisma in check. I reject the temptation to engage in personal references. My approach this evening is, as Sgt. Joe Friday used to say, ‘Just the facts, ma’am.’ ”

Turning to the issue of ethics, which Dukakis has hammered away at in citing the Iran-Contra affair and other scandals of the Reagan Administration, Bush acknowledged that “there are those who have dropped their standards along the way, as if ethics were too heavy and slowed their rise to the top.”

“There’s graft in City Hall, the greed on Wall Street; there’s influence peddling in Washington, and the small corruptions of everyday ambition.”

Calling for higher standards in government, he said he believed public service is honorable and “every time I hear that someone has breached the public trust it breaks my heart.”

‘Diminish Our Triumph’

Some people who are enjoying prosperity, he said, have forgotten what it is for, and “they diminish our triumph when they act as if wealth is an end in itself.”

“The fact is prosperity has a purpose. It is to allow us to pursue ‘the better angels,’ to give us time to think and grow. Prosperity with a purpose means taking your idealism and making it concrete by certain acts of goodness. It means helping a child from an unhappy home learn how to read--and I thank my wife, Barbara, for all her work in literacy.”

Prosperity also means “teaching troubled children through your presence that there’s such a thing as reliable love,” he said. “Some would say it’s soft and insufficiently tough to care about these things. But where is it written that we must act as if we do not care, as if we are not moved?

“Well, I am moved. I want a kinder, gentler nation.”

‘A New Harmony’

Bush, who has been part of an Administration that has been repeatedly criticized as insensitive by civil rights organizations, said: “I hope to stand for a new harmony, a greater tolerance. We’ve come far, but I think we need a new harmony among the races in our country. We’re on a journey to a new century, and we’ve got to leave the tired old baggage of bigotry behind.”

Although Bush talked glowingly about the economic gains of the Reagan Administration, he said that “things aren’t perfect” and some people “haven’t tasted the fruits of the expansions.

“I’ve talked to farmers about the bills they can’t pay,” he said. “I’ve been to the factories that feel the strain of change. I’ve seen the urban children who play amidst the shattered glass and shattered lives. And there are the homeless. And you know, it doesn’t do any good to debate endlessly which policy mistake of the ‘70s is responsible. They’re there. We have to help them.”

Bush also pledged to stop ocean dumping and work for clean air and reduce the harm done by acid rain.

Infected Needles

“Our beaches should not be garbage dumps and our harbors should not be cesspools,” he declared. “I am going to have the FBI trace the medical wastes and we are going to punish the people who dump those infected needles into our oceans, lakes and rivers.”

(In Washington, an FBI spokesman said agents already were investigating several environmental cases, including ocean dumping that has left New Jersey beaches strewn with syringes, needles and other medical waste.)

Declaring he would “do whatever it takes to make sure the disabled are included in the mainstream,” Bush said: “For too long they’ve been left out. But they’re not going to be left out anymore.”

Bush challenged the nation’s young people to help him “shut down the drug dealers around the world” and said: “My Administration will be telling the dealers: Whatever we have to do we’ll do, but your day is over, you’re history!”

‘Peace Through Strength’

In foreign affairs, Bush said, he will continue “our policy of peace through strength” and will move toward further cuts in the strategic and conventional arsenals of both the United States and the Soviet Union.

“I will modernize and preserve our technological edge,” he said. “I will ban chemical and biological weapons from the face of the earth. And I intend to speak for freedom, stand for freedom and be a patient friend to anyone, East or West, who will fight for freedom.”

In a reference to a Dukakis comment in his acceptance speech, Bush said: “Some say this isn’t an election about ideology, it’s an election about competence. Well, it’s nice of them to want to play on our field. But this election isn’t only about competence, for competence is a narrow deal. Competence makes the trains run on time but doesn’t know where they’re going. Competence is the creed of the technocrat who makes sure the gears mesh but doesn’t for a second understand the magic of the machine.”

“The truth is,” Bush continued, “this election is about the beliefs we share, the values we honor, the principles we hold dear.”

Bush said the expanding economy has created 17 million jobs in the last five years and that under the right leadership it can continue to grow at the current rate and produce 30 million jobs in the next eight years. He pledged to do that by “maintaining our commitment to free and fair trade, by keeping government spending down and by keeping taxes down.”

The issue of peace overwhelms all others, he said, and invited a “look at the world on this bright August night.”

“The spirit of democracy is sweeping the Pacific Rim,” he said. “China feels the winds of change. New democracies assert themselves in South America. One by one the unfree places fall, not to the force of arms but to the force of an idea: Freedom works.”

He cited improved relations with the Soviet Union and the INF treaty eliminating intermediate-range missiles, as well as “the beginning of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, the beginning of the end of the Soviet proxy war in Angola, and with it the independence of Namibia.” And Iraq and Iran move toward peace, he said.

“It is a watershed,” he declared. “It is no accident. It happened when we acted on the ancient knowledge that strength and clarity lead to peace--weakness and ambivalence lead to war. Weakness tempts aggressors Strength stops them. I will not let this country be made weak again.”

In his swipes at Dukakis, referring to him as “my opponent,” Bush said the Massachusetts governor opposes the death penalty, school prayer and the right of people to own guns to protect their homes, all of which Bush supports.

Pledge of Allegiance

The vice president also said he believes public school teachers should be required to lead students in the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag, a position he said his opponent opposes. Actually, Dukakis vetoed a bill requiring a Pledge of Allegiance in schools because legal authorities said it was unconstitutional.

Criticizing Dukakis on the abortion issue, he said: “Is it right to believe in the sanctity of life and protect the lives of innocent children? My opponent says no--but I say yes. We must change from abortion--to adoption. I have an adopted granddaughter. The day of her christening we wept with joy. I thank God her parents chose life.”

And in a reference to a Massachusetts case where a prisoner, while on a furlough, raped a woman, he said: “I’m the one who believes it is a scandal to give a weekend furlough to a hardened first-degree killer who hasn’t even served enough time to be eligible for parole.”

Turns Folksy

Bush, who has often said he finds it difficult to talk about his family life, spoke of being lucky because his parents had been prosperous. He turned folksy as he talked about learning “a few things about life in a place called Texas.”

“We moved to West Texas 40 years ago,” he said. “The war was over, and we wanted to get out and make it on our own. Those were exciting days. Lived in a little shotgun house, one room for the three of us. Worked in the oil business, started my own.

“In time we had six children. Moved from the shotgun to a duplex apartment to a house. Lived the dream--high school football on Friday night, Little League, neighborhood barbecue.”

‘Taking a Chance’

He said he was symbolic of an era of people “taking a chance and pushing into unknown territory with kids and a dog and a car.”

But the big thing he learned, he said, was the satisfaction of creating jobs and opportunity, “which meant happy families, who in turn could do more to help others and enhance their own lives.”

Bush, who went into oil-well drilling in Texas, said: “I may not be the most eloquent, but I learned early that eloquence won’t draw oil from the ground. I may sometimes be a little awkward, but there’s nothing self-conscious in my love of country. I am a quiet man--but I hear the quiet people others don’t. The ones who raise the family, pay the taxes, meet the mortgage. I hear them and I am moved, and their concerns are mine.”

‘Makes You Feel Wanted’

Among California delegates, Ray J. Jauregui, 63, of San Luis Obispo, said: “It was like he was talking to you personally. He gives you a picture of how he feels about his country and his family. It makes you feel wanted, like a part of the system.”

Dennis Kahane, 40, of San Francisco, said: “I thought he showed genuine warmth and compassion for the people of this country.”

And Margie Handley, 48, of Willits, said: “If America doesn’t vote for him after that, I can’t believe it. How anybody can say he is a wimp is beyond my wildest dreams. He is a strong leader and he has experience and every bit of it showed tonight.”

Staff writers Frank Clifford, Keith Love, Claudia Luther, Elizabeth Mehren, Bob Secter and George Skelton contributed to this story.