Bush, in N. H., Goes on Attack for a 2nd Term

In the chilly hangar of a former Air Force base, in the brick Town Hall of a quaint New England town and in a thriving auto parts factory, President Bush opened a hands-on attack Wednesday to restore his political fortunes and win a second term.

He spent 12 hours criss-crossing the relatively well-off southeastern corner of New Hampshire to deliver a single message to recession-panicked voters: “I want the people of this state to know I care.” He apologized for misreading the state of the economy and for not conveying his concern earlier.

“We are poised for a real recovery,” he declared. “Times are tough. This state has gone through hell.”

New Hampshire’s economy has dropped precipitously in the last three years, preceding the President’s recent tumble in public opinion polls. Unemployment has risen to 7% from 2.5%, bankruptcies have grown to 3,848 from 835, the number of food stamp recipients has nearly tripled, bank closings have increased to 14 from zero and the average selling price of homes has fallen to $121,000 from $138,000.

With the Feb. 18 New Hampshire primary less than five weeks away, Bush is trying to turn back growing support for his conservative challenger for the Republican nomination, Patrick J. Buchanan. A recent New Hampshire poll showed Buchanan’s support growing to 30% from 20% over the last two months, while Bush’s fell to 46% from 56%.

The President sought to plunge into the up-close campaigning that won the New Hampshire primary four years ago and resuscitated his political career after a third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses.

He grew more animated at each of his six stops. “I’m getting sick and tired of every single night hearing one of these carping little liberal Democrats jumping all over my you-know-what,” he said, drawing whooping cheers from workers at the Cabletron Systems Inc. factory in Rochester.

Throughout the day, he tried to campaign with a common touch. Referring to his sprawling seaside home in nearby Kennebunkport, Me., and his years at a prep school in Andover, Mass., he said: “I have not simply just discovered New Hampshire. . . . I live near this state. I went to school across the border. I want the people of this state to know I care.”

Bush warned that isolationism isn’t the answer for the foundering economy, however.

“Don’t try to do it by shrinking (our) markets and going into some kind of siren’s call of protectionism that sent this country into depression in the 1930s,” he said in a speech to employees of the Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. in Dover. “What that means is shrinking jobs.”

Bush was greeted by a skeptical editorial on the front page of the Manchester Union Leader, the state’s largest paper and an aggressive supporter of Buchanan.

“Please do not give us any more of this ‘not to worry’ line. It’s not much comfort to people who have lost their jobs or are scared to death of doing so,” the editorial said.

Workers at the Davidson Interior Trim Co. in Dover voiced similar sentiments as Bush toured another corner of the factory, which makes headrests for Hondas.

“I don’t think he’s addressed the issue of the economy sincerely enough,” said Howard Stith, a part-time temporary worker who had been unemployed until recently. “My concern is there’s been a lot of rhetoric, but nothing tangible to show for it.”

Even Tom Rath, a former New Hampshire attorney general who is working for Bush, agreed that the President has to put forward a specific plan to improve the economy to gain support here.

“He’s clearly got to go beyond the ability to relate to the problem. He’s got to do something about it,” Rath said. “Before rehabilitation comes confession. This is a good start.”

Bush also visited Pease Air Force Base, once a thriving military center that pumped $1 million a month into the local economy that now is used mainly by the Air National Guard. A questioner there suggested that the state’s economy reminded her of a country song, “There’s Light at the End of the Tunnel, but I Hope It Ain’t No Train.” The President suggested another title: “If You Want to See a Rainbow, You’ve Got to Stand a Little Rain.”

He stopped at a farmhouse for a quick chat with a farmer, in another effort to engage in one-on-one campaigning, but it was carefully arranged. The dairy farmer, Douglas Scamman, happens to be a prominent politician, the former Speaker of the state House of Representatives.

During the day, Bush sought to build on the element of his presidency that public opinion polls give the highest marks: foreign policy. He repeatedly recalled the triumph of Operation Desert Storm and the fall of communism in what was once the Soviet Union.

Bush angrily referred to the Democrats who opposed his launching of the attack on Iraqi forces in Kuwait one year ago today. If the White House had listened to Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.), Bush said: “Saddam Hussein would be in Saudi Arabia and you’d be paying 20 bucks for a gallon of gasoline.”

“I’ll take my blame for the economy,” he said. “But please give me a little credit for the fact my grandkids and your kids have a chance to grow up in a world that is a little more peaceful.”

Many voters who gathered along Bush’s path said they appreciated his acceptance of blame.

“He wasn’t ducking and weaving,” said 67-year-old Malcolm Cole, who waited in a frigid wind with hundreds of others to attend Bush’s speech in historic Exeter Town Hall.

Nevertheless, skepticism overrode overt displays of friendliness toward Bush, even among those who have already decided to give the President four more years. In Exeter, for example, several of those who gathered to shake hands with the President at the Town Hall expressed dismay at the lack of specifics he offered when he vowed to revive the economy.

“They always promise you--which he has, he promised us no taxes--so I don’t know,” said Corrine Rally, 54, who supported Bush in 1988 but is unsure how to vote this year.

Even the most obvious show of support in Exeter carried with it little enthusiasm.

On the marquee at the Ioka Theatre, just down the road from the Town Hall, general manager Jim Blanco had hung a message in bright red letters: “Give ‘em hell, George. NH is with you.”

But in an interview, Blanco qualified the endorsement: “I like George Bush,” he said. “I don’t like him as much as I did four years ago. But I still see him as the lesser of evils.”

“I’ll vote for George Bush,” he added. “Not grudgingly, but not as favorably as I voted for him four years ago.”

Later, at a Rotary Club dinner in Portsmouth, Bush joked about his now-famous fainting spell at a dinner in Tokyo a week ago in which he threw up on Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa. He said he had told First Lady Barbara Bush that he wouldn’t need her on this trip because “I wasn’t going to throw up.” Then he said he would like a loan from his audience. “It costs a lot to dry clean a suit over there in Japan, and the prime minister had an expensive one.”