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Subject: Chants of 'Quayle '96' Echo At Party for Vice President<By Michael
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 92 04:54:43 EST
Message-ID: <5.1992Nov4.045444@AmeriCast.com>

Chants of 'Quayle '96' Echo At Party for Vice President<By Micha-
el Abramowitz=Washington Post Staff Writer=

INDIANAPOLIS, Nov. 3 - Vice President Quayle returned to his home
town and political base, predicting that Indiana would early on
be put in the column supporting President Bush and himself for
reelection.

Quayle was right, Indiana went for the Bush-Quayle ticket. But
the polls that predicted a clear national victory by Democratic
nominee Bill Clinton, which Bush and Quayle so often scoffed at,
proved accurate as well.

The mood was akin to an Irish wake at the Quayle party at the
Hilton Hotel in downtown Indianapolis, as supporters danced and
chanted "Quayle '96," and state after state entered the Democrat-
ic column. "Nobody's crying," said Mitch Daniels, a drug company
executive and former White House political director. "Most people
saw it coming."

Daniels, who is an informal adviser to Quayle, said the vice
president feels "he held up his end. He does feel he had a suc-
cessful campaign, and I agree with that. When you've done all you
can do, you can take some peace from that."

However, Daniels said he hopes Quayle takes some time off from
politics and goes into the private sector, possibly in a leader-
ship position. One idea that's been floated, he said, is for
Quayle to join the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank
here.

Earlier, as reports from exit polls began to trickle in today,
an air of resigned expectancy grew among Quayle aides and staff.
A senior Quayle aide told reporters that the vice president had
been expecting the worst since late last week, when Iran-contra
special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh offered new evidence contrad-
icting President's Bush's insistence that he did not support the
secret arms sales to Iran.

As recently as last Thursday, the aide said, Quayle saw the elec-
tion as winnable, with the GOP assaults on the Democrat's charac-
ter "really cutting against Clinton." But the new Iran-contra
disclosures undercut those attacks and "blunted all our momen-
tum," the aide said.

Quayle aides also argued that the vice president had acquitted
himself well in the general election campaign, particularly in
his debate with Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Albert
Gore Jr. (Tenn.) and independent Ross Perot's running mate, James
B. Stockdale. In the words of one assistant, Quayle will remain a
"major figure in the Republican Party." Aides said the issues em-
phasized by Quayle - term limits, school "choice" and legal re-
form - were those that resonated most strongly with voters. And
although they didn't criticize Bush aides such as White House
Chief of Staff James A. Baker III by name, they made clear their
belief that had the GOP gone with a more aggressive "conservative
reform" strategy symbolized by these issues - instead of relying
on stature and incumbency - the outcome might have been dif-
ferent.

The senior Quayle aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
the Republican ticket was hurt badly because of its failure to
move more aggressively to present an economic growth package
after the Persian Gulf War, when the president's approval ratings
skyrocketed. The popular mood was for an engagement on economic
issues, he said, but the White House didn't respond.  "It was a
pretty fundamental misjudgment, and we're paying the price for
it, fairly or unfairly," the Quayle official said. "(The Demo-
crats) ran a good campaign. They succeeded in portraying us us as
defenders of the status quo, and people wanted change."<

Speculation has been rife here about what Quayle might do if Bush
were to lose today's election, from seeking the chairmanship of
the GOP to taking a job with his family's newspaper chain. But
his aides have turned away any questions about such matters until
after the election.  It would be difficult for Quayle to run for
president in 1996, Daniels said tonight. "I think he ought to
take a lot of time and reflect on (his plans)," Daniels said.
"He's a young man. I think he handled himself well this year, but
my own sense is that he ought to examine some options out of pol-
itics." "He has a lot of years left, and he could possibly
reenter with a different or larger identity," Daniels added.
"It's hard to come off of this four years and off this election,
and move in a straight line. . . . I think he has to take a zig-
zag course."

Asked by an Indianapolis television reporter Monday whether he
plans to run for president in 1996, Quayle replied, "Let's get
through 1992 first. I'm still relatively young. I'm 45. I've
loved public service . . . I can't say yes or no tonight."<02:07
11-04C9999-----

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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