The Country-Club Image

Why, in a time of economic crisis, would White House press boss Marlin Fitzwater allow a TV crew anywhere near Bush when he's in a golf cart or casting for fish? The answer, we hear, is that Bush was so contemptuous of Ronald Reagan's daily TV spots for the networks he won't let his spokesman program the White House press corps in any way.

Bush's sense of what's proper in his daily dealing with the networks is worthy as a standard, but it hasn't helped him establish rapport with that vast segment of the electorate who still see a "country-club Republican" unsympathetic to their problems.

It's a perception shared even by many of his supporters, who see in Bush the typical "Eastern establishment" Republican who views his role on the domestic scene as that of administrator, not leader; a man of consensus, not of action.

Bush's failure to reach out to the frightened middle class in an election year gave Bill Clinton the opening he needed. Governor Clinton's camp isn't as fastidious as Bush's. At their New York convention, Clinton and his running mate, Sen. Al Gore, aimed for a restless middle class when they took a cue from TV talk shows by sharing some intimate details of their lives - a young Clinton standing up to a stepfather with a serious drinking problem, Gore kneeling over a son's seemingly lifeless body after th e boy had been hit by a car. It was TV with the emotional tug middle-class viewers expect these days. Bush wouldn't be comfortable with that sort of thing.

Clinton's rebuke of the Rev. Jesse Jackson for inviting Sister Souljah into his Rainbow Coalition gave him a strong preconvention jump in the polls. His success in connecting with the broad-based middle class in his acceptance speech sent him out of the Democratic convention with a big lead.

Can Bush, a proper product of Eastern prep schools, find a way to turn it around, to convince a broad spectrum of middle-class voters that he, too, knows what trouble is like? Can he convince them he knows how to help them and will act if they'll pull together, reelect him, and give him a Republican Congress to help him out? It's the ultimate challenge for any campaign manager, Jim Baker included.

The wishful thinking in GOP circles goes like this: Mr. Baker returns, brings media whiz Roger Ailes with him, and, in quick succession, this winning pair exploits the weaknesses of Clinton and Gore, makes the Democratic-controlled Congress the real issue, renews the Republican "lock" on the Electoral College, and gives Bush four more years.

That scenario has one basic flaw. It's one of those "top down" solutions GOP consultants like so well, in a year when "top down" doesn't have the right feel.

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