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Subject: Bush Spends Halloween in Wisconsin Trying to Scare Voters About
Date: Sun, 1 Nov 92 09:14:31 EST
Message-ID: <59.1992Nov1.091431@AmeriCast.com>

Bush Spends Halloween in Wisconsin Trying to Scare Voters About
Clinton;President Sticks to Character Theme, Deflects Arms-for-
Hostages Issue<By John E. Yang=Washington Post Staff Writer=

OSHKOSH, Wis., Oct. 31 - Beginning the final drive to Election
Day, President Bush spent Halloween trying to scare voters about
a Bill Clinton presidency, declaring here that if his Democratic
opponent is elected, "every day will be like Halloween - fright
and terror . . . witches and devils everywhere."

As the president's train rumbled 279 miles north and then west
into the heart of Wisconsin on a chilly autumn day, campaign of-
ficials acknowledged that Bush's apparent momentum in public
opinion polls could be slowed by new charges that when he was
vice president he was more aware than he has acknowledged of
plans to sell arms to Iran in exchange for the release of hos-
tages.

Bush ignored the issue until his speech here, his third of the
day, when he angrily lashed out at Clinton for pressing the
matter in order, Bush said, to stop the Democrat's slide in the
polls. The Arkansas governor is "afraid for the power that he's
lusted for. . . . He's afraid it's going to slip away," he said.

At stop after stop under overcast skies, Bush hoarsely raced
through his stump speech, lurching from topic to topic like the
18 cars of his train. He began the day of red-brick depots,
fields of golden cornstalks and high school bands in Burlington,
Wis., where he said: "I'm elated that there's only three days
more to go."

Bush has distilled his message to its basic element: Clinton can-
not be trusted to be president.

"Close your eyes and imagine in a crisis situation an American
leader totally without experience, completely untested," he told
a large and responsive crowd on Main Street in Sussex, Wis. "A
leader about whom we know very, very little if you get down to
it, and what we do know is a troubling pattern of being on one
side and then another, an ingrained habit of trying to lead by
misleading and not coming clean."

So focused was he on the matter of character, that he slipped up
in his closing line, asking voters there: "Which character has
the charac - . . . which candidate has the character to merit the
trust of the American people?" People in the crowds and along the
tracks between stops held yellow and black signs saying, "America
Trusts Bush." A banner stretched over the Sussex street read,
"It's A Matter of Trust."

Bush sought to scare voters about what Clinton would do to the
economy by recalling the high interest rates and high inflation
during the last Democratic administration - that of President
Jimmy Carter. Bush played on the message of the Clinton campaign,
using his favorite epithet for Democratic vice presidential can-
didate Sen. Albert Gore Jr.  (Tenn.).

"All you hear from them is change, change," he said. "That is all
you'll have in your pockets if you put Clinton and 'Ozone' into
office." Bush also reminded his audiences of Clinton's avoidance
of military service during the Vietnam War, while never mention-
ing specifically the controversy itself. "I believe because I did
serve my country in war and did put on a uniform and do believe
in honor, duty and country that that makes me a better choice for
commander in chief of the armed forces," he said.

"We've now had the issue established as character and
trustworthiness," said Bush-Quayle campaign chairman Robert M.
Teeter. "The more people seriously think about Bill Clinton being
president, the better we do."

But there were reminders of Clinton's efforts to raise the ques-
tion of character against Bush over the disclosure of a memoran-
dum written by former defense secretary Caspar W.  Weinberger
that described Bush's support at a Jan. 7, 1986, White House
meeting for a Reagan adminstration plan to sell weapons to Iran
in exchange for the release of five hostages.

In Burlington, Bush's appearance was circled by an airplane tow-
ing a banner: "Iran Contra Haunts You!!" Across Echo Lake there a
small group of people held a sign that read: "George, Your Lie is
Open."

"The charges he makes are not new," Bush said in his Oshkosh
speech of Clinton's accusations. "I have responded to them re-
peatedly and under oath desperate attempt to stop his freefall in
the polls. . . . Being attacked on character by Governor Clinton
is like being called ugly by a frog - don't worry about it," he
said.

Bush has said he did not realize the Iran initiative amounted to
a swap of arms for hostages until December 1986, when he heard
the findings of a Senate intelligence committee inquiry into the
affair from its chairman, Sen. Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.).

Later, in Stevens Point, Bush called the new Iran-contra charges
a "Democratic witch hunt." He said that "the only way" Clitnon
can win is if he finds "a last-minute smoking gun. The guy is not
telling the truth about what happened. I am."

As Bush's train rolled through towns with such names as Mukwonago
and Waukesha, Rugby Junction and Lomira, people bundled in jack-
ets and parkas stood in back yards and farm fields for a glimpse
of the president. Many waved small American flags and held chil-
dren, some of them in Halloween costumes, by the hand.  Drivers
on an exit ramp from a busy highway pulled their vehicles to the
side to watch the train go by. In one small town, the spectators
and players at a school football game turned to wave.

While most of the signs displayed along the route supported Bush,
a handful backed Clinton: "Vote for Bozo" and "Bush is the Trick,
Clinton is the Treat."

In between taping interviews for local television news shows and
for MTV, the music video cable channel, Bush stood on the plat-
form of his luxurious observation car and waved. Often, the train
slowed and Bush was able to converse with the crowds using a pub-
lic address system he refers to as "Mr. Microphone."<02:56 11-
01C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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