Bush, Evoking Gulf War, Opens Reelection Drive

President Bush, whose foreign policy triumphs have outshone a sparse domestic record, formally began his quest for a second term on Wednesday here and in Washington, declaring: “If we can change the world, we can change America.”

The reelection drive comes as Bush is confronted with economic troubles that have left him vulnerable to challenge. Determined first to blunt an intra-party threat here from Republican challenger Patrick J. Buchanan, Bush used much of a speech before the New Hampshire state Legislature to assail the protectionist policies his rival espouses.

He also seized every opportunity to evoke the spirit of victory in the Persian Gulf, looking forward to the moment he could announce to the American people that “the liberation of America’s economy has begun.”

Earlier, Bush told a reelection rally at a Washington, D.C., hotel that he faced a “tough” general election fight. But “I came here to do important work, and I finish what I start,” he said.

In moving immediately to a day of campaigning here, Bush clearly sought to parlay the flair of the formal announcement into gains in a New Hampshire campaign where Buchanan’s appeal still leaves White House advisers anxious.

Bush resisted the temptation to criticize Buchanan by name. But he used acid inference to scorn his “America first” rival before the state Legislature, noting that “our national symbol isn’t the ostrich, it’s the eagle, and that’s the way it should be.”

Senior campaign officials said they were prepared to broadcast advertisements attacking Buchanan for his opposition to the Gulf War if that should prove necessary to stanch what some polls show are small gains against Bush.

The one-day visit was Bush’s second to New Hampshire, a presence that was stepped-up because of concern about Buchanan. Bush returns to the state for a weekend visit on Saturday.

But Bush’s mind was not fixed on Republican challengers alone. He told his Washington audience that voters “could cast their lot with a lot of fresh faces who tout stale ideas,” but said “they would know the difference between a sound bite and sound policy.”

Bush cast himself as a friend of strong defense, an enemy of big government, a supporter of the family and a critic of a welfare system he said locked Americans in “bleak dependency.”

“Amid the swells of change, gentle fundamentals anchor us still,” Bush said. “Decency, honor, hard work, caring: That’s the America I know.”

While conceding the need to get the economy “up and running,” Bush also expressed no doubt that it could be done. He said he would use his second term to transform the “arsenal” of democracy into an “engine” of economic growth and pave the way to a “second American century.”

“I understand the world,” he said, in an apparent answer to those who have criticized his preoccupation with foreign policy. “That’s crucial. But that’s not enough. I understand America.”

But in New Hampshire, he still found himself face-to-face with voters like defense worker Deb Sullivan. As the President toured a General Electric aircraft-engine plant here, she told reporters that Bush spent too much time on foreign concerns.

“I think he should take care of us first,” Sullivan said.

The 67-year-old Bush appeared vigorous through a full day of campaigning. It began with his introduction before an enthusiastic audience of 2,000 supporters in a bunting-draped Washington ballroom and ended as he waded through a crowd of well-wishers in a shopping mall in Bedford, N. H.

What will be his last campaign began emotionally. Barbara Bush introduced her husband as a man she had known “from college team captain to the leader of the greatest nation on earth,” sending tears rolling down Bush’s face.

In both speeches, Bush dwelt heavily on past triumphs. He claimed shared credit for more than a decade of victories that he said left America to stand “alone, the undisputed leader of the Free World.”

“ ‘Imperial Communism’ became a four-letter word,” he said. “D-E-A-D--dead.”

He also attacked the Democratic majority in Congress. “They say they are taking up my (economic) plan but they are not,” Bush said. “Just pass this plan and give the American people a chance to see if it’s going to work as I’m confident it will.”

Bush identified himself anew with former President Ronald Reagan and opened his campaign by borrowing some of his predecessor’s most effective buzzwords.

With bows to “safe streets . . . parents . . . family . . . principle . . . decency . . . good schools,” Bush assembled the blocks on which his advisers say he hopes to structure a winning message.

Four times in the 18-minute address he used the word “together.”

“That was on purpose,” said chief White House speech writer Tony Snow, outlining an effort by Bush to present himself in tones that suggest a coming together of Americans of all stripes.

At the heart of Bush’s approach, say his aides, is an appeal to a nation that fears that its inner moral strength is failing. Bush can present himself as the leader who, in Desert Storm, post-Cold War fashion, can restore it, they contend.

By this thinking, fear of crime, concern about schools and discouragement over the future of the family will be powerful issues on which Bush can campaign, regardless of who the Democratic candidate is.

It was very much an effort by Bush to deal from a position of strength, and he made only scant reference to the economy.

On Wednesday, he painted his own portrait of America--the America of the past, the America of the future, still kinder, still gentler--that would best suit his argument for reelection.

The future of the nation, he said, is shaped when “parents read to their children, talk about responsibility, teach them values. . . . “

“The value issue is a clear conservative hot button,” said Thomas C. Griscom, director of communications in the Reagan White House. But its appeal, he said, goes beyond the conservative audience to which Buchanan is directing his campaign.

Rather, Griscom said, it is the sort of code phrase that also “strikes a chord with Reagan-type Democrats. It starts appealing back to those fundamental elements that tied the Reagan coalition together.”

Such issues will not replace the economy at the top of most voters’ lists of things to worry about. But, Griscom said, they go to the heart of what poll takers sense is a growing concern in the nation: that an intrusive government is tampering excessively with individual rights.

The President’s announcement was a formality. His reelection committee has been in place since October and has already raised $11 million. Bush is on the ballot in every state with a primary.

Times staff writers James Gerstenzang in Washington and Cathleen Decker in New Hampshire contributed to this story.