Bush Steps Up Campaign Effort : Politics: The President warns challenger Patrick J. Buchanan that 'it's a new ballgame' after the primary in New Hampshire, where only 16 points separated them.

By JAMES GERSTENZANG

Feb. 20, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. —

President Bush kicked off a new, more aggressive phase of his reelection campaign Wednesday, warning challenger Patrick J. Buchanan that “it’s a new ballgame. And we’re coming out strong.”

Less than 14 hours after the polls closed in New Hampshire, Bush was in Tennessee, visiting the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and speaking to an audience assembled by the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce.

Signaling a decision to turn up the heat on Buchanan’s insurgent drive for the Republican presidential nomination, Bush said it might be time to “define” his opponent. “I’ve been very kind and gentle,” he said. “I’ll still be kind, and I’m now debating how gentle to be.”

Later in the day, Bush learned that his and Buchanan’s percentages of the vote in New Hampshire had shrunk. When a sizable write-in vote for an assortment of other candidates had been tabulated, he had 53% to Buchanan’s 37%. Tuesday night, unofficial returns had given Bush 58% of the vote to Buchanan’s 40%.

The White House attempted to portray the New Hampshire margin as a remarkable victory, even for an incumbent President against a challenger who has never run for office. But the Bush camp was stunned by the strength of the opposition in the state. Now, it hopes that Southern support for his leadership during the Persian Gulf War--and an economic picture not quite as bleak as New Hampshire’s--will improve his prospects in the Super Tuesday primaries on March 10, as well as in earlier contests in Georgia, South Carolina and Maryland.

Bush’s Tennessee campaign chairman, Howard H. Baker Jr., said that in his state, “we have unemployment and we have distressed economic circumstances, but it’s spotty; it’s not general.

Baker, the former Senate leader who ran against Bush for the GOP presidential nomination in 1980--both lost to Ronald Reagan--said of the President: “It’s clear he’s putting his campaign clothes back on. Never underestimate George Bush as a politician.”

Bush’s trip to Tennessee was considered an official presidential trip for billing purposes--meaning that the government, rather than the Bush campaign, picks up the tab. But politics was on the President’s mind.

Moments after landing in Knoxville, Bush sought to highlight Buchanan’s opposition to the Persian Gulf War and suggested that his opponent might weaken the Social Security system.

“I don’t think Social Security ought to be voluntary. That’s the Bush position,” he said, raising a sensitive political issue. In the past, those who have suggested making contributions to the retirement plan voluntary have done so at their political peril.

Asked about Buchanan’s position, a White House aide displayed an undated newspaper column by Buchanan that asked: “Why not make Social Security voluntary?”

Bush remained determinedly upbeat about his showing in New Hampshire. Accompanied by three members of Congress at a Knoxville news conference, Bush said: “Some of these congressmen with me today said, ‘Hey, since when is an 18-point victory been considered anything other than a landslide?’ ” (Preliminary tallies showed the President at 58% and Buchanan at 40%, but later counts narrowed the margin to 16 percentage points.)

History, however, could give Bush something to worry about. Although in the last three decades no incumbent President has lost the New Hampshire primary, those who have won narrowly have found themselves in political trouble.

In 1968, for example, Lyndon B. Johnson won by 7 points, then pulled out of the race. In 1976, Gerald R. Ford slipped by Ronald Reagan with less than a 2-point lead--and lost to Jimmy Carter in the general election. Carter, in turn, defeated Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy by 10 points in 1980--but lost to Reagan in November.

Bush said he took a verbal beating in New Hampshire from both sides. Tsongas “knock(ed) my socks off,” Bush said, as did the other candidates, including Buchanan, the conservative television commentator who has worked for former President Richard M. Nixon and Reagan.

As the President began to fight back, he referred to his Republican opponent by name for the first time. “We’re going to take this guy on in every single state,” he said. “All I did was lay back and get hammered by these Democrats and, to some degree, by Pat.

“I was a little sick and tired of getting pounded by five Democrats day in and day out, not responding; and similarly, by the Republican challenger whom I beat by 18 points,” he said before the lower totals were announced.

Nevertheless, he seemed hesitant to batter a fellow Republican. “The gloves are still on,” he said. “Gloves are still on. Gloves are still on.”

Bush was at once defensive and upbeat about New Hampshire. “Let’s remember, New Hampshire people were hurting; New Hampshire was disproportionately affected by recession,” he said. Then he smiled and added: “I feel good today.”

The earliest reports from the state, based on exit polls, left him “a little tense,” the President acknowledged. Some polls had shown him neck-and-neck with Buchanan. But, he said, “I’ve been in tough fights before, and I’m looking forward to this one . . . . I’m not taking anything for granted. I’m going to stay out here across this country.”

The President provided a hint of his Southern strategy and its focus on the Persian Gulf War. Twice in Knoxville he said that 6,700 reservists and National Guard troops from Tennessee served in Operation Desert Storm. That earned him a round of applause from the Chamber of Commerce audience.

The war produced Bush’s highest popularity ratings in public opinion polls and, in a region considered a bastion of support for the military, it is likely to be a bonus for him. Buchanan opposed the use of force against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, as did some of the Democrats in the race.

Bush and his advisers have put together a schedule of nearly nonstop travel leading up to Super Tuesday, with visits to at least 12 states and no more than four full days in Washington.

A senior campaign official said that, despite the New Hampshire results, Bush’s campaign strategy and message will not be altered. “We may have to articulate it better, but the message is fundamentally the same . . . . The message is that George Bush understands what the situation is with the economy and the country and he has a specific plan to deal with it, a plan that is well thought through, well designed and will work.”

He said Bush was not going to accept Buchanan’s challenge to a debate. “No, we’re not going to debate him, period,” he said.

In his speech to the business group, Bush stuck to many of the themes on which he focused in New Hampshire campaign appearances.

Buchanan has called for greater protection of the U.S. trade position. But Bush countered this criticism with a new edge, calling Buchanan’s approach “the dim voice of defeatism, that tin trumpet sounding retreat.”

“Don’t be fooled by the tough talk and patriotic bluster: Protectionism comes from fear--fear that American workers can’t compete, fear that American ingenuity is spent, fear that we must turn away from the world because we can no longer lead the world,” the President said.

Staff writer Michael Ross contributed to this story from Washington.