1988 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION : Bush’s Differences With Reagan Appear to Be Relatively Few

One delegate called the difference between Vice President George Bush and President Reagan “one of style.”

Another said the two have “more similarities than differences.”

A Republican committeewoman complained of trouble building support for the vice president because people keep “seeing him as a shadow, a follower of Reagan.”

Despite Bush’s efforts to assert political independence by distancing himself from the President on a number of issues, some delegates on the floor of the Republican convention had trouble Tuesday spelling out just how it was that Bush is his own man. Bush himself said Reagan was a “giant” on whose shoulders he stood.

Stand Alone in the Limelight

As the convention bade farewell to Reagan and the President left New Orleans so his vice president could stand alone in the limelight, it became crucial for Bush to establish his own persona among the delegates and before the nation. To that end, he has differed with Reagan over the last several months on a number of issues.

He has disagreed with Administration policy to expand offshore oil drilling, called for better Soviet compliance with human rights accords before going to another summit, proposed an increase in education spending and tax breaks for child care and oil and gas exploration, favored ending Reagan’s negotiations with Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega and endorsed bars to discrimination against AIDS carriers, later rejected by Reagan.

But the differences are relatively few. Bush has expressed them piecemeal, sometimes amid assurances by his staff that he does not mean to criticize the President. And he has not been able to dramatize any of these differences in a memorable way. While differing, he has found it imperative not to offend any of the President’s ardent followers.

“I think it’s very important for Bush to establish his own image at this point,” declared Rep. Daniel E. Lungren of Long Beach, Calif. “I think he’s going to begin to do that with his speech on Thursday. . . .

“When he has discussed things with the President inside the Oval Office, he’s taken pains not to appear at odds. That’s a prescription for good government and good management. The difficulty is: How do you transition to be your own man? The first thing he has to do now is establish his own image.”

To some, Bush seems to have done this.

The vice president, said Rep. Bill Green, a member of the New York delegation, “is not a Ronald Reagan clone.” Green, clutching a goblet of orange juice in one hand and a collapsible umbrella in the other, said likenesses extend only to those areas that “motivate all we Republicans--support for entrepreneurship, belief that government is a last resort rather than a first resort.”

Sen. James A. McClure of Idaho, a strong conservative, saw something of a difference between Bush and Reagan attitudes toward the Soviet Union. Bush, he said, is tougher.

“Ronald Reagan has decided that the evil empire is headed by a very nice guy who’s a friend of his,” McClure said. “Bush is less strident, but more firmly rooted in anti-communism. Bush is no babe in the woods. I think he’s going to be more firm. I think he really does understand the nature of communism, its dangers and its opportunities.”

Another conservative, Rep. Henry J. Hyde of Illinois, thought he recognized this distinction: “Ronald Reagan is viscerally pro-life. . . . I think Bush has been converted on the abortion issue. He’s come a long way. He’s not Ronald Reagan, but he has come a long way.”

No Significant Contrast Seen

But a number of others on the convention floor were not so certain about any significant contrast between the two men. None mentioned any of the deliberate differences Bush has tried to establish.

“The difference is obviously one of style,” said Glenn Hop, an insurance agent from Hudsonville, Mich., who was attending his first convention. “Bush is perhaps more sensitive to domestic policies than Reagan, but the differences are minimal.”

Bill Cabaniss, chairman of the Alabama delegation, also cited differences of style, particularly in communication and management. Reagan, he said, is better at the former, and Bush would be better at the latter.

“I think Bush will maintain tighter control,” Cabaniss declared.

Administrative style was the principal difference cited by Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa, a compact man in a Navy blue suit and rep tie, wearing delegate medals and balancing a cup of coffee. Otherwise, Reagan and Bush are much alike, he said, in that “Bush is clearly a conservative.”

Cile P. Hicks, a Republican state representative from Wayland, Mass., said the President and vice president “certainly have more similarities than differences.” She wore a button claiming Bush as Massachusetts’ native son.

“I think of Ronald Reagan as being more old school,” she said. “Bush, I think, is more flexible, pragmatic in his approach.”

Otherwise “their philosophical approach is very similar.”

Miriam Annunziato, a Republican committeewoman from Long Island, said she had a very difficult time canvassing her neighborhood for Bush signatures. “I encountered a lot of people who didn’t like Bush.

“They called him a wimp,” she said. “They saw him as a non-forceful person who got lost in the crowd. They kept seeing him as a shadow, a follower of Reagan.”

Staff writers Claudia Luther, Sara Fritz, Elizabeth Mehren, Patt Morrison and Henry Weinstein contributed to this story.