Ford: Trying to Reverse the Slide

"The press is caricaturing him as Bozo the Clown," one of Gerald Ford's wisest and most experienced advisers lamented last week. "The Democrats regard him as the devil incarnate, and Ronnie Reagan wants his job. The President is struggling against a tremendous complex of problems."

From the moment he announced his candidacy last July, Ford has often been his own worst enemy. He barnstormed the U.S. as though it were his old congressional district in Grand Rapids, and succeeded only in giving the impression of being a President on the run. To dramatize his grasp of foreign affairs, he flew to Peking and had a useful talk with Chairman Mao, only to draw yawns back home. To underscore his presidential decisiveness, he drastically reshuffled his Cabinet, managing only to project a picture of presidential disarray. Instead of appearing to be the man to beat, the natural stance of an incumbent President, Ford looked more and more like a man who could be beaten. In this precarious state, Ford last week prepared to deal with three politically explosive issues--taxes, energy and labor relations.

He got a draw on taxes. The problem was that Congress had to act in order to extend the 1975 tax cuts into 1976. Last October, Ford urged Congress to reduce taxes by $28 billion next year, but he also asked the legislators to agree to cut spending by the same amount. Without promising to reduce spending, Congress gave Ford a bill that would extend the 1975 tax cuts. Ford promptly vetoed the measure, which would have reduced taxes by $18 billion. The House then failed by 17 votes to override the veto. That left both Congress and the White House appearing to be against a tax cut, a difficult situation with an election year coming up. Congress whipped together a compromise that would continue the tax reductions while vaguely promising to try to control spending. Ford agreed to live with that rather fuzzy promise, and the prospect was that he would sign the compromise bill this week.

Good News. Ford also got tangled up with a compromise energy bill that would reduce the price of domestic crude by 12% and then allow it to rise gradually over the following 40 months. At least in the short run, that would be good news for Americans who own cars or oil burners. But it infuriated Reagan, the oil industry and the oil-producing states, which claimed that holding down the price of domestic oil would dry up capital needed for the risky business of drilling for new supplies. Ford was plainly damned if he vetoed the bill and damned if he didn't.

To top it all off, Ford was expected to repudiate a bill that Labor Secretary John Dunlop had eased through Congress. Part of the bill is favored by the AFL-CIO but is anathema to the right wing of the G.O.P.: it would allow a single local of craftsmen--for example, carpenters--to picket and thus close down an entire building project. The White House received more than half a million pieces of mail opposing the "common situs" picketing bill. Said one adviser to the President's campaign: "If he doesn't veto situs picketing, he's dead."

White House aides could not really explain why the political implications of the bill were not grasped long ago. "There wasn't much belief that the bill would ever get as far as it got," said one staffer. "And now there's a lot of late assessment of it."

Too little, too late. In part, the President has repeatedly been undermined by faulty staff work. He insists upon being surrounded by men he has known for years and trusts. Very often, however, a boon companion does not make a shrewd adviser.

Just how poorly Ford's campaign is organized became glaringly apparent at a meeting in Houston of G.O.P. Southern state chairmen. Panicked by a Gallup poll that showed Republicans favor Reagan over Ford, 40% to 32%, Campaign Chairman Howard H. ("Bo") Callaway gave a baffling performance at a press conference. He angered the Southern Republicans, many of them fond of Reagan, by saying that the Californian's "rhetoric is great, but his record is poor." But Callaway, a Georgian, also declared that the former Governor would be acceptable for the vice-presidential slot because he "has done some good things." White House aides were appalled. If Callaway continues to stumble, said one, "I don't think there'll be any reluctance on the part of the President to fire him. This is for all the marbles."

Campaign Buttons. To make mat ters worse, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller got in some thrusts of his own at the same meeting. After listening impatiently to the Southerners' gripes about G.O.P. prospects, Rocky angrily declared: "You got me out, you sons of bitches, now get off your ass."

While Ford struggled to get control of his presidency and the campaign, the polls continued to indicate how badly he has slipped. Last week a Harris poll showed that if Ford did manage to get nominated, he would be drubbed, 52-41, by a Democratic ticket headed by Senator Hubert Humphrey. Just two months earlier, Pollster Louis Harris had Ford leading Humphrey, 48% to 42%. Trying to do their bit to help out, Betty Ford's staffers have begun to wear big blue and white campaign buttons proclaiming "Betty's Husband for President in '76."

As he mulled over the campaign, one top Ford adviser said last week: "When things start falling apart, it's hard to put your finger on the reasons." The reason may be as much Ford's manner as his record. He is an enervating speaker and at times awkward in his movements. Impersonating the President, one nightclub comedian draws howls of laughter by simply walking straight into the microphone. But, except for some hasty judgments and decisions, Ford has managed to get a number of things done. Inflation is receding, if slowly; the economy is improving, if haltingly; some of his major appointments have been excellent; and he forced New York City to make necessary reforms. On balance, his performance has been better than his critics or the public would allow.

Looking ahead, former Defense Secretary Mel Laird and Rockefeller are urging Ford to use next month's State of the Union message to stake out an ambitious, four-year program covering such subjects as welfare reform, revenue sharing and a national health insurance plan. "The President has a lot of resources at his disposal," says one adviser, one resource being, of course, the power of the White House. "The question is whether he has the willingness and toughness to use them."

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