Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Economy's growth called campaign's best-kept secret Date: Thu, 29 Oct 92 14:38:17 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION;NEWS ANALYSIS \HD Economy's growth called campaign's best-kept secret \BY Ralph Z. Hallow \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES The Bush campaign waited until this week to get out the word on the best-kept secret of the election season - the economy has been growing steadily for 18 months. When a beaming Vice President Dan Quayle held up a chart on ABC's "Nightline" Tuesday showing the economy's growth line, Ted Koppel asked if it was a bit late in the campaign to help Mr. Bush. "Well, I wish I had this chart 30 days ago," Mr. Quayle replied. "He could have, and even then the chart would have shown five straight quarters of growth," says Martin Anderson, an economic adviser to Presidents Nixon and Reagan. "It's been the best-kept secret of the campaign." Why the delay? The government itself defines a recession as the economy going down for two or more consecutive quarters. Yet for two years the press and the Democrats hammered the administration about a recession that technically ended in mid-1991. The delay has to do with credibility and context. Since taking to the stump in February, every time the president tried to say things aren't as bad as some make them out to be, the media and the Democrats slapped him down for "insensitivity" to the unemployed and elitist insulation from the "real world." What's changed, according to Bush campaign senior adviser Charles Black, is that the "media couldn't help reporting the latest growth number positively, given they had exepected it to be bad." Public attitudes also changed. Before the last of the three presidential debates, distrust was rampant. All candidates felt it, but especially Mr. Bush. "If he said it's sunny outside, the voters and media would have said it must be cloudy," said GOP pollster Glenn Bolger. "Now when Bush says it's sunny, voters say: 'That's a good point.' " The climate changed when Mr. Bush came alive in the third debate and hit Mr. Clinton's credibility and most important, when Mr. Perot indirectly belittled Mr. Clinton and his stewarship of Arkansas. "Perot said it is ridiculous to say that just because a man can run a corner grocery store, he has what it takes to run Wal-Mart," Mr. Bolger said. "People knew he had cut Clinton down." Bush forces owe Mr. Perot another thanks. His half-hour television "informercials" made charts fashionable. Republican analyst Ed Goeas thinks the climate warmed dramatically for Mr. Bush because several factors converged in the last few days. "It has not been politically correct to say you're for George Bush," he said. "But now people have been given reasons to be for him: the economic news and Bush sticking to his 'Who do you trust?' theme and forcing Perot to back away." Two more converging factors: the home-stretch rise in the public opinion surveys by Mr. Bush accompanied by Mr. Clinton's slide, leaving a 2- or 3-point gap now in some polls. The Bush campaign is so confident it's finally on the right track that it turned down NBC's offer to sell it a $900,000 half-hour on election eve. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM