Bush, Calm and Upbeat, Presses Character Issue

The frantic pace and demeanor of his catch-up campaign under control, President Bush on Friday exuded an upbeat calm as he set out his differences with the Democratic presidential ticket and insisted that on Election Day he’ll be returned to the White House for another four years.

Projecting a big grin to the crowds that greeted him in Nashville and then in a suburban neighborhood of St. Louis County, Bush drummed home the central messages of his final days on the campaign trail.

“It boils down to experience, to a difference in philosophy and, yes, it boils down to character--character and trust matter,” he said at each stop. “Ideas, action and character--I believe I have demonstrated, I certainly have tried to demonstrate all three.”

The President ended his day with a relaxed, at times playful, appearance on CNN’s “Larry King Live” show, broadcast from Racine. In response to a question during the 90-minute program, Bush apologized for referring to Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton and vice presidential nominee Al Gore as “bozos” during a campaign speech Thurday.

“I think maybe bozo was wrong,” Bush said Friday night. “I did it in humor. Everyone was roaring with laughter. . . . It turned out to be a great, big media thing. I thought it was funny at first. . . . Maybe it hurt my dignity for doing that. When you make a mistake, admit it.”

Among the questioners reaching Bush by telephone was the Clinton campaign’s director of communications, George Stephanopoulos. Drawing on a 1986 note written by then-Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, Stephanopoulos sought to challenge Bush’s efforts to distance himself from the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages affair.

Bush responded by describing his questioner as a “very able young man” and dismissing his question as part of a “rather desperate last-minute” political move by opponents who “feel something slipping away” from them.

In a lighter vein, King noted that Clinton and independent candidate Ross Perot each have said they would get to work right away and forego a vacation if elected; he then asked what Bush would do. The President replied: “Take a vacation.”

As Bush pressed his case for reelection earlier in the day, the latest polls showed volatility in the presidential race, and a wide disparity in their results. One, conducted by CNN, showed Bush within one point of Bill Clinton, with Clinton at 41%, Bush 40% and independent Ross Perot at 14%. Another, the CBS News poll, reported a 10-point gap, giving Clinton 45%, Bush 35% and Perot 15%.

The Bush campaign’s senior adviser, political consultant Charles Black, said among the crucial battleground states, Ohio was dead even; Clinton had a slight lead in Michigan; Texas was “close but I think we’re ahead”; Florida “is fine, we’re ahead,” and in New Jersey, the race was close but Bush was “slightly behind.”

He also said that North Carolina appeared “about even,” and Bush was ahead in Georgia. Pennsylvania, Black said, was “very much in play.” He acknowledged that Clinton was leading in California--as he has been for months--and in two other major prizes, Illinois and New York.

Overall, Black said Clinton has about 11 states locked up, with five or six likely, for a net of 220 to 215 electoral votes of the 270 needed for victory. But, he said, “I think 20 states could go either way right now.” Bush needs to win a majority of them, including Michigan, Ohio, New Jersey and probably Wisconsin to counter the Clinton leads elsewhere.

While Black did not say so, his math meant that the Bush team was confident of only about 14 states with about 140 electoral votes--a demonstration of the challenge facing Bush even if some national polls suggest the race has grown extremely close.

“There’s still a lot of voters making up their minds. We need to keep our momentum going,” he said. “If we voted today, I’m not sure we’re at 270. But if Monday through Thursday continues Friday through Monday, we’ll win.”

Independent pollsters and those working for the candidates generally agree that some tightening in the race is probably occurring. The wide disparity in the results may be due to how the different polls calculate who will actually vote on Tuesday. The more restrictive the definition of “likely voter,” the more Republican the sample becomes because it would tend to exclude more young voters, who this year have shown a preference for the Democratic ticket.

Against that political backdrop, the President methodically outlined his case at each stop, and he happily accepted the endorsement of a Democratic governor, William Donald Schaeffer of Maryland, who flew to Missouri to appear with Bush.

“I am a Democrat. I remain a Democrat,” said Schaeffer, who has two years remaining in his second and final term. But, refusing to criticize Clinton, he said he was endorsing Bush because “he’s a good man. He’s an honest guy. He’s my friend.”

In St. Louis, Bush told a rally of several hundred people gathered on the greensward of a suburban office building--an enthusiastic, but notably small crowd given the approach of the election--”You know what I feel today? The spirit of St. Louis. I’ve felt that spirit in Ohio, and in Michigan and New Jersey and in Florida and all across this country. And that spirit tells me in my soul that on Nov. 3 we are going to be reelected for four more years.”

Earlier, joking with the operators of Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises, to whose convention he spoke in Nashville, Bush said: “I heard you were experimenting with home delivery, and I want to give you my address--1600 Pennsylvania. And when we call for delivery you can reach us there any time because, I don’t care what all the pundits say, Barbara and I don’t think we’ll be moving out until 1996.

“My opponent says the election is about change, but being in favor of change is like being in favor of the sun coming up tomorrow,” Bush said. “Change is going to happen and the real question is not who is for change, but whose change will make your life better and make the world safer.”

Playing on Clinton’s attack that Bush is presiding over a “trickle-down economy” that benefits the wealthiest first, the President accused Clinton of favoring a “trample-down economy,” that would “trample down business with regulations.”

“People understand government is not the savior. It is the servant,” he said, seeking to cast Clinton as a proponent of larger government.

“You see a clear choice. Gov. Clinton dreams of expanding the American government, and I want to work to expand the American dream,” Bush said.

“Gov. Clinton likes to say he is different, different than the old tax-and-spend liberals,” the President said. But he said Clinton’s plan to increase taxes by $220 billion and spending by $150 billion contradicts the Democrat’s claim.

“All those billions just begin to pay for all the promises,” Bush said.

And, one day after Clinton criticized Bush’s efforts to fight the AIDS epidemic, the President said Clinton had “done very little” in Arkansas to fight AIDS, and that his own Administration had increased federal spending to attack the disease by 118% since taking office.

“We don’t need a bureaucratic czar in our nation’s capital” in charge of the AIDS fight, Bush said. “We need more compassion in our home towns, more education, more caring.”

The pace of the Bush effort, although not slack, was more measured than that of Clinton. As the days remaining until the election have dwindled, Bush has shown more and more the easy-going approach he demonstrated four years ago, giddy at times, bantering with reporters at others, and, on occasion, offering a philosophical side.

On Friday, he made no mention of Clinton’s draft record, offering instead a less accusatory approach to the “character” issue.

Quoting 19th-Century editor Horace Greeley, Bush said: “Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wing, and only character endures.”

“I believe that is especially true in the presidency,” Bush said.

Times staff writers Doyle McManus and Douglas Jehl contributed to this story.