Dukakis Presses Message: ‘He’s the Most Competent’

EVANSTON, Ill. —  With five weeks to go before America votes, Michael S. Dukakis is fighting the election on the grounds he set out at the beginning: competence.

In his speeches and in a series of advertisements that are now filling the airwaves, Dukakis is pressing a message that America is entering challenging times, for which he is prepared and Vice President George Bush is not.

Bush, he told an enthusiastically partisan audience at Northwestern University here Tuesday, has amassed “a record of failure and of walking away from every challenge he has faced.”

‘Mission Failed’

In one of the widest-ranging attacks yet on his opponent’s vaunted resume, Dukakis charged that the “mission failed” each time Bush received a major assignment.

Bush, he said, failed in trying to improve U.S. trade with Japan, in fighting international terrorism, in the war against drugs, in fixing the nation’s troubled banking system and in his efforts at regulatory reform.

“Mr. Bush was given five important missions by this Administration, and he failed every one,” Dukakis charged. “And that was before they asked him to pick a running mate in this election.”

That attack is designed to crystallize the central message that Dukakis has been trying to drive home to voters in recent weeks. The message has reversed his sharp slide of a month ago. Most polls show the race closer than it was in early September. Two of the most recent, a Los Angeles Times Poll published over the weekend and a CBS/New York Times poll released Tuesday, showed Dukakis in or near a dead heat with Bush.

May Not Be Enough

Many Democratic consultants, and some on Dukakis’ staff, however, doubt the current message is enough to go the extra step and put Dukakis over the top.

Polls do show that many voters are anxious about the nation’s future. But, the critics note, so far, the polls also show that the Democrats have not persuaded voters that Dukakis would be substantially better than Bush in meeting future problems.

To win, the critics suggest, Dukakis needs to make more of a personal appeal. Some favor a populist appeal to the sense that Bush favors the rich. Others suggest more of a Kennedy-style appeal to American altruism.

So far, however, Dukakis, who has built his political career around competence, is sticking with the theme that makes him comfortable, outlining specific positions on issues and talking about competence.

“Lloyd Bentsen and I are offering real solutions,” he said in Tuesday’s speech. Bush “offers slogans and symbols.” Bush, he said, “wants us to charge our future on a trillion-dollar credit card that our children are going to have to pay; I want us, my friends, to take charge of our future, to build the best America.”

‘No Dramatic Event’

Officially, Dukakis aides insist that the message will, in the end, get out. “There’s no dramatic event,” said Dukakis adviser Francis O’Brien, “that’s not the way it works.”

Instead, he and other Dukakis aides say, constant repetition of the same message will, in the end, persuade voters “incrementally” as they begin to focus more consistently on the election.

Dukakis’ aides are hoping that their series of anti-Bush advertisements will keep the theme in front of the voters.

The ads feature fictionalized scenes of Bush advisers talking about the campaign. Each one touches on an attack Bush has made on Dukakis’ record, portraying the attack as disingenuous and Bush as shallow.

“They’d like to sell you a package,” the closing slogan runs, “Wouldn’t you rather choose a President?”

The advertisements are designed to serve several purposes--denigrating Bush’s campaign, touting Dukakis’ record and inoculating Dukakis against further attacks. One ad, for example, mentions Bush’s attacks against the Massachusetts prison furlough program. Another talks about Boston Harbor, which Bush has tried to turn into a symbol to use to attack Dukakis on the environment.

The setting for Dukakis’ speech Tuesday was the announcement of a new council of leading business figures who have endorsed the Democratic candidate. Speaking to them, Dukakis stressed his belief that government must work in partnership with business and labor to solve the country’s ills.