Indiana Gazette from Indiana, Pennsylvania • 4

A-4 The Indiana, PA Gazette CfjATIONAp) Sunday, November 1, 1992 Bush faces trust test jH JOHN KING AP Political Writer WASHINGTON AP) For months, President Bush has worked to turn the campaign his way on a simple, fundamental question: "Who do you trust?" Now, as Election Day nears, the president is being put to the very test he hoped would topple Bill Clinton. "It was President Bush who tried to make trust the No. i issue, more important than the economy or change," says Duke University presidential scholar James David Barher. "It's a perfectly reasonable strategy, but as always, these things can backfire." Barber said. "If he wants to raise questions about trust, he should be prepared to answer them." At issue is the president's account of his role in the Reagan administration's decision to swap arms for hostages with Iran.

When the subject came up in 1938, then-Vice President Bush said he was "not in the loop" and didn't know some of Reagan's top aides were vehemently opposed to the swap. Now, that account appears at odds with some new material on the subject. First came a memo revealing the disbelief of former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger when he read Bush's "not in the loop" remarks. Then on Friday, in a second indictment of Weinberger for his role in the scandal, special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh made public a note in which Weinberger wrote that Bush was at the table when he and then-Secretary of State George Shultz voiced their objections. "George Shultz I opposed Bill Casey, Ed Meese VP favored as did Poindexter," said Weinberger's note.

That appears to contradict the account Bush gave The Washington Post in 1987: "If I'd have sat there and heard George Shultz and Cap express it (opposition) strongly, maybe I would have had a stronger view. But when you don't know something, it's hard to react. We were not in the loop." After the new indictment on Friday, the president changed his story a bit. "I did know of the objections," Bush said Friday for the first time, adding, "but I didn't know how strongly." The subject dominated much of a Larry King interview show with Bush on Friday night and put Bush in an unusual position, because in virtually every speech, Bush lays out a trust test: "You've got to tell the truth if you want to be president of the United States." Even first lady Barbara Bush has sounded the theme, saying the first rule of parenting is urging children to "tell the truth be honest." Both lines are aimed clearly at Clinton. Bush says that the Arkansas governor hasn't told the truth about his maneuverings to avoid the Vietnam draft, or about where he would raise taxes to pay for his programs, or about his record in Arkansas.

There was no chance that questions of Clinton's trustworthiness would disappear before Election Day. Bush stressed the theme as he campaigned by train across Wisconsin, and the Washington Times published a story Saturday saying Clinton's University of Arkansas ROTC file disappeared in 1974, and quoted former program workers as saying that friends of Clinton asked for the files and that they were forced to hand them over. The Clinton's campaign called the accusation "hogwash." More generally, Clinton's retort on the question of trust has been to say that he has told the truth, and that the president who broke his "Read my Lips" tax pledge and promise to create 30 million jobs can't be trusted himself. The campaign will end with both camps on the attack on the subject. Republican Senate leader Bob Dole on Saturday called the new arms-for-hostages material "politically inspired, probably motivated by the Clinton-Gore team liberals, Lawrence Walsh and others, to nail the president." A LIFT FROM THE CANDIDATE Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton lifts 7-month-old Alexandra Jonker from Achworth, as he works the crowd during a campaign rally Saturday at Decatur High School in Decatur, Ga.

Ronald Reagan campaigned in another section of suburban Atlanta at an almost simultaneous rally for George Bush. (AP Leaf Photo) Early key moments in PIVOT pOintS drive for White House By WALTER R. MEARS 1 wJ -s 10 AP Special Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) At the time, it seemed no more than an adroit way out of a political trap. But when Bill Clinton succeeded in casting himself as "the comeback kid" instead of a loser right at the start, it was a crucial stride in his unlikely march to the lead for the White House. For President Bush, the judgments that haunted a beleaguered campaign for a second term began before Clinton was running to take advantage of them, none more critical than the decision not to attempt to spark the faltering economy in relatively narrow victory had crippled Sen.

Edmund S. Muskie in the Democratic campaign of 1972. Clinton survived the setback, initially because he made defeat look successful, later because he was organized and financed to keep going, and his rivals were not. At the same time. Bush was paying political dues for the administration's misreading and inaction on the economic slowdown.

The economy had slipped to recession in July 1990. but the Persian Gulf crisis and war overrode the problem and Bush's poll standings soared despite the slump at home. Technically, the recession ended in the spring of 1991 and the economy began to grow, but so sluggishly that most voters didn't notice. "I maintain we've been growing for six straight quarters, and most people think we're in a deep recession." Bush lamented in the final days of his campaign. But he'd already acknowledged that it didn't make any difference to an unemployed worker.

He got a boost one week before the election when the government reported a bigger than expected 2.7 increase in the economy, evidence, the president said, of the resurgence he'd been forecasting. But it still left him trying to convince voters that they were better off than they thought. Bush had tried to talk the economy up, to restore confidence when it was sagging, but he began acknowledging about a year ago that it wasn't rebounding as he wanted, and that people were hurting. But Bush chose not to push a 1991 economic revival plan. Then, when he got to New Hampshire to start his own campaign, he conceded that the economy was in free fall there, and promised a program to deal with it.

Kg 1991 witn tax cuts and jobs spending. Amid all the words, the positioning, the debating, the spending, the ads, the protests, the road shows and the TV snows, those were among the pivot points in the struggle for the While House. In large part, they shaped the competition before the final, fall drive for the votes Americans will cast on Tuesday, choosing among Bush, Clinton and the increasingly wild wild card. Ross Perot. As Clinton's strategists see it now, his "comeback" claim in dealing with a New Hampshire primary defeat that wasn't even close was a defining moment in his journey from SI'S ittWW- Groups, unions pour millions into politics POINTING THE WAY President Bush gets the crowd going as he makes his address from the back of The Spirit of America in Sussex, Saturday as his whistle stop tour continued through Wisconsin.

(AP Leaf Photo) lalten tronl-runner to the Democratic nomination. It proved the skills of the survivor. and he needed them all spring. Once the leader, he'd fallen in the polls after the (Jennifer Flowers affair allegations, and the controversy about his draft avoidance during the Vietnam War. Former Massachusetts Sen.

Paul Tsongas By JOHN SOLOMON Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON i API A multimillion-dollar political war is being waged this year by interests far from the established campaigns and parties. It includes unions mobilizing workers for phone banks, cash-heavy groups airing ads nationwide, even a car dealer spending $45,000 to urge Dan Quayle to resign. There's no limit to what can be spent, just a single rule the efforts can't be coordinated in any way with the candidates they're designed to help. The help can be large or small. For example, the American Medical Association spent S3.19.000 in just nine days this month urging support for Sen.

Robert Pack wood. and four other candidates for Congress. At the other end of the scale. for won the primary, by an 8 percentage-point margin when all the votes were counted. But before Tsongas could claim the victory, when incomplete returns gave the impression it was a close race.

Clinton got the first word, the comeback claim suggested by adviser Paul Begala. II stuck. Defeat in New Hampshire had undone Sen. Bob Dole as a Republican candidate in 1988: a SOLID CHERRY From PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE Entire Cherry Collection the National Association of Social Workers spent just $1,000 to buy 'Social Workers for Braun" buttons supporting Illinois Senate Candidate Carol Moseley Braun. "It is a real wild card of the elections." said Larry Makinson, an analyst with the Center for Responsive Politics which monitors campaign spending.

"It's being done right down to the last minute." And there are no bounds for what is fair game. Independent ads have used alleged tapes of conversations between Bill Clinton and Gennifcr Flowers as well as President Bush's broken "rcad-my-lips" promise. The law allows groups to conduct (wo types of political activities provided they register with the government and report their exact expenditures to the Federal Election Commission. The first type is known as "independent expenditure" in which groups run ads. send out mass mailings and lobby voters via phone banks urging (he support or defeat of candidates.

These are most popular with special interest groups from the National Realtors Association to organizations on both sides of the abortion issue. The latter have been fighting it out over the airwaves in congressional races in Michigan, Massachusetts. Florida and Georgia. The second type of activity is called "independent communications" a favorite of labor unions such as the AFL-CIO, Teamsters and United Auto Workers, which are spending several million dollars in all to lobby their members to vote fnr specific candidates, particularly Democrat Bill Clinton. But the expenditures the unions formally report to the FEC give only a glimpse at their true impact.

That's because after reaching their members via phone banks, leaflets and slate cards they try to organize an army of free volunteers to work phone banks for candidates supported by labor. "Our volunteer effort really dwarfs the money we spend. And how do you quantify that? You can't." said Rex Hardesty, the AFL-CIO'S director of information. In congressional races, some groups try to augment the donations of their political action committees by jumping in with last-minute ad campaigns or mass mailings to boost selected candidates. The NRA.

the National Realtors Association, and the AMA all had more than $1 million in independent expenditures four years ago and were on pace through mid-October to spend that or more again this election. Till Nov. 14, 1992 SPECIAL ORDERS ALSO It's something that will look as good to you in the years to come as the day you elected (D fo buy it! PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE Thomasville GalletY llaPiCouiitrv Manor fROUTE 422 2 MILES WEST OF INDIANA PHONE 349-1 720 9-5; Frt. 9-9; Sat. 9-5 ALL EARS Ross Perot shares laugh with 1 2-yeor-old supporter Kevin Grace of Port Richey, following rally in Tampa Saturday.

Perot waved Grace onto the stage after spotting the large fake ears Grace was Wearin9' (AP Leaf Photo) i 3 willllilllllH 111.