He Repeats That Bush Would Harm Program : Dukakis Presses Social Security Warning

For all those who have said the Democratic presidential campaign is unable to produce easy-to-air, made-for-television events, Michael S. Dukakis came to the heartland Tuesday, spoke before not one, but two, high school marching bands and delivered a speech that mentioned the words Social Security nine times in nine minutes.

For good measure, Dukakis also greeted a crowd of fresh-faced first-graders and used the word mainstream seven times within five minutes as he addressed a crowd of several thousand supporters in this city-turned-symbol-turned cliche.

Then, in a final touch, the Massachusetts governor returned to his airplane to be presented with a sweat shirt from nearby Eureka College, whose most famous graduate, Ronald (Dutch) Reagan, has profited greatly by this sort of television theater. “We like Dutch, but we love the Duke,” the shirt proclaimed.

On the way out, Dukakis’ limousine passed one waiting for Vice President George Bush’s arrival in central Illinois.

Spinning Out Threads

What all of this is about, of course, is the continued process of spinning out the threads--positive and negative--of Sunday’s presidential debate. Post-debate polls show that voters found Republican nominee Bush to be warm and comfortable, whereas many thought Dukakis seemed presidential, but, perhaps, too liberal.

To counter that second view, Dukakis is emphasizing the “mainstream” nature of his views. And to make voters feel less comfortable with Bush, he has turned to the Democrats’ favorite weapon--raising warnings for the third day in a row that the GOP would harm Social Security.

Dukakis aides say the process of playing off the debate is likely to continue for another day before the campaign returns to laying out Dukakis’ positions on issues. The next major issue he is likely to campaign on will be the environment, which is an ever-important campaign issue in California, where Dukakis will be Friday.

Already, he has begun to attack Bush on the environment, labeling him a “born-again environmentalist.”

“I’ve got to laugh,” he told the Peoria crowd, about Bush’s claims to support environmental protection after “7 1/2 years of wrecking our commitment to environmental strength and quality.”

‘Not for a Grain Embargo’

He also touched on agricultural policy while here, saying he is “not for a grain embargo”--a charge Bush has raised--and chiding Bush for taking foreign policy advice from “the granddaddy of the 1980 grain embargo” on sales to the Soviet Union, Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former Jimmy Carter Administration national security adviser.

But the main issue for the day was Social Security, which is becoming for the Democrats what the Pledge of Allegiance has been for Bush’s campaign.

There are differences between the issues, to be sure. A President has virtually nothing to say about whether the pledge is said in schools, whereas he does, potentially, have a lot to say about Social Security benefits. And the GOP has proposed Social Security cuts in the past, although not recently.

But both are emotionally powerful issues that help rally the party faithful while potentially winning over some undecided voters. And in both cases, the evidence for the charge is inferences drawn from the opposing candidate’s past, not direct proof from current statements.

‘Read His Record’

“When it comes to Social Security and George Bush, don’t read his lips, read his record,” Dukakis told the crowd.

Bush, he noted, opposed Medicare in 1964, when he first ran for the Senate, calling the program “socialized medicine.” And in 1980, when he first ran for President, Bush called Social Security “basically a welfare program.”

Dukakis said: “Social Security is not a ‘welfare program.’ You know it and I know it. Social Security is a solemn contract between generations. And Lloyd Bentsen and I will never break that contract.”

Finally, Dukakis noted, Bush, in 1985, voted to break a Senate tie and approve a Republican budget plan that included reductions in Social Security cost-of-living increases as well as a boost in Medicare premiums. The crowd was well-prepared for that charge, and waved blue and gold signs that proclaimed: “Bush whacked Social Security on May 9, 1985, Vote Dukakis.”

Bush has denied any intention of changing Social Security. The charge is “just a lie, and he (Dukakis) knows it,” Bush campaign manager Lee Atwater said Monday.

If Bush is serious about proposing further tax cuts--he has proposed three so far, including the $1,000 tax-deferred savings plan he unveiled Tuesday--and if he “can’t think of a single weapons system in the budget that he opposes,” and if he wants to bring down the deficit but “never” raise taxes, “then how’s he going to do it without raiding the Social Security trust fund and trying to cut Social Security and Medicare again?” Dukakis said.