Dukakis Agrees to Bush Request for 2 Debates

Democratic presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis agreed today to Republican Vice President George Bush’s demand that they limit themselves to two debates with each other and one between their running mates.

Dukakis campaign chairman Paul Brountas, traveling with the Massachusetts governor in Illinois, told reporters that the progress was made during a telephone conversation with James A. Baker III, head of the Bush effort.

“We can live with two presidential, one vice presidential,” Brountas said. Previously, the Dukakis campaign had wanted up to four debates between the two presidential contenders.

Brountas added, however, that the dates for the confrontations were not set.

Hostility in Oregon

Bush campaigned today in Portland, Ore., where he encountered the most hostile audience since winning the nomination last month. He told a group of jeering workers at the Northwest Marine shipyard that “the Democrats are trying to mislead you” and promised that if he is elected he will provide more jobs for Americans.

“Listen to this one now,” Bush told about 250 workers who booed loudly as the vice president spoke at an iron works. “I know the truth sometimes hurts.”

The crowd chanted, “Union buster!” but Bush continued to speak in a loud voice, telling the workers: “The Democrats are trying to mislead you. Things aren’t going to get worse unless they get elected.”

Many of the hard-hat workers carried anti-Bush signs that accused him of being anti-union, including one that said, “Union Busting, Scab-Loving Bush.”

Got Some Cheers

Although Bush was booed and hooted during his speech, he did win a few cheers from the audience when he told the group, “I’m proud to be part of an Administration . . . that decided we’re not going to wear the ‘kick me’ signs anymore.”

Bush said he thought the election was going to be “a referendum on the direction of America’s future” and said that his single most important goal was “that everybody who wants a job should have a job . . . a good job at good wages. He (Dukakis) may talk about it but we delivered it.”

Bush conceded that Oregon is a state in which he is trailing Dukakis.

Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force II en route from Los Angeles, Bush accused Dukakis of waging a negative campaign.

“He has to tear down. He has to make everything negative to be elected. I don’t have to be responding to him,” the vice president said.