Before It's Too Late

By Hugh Sidey

The Presidency

It is always unwise for a President to get hypnotized by the world's complaints about the way he conducts business. Nudging a great nation into a new course pinches a lot of people. Likewise, the Chief Executive who reads the domestic polls every night for political guidance is apt to be paralyzed each morning. The leader who views every White House catfight as apocalyptic will be a nervous wreck in his first year. Ronald Reagan is not guilty on any count.

But a President who ignores those distant rumbles and internal mutterings and fails to take corrective action can find himself in peril. It is a delicate time for the Reagan presidency.

Those abroad and at home protesting the nuclear-arms race have a genuine concern. The Israeli anxiety following the U.S. decision to sell Saudi Arabia the AW ACS planes and support systems is real. The Soviets are not as familiar as American moviegoers with the charm and warmth of the man in the White House. Careless and casual talk about war is about their only measure.

If there is a corporate board member or main street merchant who still believes that Reagan's original concept of how to treat the economy can achieve the results desired, he wisely remains mute.

The economic indexes tell us that Reaganomics at this time, in this particular mix, is not the full answer.

The periodic eruptions of Secretary of State Alexander Haig against back-corridor White House grousing over his performance are, if nothing else, enervating and diverting. Budget Chief David Stockman's unusual excursion into journalistic confession raises a credibility cloud that may be no bigger than a man's hand but capable of yielding acid rain.

There probably is no danger, as some gleeful Democrats would have it, that Reagan last week consigned himself to being "a ten-month President." But there are memories of how small and not-so-small ineptitudes can accumulate, until one day the balance unexpectedly tips against a man. Lyndon Johnson through budget deficits and Viet Nam setbacks was forgiven a host of petty exaggerations, but he ultimately was standing in the credibility gap. Some vague suspicion about Jimmy Carter's competence hardened the day he embraced his troubled friend and Budget Director, Bert Lance. Carter's presidency was never quite the same after that.

The Reagan Administration talks too much. True, the pressure from the press has grown immensely in the past few years, but there is no law requiring compliance. There has been built-in competition between the Secretary of State and the National Security Adviser in the White House since the days of John Kennedy. That conflict needs to be resolved structurally so that there is a clear voice, an established authority. The substance of David Stockman's confessionals was hardly spectacular. Professional economic critics had predicted it. Amateurs had sensed it and Reagan just a fortnight ago finally admitted it. Beneath the disappointment and embarrassment, however, lurks opportunity. Few successful programs emerge as Presidents plan them. Reagan stands at a point of departure, offered the chance to build a new scheme on some solid budget and tax gains and discard some failed notions. A vital presidency is perpetual motion.

In the end it comes down to the man. No one else can assert his authority clearly, or sketch the vision, or compel loyalty or design a comfortable and efficient structure for him. Reagan alone must seize events and move ahead of them.

One of the toughest remarks made about the President came in September from Democrat Clark Clifford, who, believing he was speaking off the record in Averell Harriman's salon, said that Reagan would be seen to be an "amiable dunce." In this political town, that is now nothing more than wishful Democratic thinking and after-brandy prophecy. But it is planted darkly beneath the surface and will be exhumed by critics, whether fair or not, if Ronald Reagan does not steady his house.

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