The Loyal Figure in the Wings Awaits His Call to the Stage

By Ed Magnuson

A trouper in '84, Bush sets his sights on '88

If the fateful moment should arrive, would George Herbert Walker Bush be ready? The question is not an idle one as American voters grant the oldest President in U.S. history his desire to spend another four years in one of the world's most demanding jobs. As a former Congressman, Ambassador to the U.N., head of the Republican National Committee, special envoy to China and director of the CIA, Bush had far more national and world affairs experience than Reagan when both entered the White House nearly four years ago. Since then Bush has been treading the thin line between obsequiousness and his own itch to take charge one day. Critics dismiss him as Reagan's lap dog; the boss calls him "the best Vice President ever."

Bush, 60, has been a loyal supporter of Reagan and his discreet adviser. The two men normally have lunch together every Thursday. To Bush's credit, the substance of these conversations has remained confidential. The President put him in charge of a task force to reduce governmental red tape, sent him off to calm NATO countries about the deployment of Pershing II and cruise missiles in Europe, and made him head of an interagency special-situation group. Bush has visited 59 countries and logged almost 550,000 miles on presidential assignments. He is the only member of the Administration, except for the U.S. Ambassador to Moscow, to have met with Soviet Leaders Yuri Andropov (at Leonid Brezhnev's funeral) and Konstantin Chernenko (at Andropov's). The best preparation for the vice presidency, he jokingly advised Geraldine Ferraro, was buying "a black hat with a veil."

Bush's finest moments may have come in the period after Reagan was shot. Taking charge of high-level meetings, he acted calmly and with sensitivity. He stayed away from the vacant Oval Office, and presided over the Cabinet from his own chair rather than that of the President. Said Chief of Staff James Baker at the time: "He is performing extremely well, filling in for the President without being brash or overly assertive."

Nonetheless, Bush's leadership abilities are still open to question. He has never won an election on his own outside Harris County, his congressional district in Texas. Twice he ran for the U.S. Senate and lost. Along the way, he got a reputation as a political chameleon. Running against Senator Ralph Yarborough in 1964, Bush described himself as a Goldwater Republican who opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the nuclear test-ban treaty. Two years later, he ran as a moderate to win a House seat from a conservative Democrat. With his Yankee background (Andover, Yale) and Establishment connections (son of a Connecticut Senator and former member of the Trilateral Commission), Bush was often seen as a Rockefeller Republican.

As Reagan's understudy, Bush has swung back to the right. "I'm a conservative," he says, "but I'm not a nut about it." During the campaign he was an indiscriminate cheerleader for his boss. As Bush said last week, "I am for Mr. Reagan--blindly." He became irritated whenever reporters suggested that he and Reagan were in disagreement. An effective fund raiser (since becoming Vice President, his personal and mail appeals have brought the G.O.P. some $42.6 million), Bush appeared in 32 states in the past two months.

He rose to his greatest challenge by doing well in his debate with Ferraro. "I was talking facts; she was talking emotion," he boasted afterward. Actually, Bush was far more keyed up than the normally voluble Ferraro, who adopted a measured, almost subdued tone. Bush nearly squandered his debate performance, however, by refusing to back away from his erroneous assertion that his Democratic opponents had said that American Marines killed by terrorists in Beirut had "died in shame." He was overheard claiming that he had "tried to kick a little ass" in the debate, then made light of the gaffe, apparently in the belief that it would add macho to his preppie image. All this led Columnist Joseph Kraft, who has admired Bush, to write, "Unless the real George stands up, the general impression will be of a foolish fellow unfit to be President."

Noting the way cartoonists have lampooned Bush because of his erratic and occasionally quarrelsome performance this year, one top Republican strategist declared, "Bush is in danger of becoming a national joke." While that seems too harsh, it is clear that Bush's presidential stock has dropped. Some G.O.P. pros partly blame his staff.

Bush will spend this second term accumulating political ious and setting himself up for a run at the presidency.* At some point he will have to step out of Reagan's shadow and reveal his true political colors. No one can be entirely sure what they are. Ron Kaufman, a Reagan-Bush campaign aide, unwittingly made this point when trying to explain how circumstance will have changed for Bush by 1988. Predicted Kaufman: "In his next campaign, the way Bush is viewed will be totally different and what he is saying will be different." Only then will Americans be able to judge how firmly George Bush would lead--and in what direction. --By EdMagnuson. Reported by Melissa Ludtke with Bush

*The last sitting Vice President to win the presidency was Martin Van Buren in 1836; the only two-term Vice President to do so was John Adams, who succeeded George Washington.

With reporting by Melissa Ludtke