Chants and Waves Replace Polite Applause : Voters See Sharper, More Eloquent Bush

George Bush had just gotten to his line about Democratic criticism of the “swiss cheese” economy when a band of young men began the chant.

“Three blind mice,” sang the supporters at a Saturday rally here, the volume growing as more chimed in. “Three blind mice.”

A startled Bush ad-libbed: “Some of you stole my punch line.”

Sure enough, they had, adopting as their own one of the prominent lines from Bush’s Thursday night convention address.

More important than the swiped line, however, was the implication: Audiences have entered the Bush campaign. And they are seeing a different candidate from the one who has plodded across the nation for months, greeted by folks who rarely offered more than polite applause.

Despite the controversy over his running mate, Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle--which the two men tried to dispel in a short news conference Saturday--Bush has sharpened his style, freshened his speeches and delivered more enthusiasm last week than at any time in his run for the presidency.

He acknowledged as much to reporters Saturday.

“Except for this frenzy (over Quayle), it has gone great,” the vice president said. “I thought the event today was about as good as could be expected.”

Better, in fact, than almost all of the pre-convention Bush events. About 5,000 people crowded into a park here to chant and wave, despite heat and humidity that caused at least two supporters to collapse.

A Bush and a Quail

One man brought a live, 2-foot-tall bush, its roots wrapped in burlap, and waved it before the crowd when Bush’s name rang out. A partner held aloft a small, brown plastic quail.

The reaction, and Bush’s performance, had hit similarly high marks on Friday, when Bush opened up his general election campaign with a rousing address in Quayle’s hometown, Huntington, Ind.--one overshadowed minutes later by a contentious Quayle press conference.

“Some of you probably tuned in and saw us last night (at the convention) and here we are,” Bush said Friday. “They now call us the pit bulls of American politics.”

Invokes Truman Name

Then the vice president invoked the name of Harry S. Truman, a Midwestern Democrat whose image is far different from his own. He recalled how crowds had told Truman to “give ‘em hell”--whereupon Truman replied that he would merely tell the truth “and they’d think it was hell.”

“And that’s what we’re going to be doing,” he said. “Harry’s our role model. I think of him as the patron saint of pit bulls.”

Bush’s speeches also have taken on an uncommon note of verbal grace. He has been remarkably free of the gaffes for which he has become famous, and his speech writers have started to personalize the addresses.

In Ohio, for example, Bush paid tribute to the native citizens of the state, from the Wright brothers to Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. He said it exemplified the “can-do spirit of America.”

“It’s the home of the little guy with a big idea,” he said, repeating the “big idea” theme present in his convention address, “the people who reach for the stars and the families who back them up.”

Both Bush and Quayle took pains to note that their post-convention campaign began in “middle America,” not incidentally an area in which Bush must do well to win in November.

The issues raised have been simple: jobs and peace, terms meant to ring bells among Midwestern voters.

“Do you want to throw away the success of the last eight years and go back to where President Carter left us?” he asked the rally crowd here.

“No!” they roared.

“Do you want to risk America’s security by taking down our defenses and turning over the ship of state to a captain who’s never sailed a ship this big before?” he asked.

“No!” the crowd roared again.

Although that remark by the Republican nominee clearly referred to Democrat Michael S. Dukakis, Bush actually has lessened his criticism of the opposition.

Instead, he is leaning toward the poetic, skipping over specifics in favor of Reaganesque terms that drive them to their feet.

And as he has adopted the post-convention approach in middle America, the Bush campaign has taken full visual advantage of the backdrop it presents. In Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, Bush showed up at the state fairgrounds to pitch a few horseshoes with local contestants and to venture to a gospel music gathering, where Pat Boone took the stage.

And at the Paper Day celebration in this little town outside Dayton, Bush and his wife, Barbara, walked almost a mile among the beauty queens and the bands, cheered all along the way.