Quayle’s Schedule Slowed, Partly to Avoid Any Gaffes

With less than a week to go, the vice presidential campaign of Dan Quayle has shifted into a new gear: slow.

There will be no more all-day bus trips, aides said Tuesday. On the weekend before the election, Quayle will spend both evenings with his family. Meanwhile, his schedule has been cut to three events a day, leaving the youthful senator plenty of time to sleep, dine out and even play some basketball.

The reduced pace reflects the campaign’s confidence that Quayle’s election as the next vice president is assured. Rather than stump through battleground states, for example, Quayle spent part of Tuesday afternoon here in safe Republican Indiana campaigning for the gubernatorial candidate, Lt. Gov. John Mutz.

Exhausted Candidate

But the revised schedule also reflects concern that a major blunder by Quayle in the final week would far outweigh any benefit a hard-driving close to his campaign might provide. An exhausted Quayle last week made a number of gaffes--he declared, for example, that there was plenty of housing for the homeless and bade a Miami audience “good night” at 10 in the morning. With that in mind, Quayle aides said Tuesday that they had asked Bush headquarters in Washington to cut back the pace.

“Anybody who gets tired has a chance of screwing up,” issues adviser James Cicconi said.

By campaigning in small towns and rarely delivering substantive speeches, Quayle had already ensured that he would receive relatively little media attention. When asked Tuesday about his new schedule, Quayle said smilingly: “I’ve been trying to create news for the last three weeks. I guess I haven’t done a very good job of it.”

He did not leave his Columbus, Ohio, hotel until after 9:30 Tuesday morning and returned before noon for a long lunch with reporters. In between, he delivered a speech to a high school assembly that dwelt heavily on references to a Republican future in which “the sun will be shining again.”

Takes Aim at Dukakis

In addition, Quayle took aim at what he called Michael S. Dukakis’ last-minute “confession” that he was a liberal and sought to distinguish that ideology from what he called the “enlightened conservatism” of George Bush.

“There is nothing wrong with . . . a comparison of ideas,” Quayle said. “What would have been an aberration in this campaign would have been if we did not have that discussion of the ideas. And, unfortunately, we had to wait until the very last week for our opponents to say: ‘OK, ideology and ideas are needed.’ ”

Besides inviting reporters to join him for lunch--a gesture that would have been unthinkable just a month ago, when the candidate was most sheltered from the media--Quayle challenged the press Monday to an early-evening basketball game.

Fine Playmaking Guard

Too few reporters showed up to form a team, but those who did saw a starched-shirt candidate transformed into a fine playmaking guard who managed to hit a couple of jump shots as well.

With a few minutes remaining and the game still close, Quayle made sure that his sole reporter teammate was on the court. “Now,” he said, “if we lose we can blame the press.” Quayle’s team won.