GOP voters offer Bush advice, support

Patricia Edmonds

08/21/1992

USA Today

FINAL

Page 06A

The falling balloons, the banners, the orbiting Republican stars: Amid all the

excitement packed into the Houston Astrodome, what voter wouldn't pledge

all-out support to President George Bush?

But when TV viewers glimpsed the GOP convention from afar this week,

sometimes the spell seemed less potent - and even Republicans couldn't resist

playing campaign manager from their living rooms.

Some voters, applauding the convention's big final finish, turned off their TVs

Thursday night convinced that the president earned the ``big bounce'' in public

opinion he needs to win in November.

But some other registered, longtime Republicans offered more qualified support -

and plenty of advice. They said they'll vote for George Bush in November, but

they still want his campaign to shape up to show him as more than what some

dubbed ``the lesser of two evils.''

Some voters - party notwithstanding - just seemed ready to tune out this

convention in disillusionment. The recession and the GOP's 12-year White House

record, some said, are nothing to party about.

Still others complained Houston didn't look like their party - too white, too right

or too self-righteous.

In the final vote in Houston, delegates chose Bush by acclamation. But in front

of their TV sets, some voters still grumbled.

Rock Falls, Ill.

Democrats `think different'

Ask Marjorie Stewart how Republican she is, and she answers, ``Very.'' This fact

has sparked its share of arguments with her boyfriend of six years, John Martin -

a Democrat.

Martin's kind once were scarce in staunchly Republican towns such as Rock

Falls, and Dixon - Ronald Reagan's birthplace, 14 miles away. But the area's

becoming more Democratic, says Rob Kinnicutt, bartender at the Rock Falls

Corner Tap: ``With the economy the way it is, there's a fair number of new

Democrats, if you know what I mean.''

As a breed, ``Democrats aren't bad,'' says Stewart, 68. ``They just think

different.''

Martin, 66, says wryly that Stewart ``has a free mind. She can think what she

wants.''

What does Stewart think? This week, she thinks her party's convention speakers

should have told her more ``what the Republicans and Bush are going to do, not

what the other fella did wrong.``

When the president took the podium Thursday night, Stewart was finally

satisfied:

``He did tell us we were worth something. Everybody is so negative about

America, but he said to remember what is good about yourself. America is big

and strong and worth fighting for,'' said Stewart.

Miami

GOP is `all white and rich'

In this sun-washed city are thousands of Cuban-Americans who'll vote

enthusiastically for George Bush in November.

At the Surfside Barber Shop - an old-fashioned spot where men still can get a

straight-razor shave - the political chatter is mostly en espanol and pro-GOP.

Barber Rigo Perez, who moved here from Havana in 1962, says that ``ever since

I escaped from Castro, I've voted Republican. The left side of politics is why I

had to leave'' Cuba. ``The Democrats are soft on communism and I'm dead

against that,'' says Perez, 51.

Perez wishes Bush would ``come through on his plan to improve the economy.

... And I do think abortion should be a woman's choice.''

Perez and his family sat down for the full convention production and enjoyed it,

he says, even though ``when I look at the Republicans on TV I know they're not

like me. They're all white and rich.''

Bush talked about visiting liberated Cuba. ``That was important to me,'' said

Perez. ``I don't think he meant he would invade, but he believed Castro will be

gone within a year and I look forward to that.''

Another Miami Republican, Bernard Strauss, says he'll vote for Clinton because

``I voted for Bush in '88 and he really let me down. He let Brad down.''

Brad was Strauss' son, a hemophiliac who contracted the AIDS virus from a

transfusion in 1983 and died in January at age 19.

Strauss watched Wednesday night as Mary Fisher, a Republican mother who has

the AIDS virus, begged the GOP to treat AIDS with more urgency and

compassion. Unfortunately, Strauss says, ``She said nothing to assure me that a

new Bush administration would be any more caring.

``I intend to punish Bush at the ballot box,'' says Strauss, 49, vice president for

investments at Dean Witter Reynolds in Coral Gables.

``It's the only way that I can show him how much his carelessness has hurt me.''

Nashua, N.H.

Focus on U.S., not attacks

They watched the Reagan-era boom turn into a Bush-era bust for local computer

companies and defense contractors. They're weary of the recession. They flirted

with Pat Buchanan, giving him 37% of the state's presidential primary votes.

Still, most folks in this rock-solid Republican town plan to vote for George Bush.

Most want Bush and the GOP to show more fire about domestic problems. Some

also want less vitriol heaped on Democrats.

Many Republicans here are watching the convention enthusiastically. Nashua

insurance agent Peter McArdle, 52, watched three hours a night. He says Bush

has ``done an outstanding job on foreign issues,'' but not enough on the U.S.

economy.

But McArdle thought Bush did a good job with his speech. ``He made it clear

that he intends to go to war with Congress, that he'll be a stronger president

who'll make sure that government gets smaller and that people keep a little more

money in their pocketbooks.''

Joan Santos seconds that - for both parties. ``I don't like the way they're

slandering each other ... bringing up personal things that don't have anything to

do with the election,'' says the real estate agent.

But Santos, 42, vows to vote for Bush - ``He's done a good job up to this point'' -

and tuned in the convention every night.

Fortunately, there's more than one TV in Santos' home. Daughter Robin, 18, said

she'd switch channels or rent a video rather than watch even minutes of the

Republicans.

``I have no interest in George Bush,'' says college student Robin, a first- time

voter this year. ``The country's been in terrible shape for the past four years. So

I'm already sick of anything he has to say.''

But Robin did watch part of the speech, and she was - as she expected -

disappointed. ``He's talked a lot about the Democratic Congress making all the

mistakes, but he didn't offer much in the way of new programs himself.''

Atlanta

GOP has no `use for' blacks

In this homeplace of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., most black voters

dismissed the convening Republicans - just like they say Republicans have

ignored blacks for the past dozen years.

(Of the more than 2,200 convention delegates, more than 1,800 were white, 83

black, 73 Hispanic, and 24 Asian. About 900 were women.)

Registered Republican Marilyn Sims says she decided against ``wasting my time''

on the convention. Today's GOP ``is for the rich man and not the hard- working

middle class - it is a white-male-dominated, rich party,'' says Sims, 42, a

psychotherapist from Buffalo who was helping daughter Melissa enroll at

Spelman College here.

Sims was disappointed with Bush's speech. She didn't like what he had to say

about health care and the deficit. ``No chance'' she'll vote for him, she said. Bush

``had nothing to say that would help the unemployed, the middle class and

minorities.''

The Rev. L.F. Berry says he watched some of the convention as he would

``cartoons'' - tuning in, laughing for a bit, finding Ronald Reagan ``somewhat

amusing.''

But the 47-year-old evangelist says, ``The majority of people around here don't

have any use for the Republican Party because they don't have any use for us.''

Berry was one of many black voters mixing lunch and politics at Paschal's

Restaurant, an Atlanta institution where King and his comrades plotted strategy

during the heyday of the civil rights movement.

W.K. Muhammad, an elementary school teacher grabbing a quick bite to eat at

the lunch counter, was rare among black Atlanta voters interviewed: He spoke

well of Bush.

``I'm leaning toward Bush now because he seems to be the stronger leader,'' says

Muhammad, 44. He doesn't hear the Republicans saying anything new that

excites him - but he thinks they have ``a jump on the Democrats'' in the morality

department, and the steady governing hand the nation needs now.

Computer consultant Ralph Wright, 44, voted for Reagan in 1984 and Bush in

1988, but says that won't happen again. He says blacks who have voted

Republican ``are going to wake up and realize that Ronald Reagan did a great job

of sugarcoating everything,'' in his two terms as well as in his Monday night

speech.

Los Angeles

Bush didn't help us rebuild

David Kim owned a pharmacy on Vermont Avenue, in a slice of this city called

Koreatown.

In April, rioters burned it down.

Two months and $200,000 later, Kim opened a new pharmacy across the street.

``Bush talked a lot but he didn't help us rebuild here,'' says Kim, 54. ``Bush

didn't come through for me when I needed him.

``But I'll give him one more chance,'' says Republican Kim, by voting to re-elect

him in November.

Kim contends that his fellow Korean-Americans will support Bush for much the

same reasons he does: A sense that Bush is a time-tested politician, a friend of

free enterprise and a foe of communism.

``I expect Bush to tackle the hard domestic problems, drugs, health care,

education,'' says Kim. ``We need change - but the man with the experience will

be able to make those changes.''

Bush's speech fulfilled those expectations for Kim. ``I though the speech was

very good,'' Kim said. ``He hit on all the main points, education in schools and

jobs.''

Down the street at the Yoon family's automobile seat cover shop, Dave Yoon,

23, also complained that ``Bush promised to help us after the riots and he didn't

do anything for us. But that's OK - he's a politician.''

Yoon says he's a Republican, and doesn't like Clinton ``at all.'' So his choice, if

unenthusiastic, is clear:

``I'm not going to fight for Bush. But I will vote for him.''

Denver

Friends' difference of opinion

At a suburban watering hole called H Brinker's, three thirty-something friends

shared beers and commentary on the Houston pageant filling the bar TV screen.

The women, Democrats, were disbelievers, rapped the GOP on everything. The

man, Republican, a true believer, wallowed in the spectacle.

``I cleaned the toilet'' rather than watch one night's coverage, sniped Cindy

McWilliams. About all she did enjoy, McWilliams said, was Barbara Bush's

speech: ``I'm not saying I'll vote for her wimpy husband, but this woman is

dynamite.''

Jean Lowry dismissed Mrs. Bush's bow as ``a marketing ploy.''

Lonnie Brock, dauntless Bush fan, brushed off the slams. He loved this

convention: ``I rented Wayne's World and I got more laughs with Reagan and

Buchanan.''

Contributing: Kevin Johnson, John Larrabee, Jonathan T. Lovitt , Jana Mazanec,

Ron Prichard and Tom Watson

CUTLINE:IN ROCK FALLS, ILL.: Democrat John Martin and Republican

Marjorie Stewart trade jabs. Stewart says the convention should have focused on

`what the Republicans and Bush are going to do, not what the other fella did

wrong.' CUTLINE:IN LOS ANGELES: David Kim, who owned a pharmacy that

burned during the riots, says he'll give Bush `one more chance.' CUTLINE:IN

MIAMI: Barber Rigo Perez, who left Cuba in 1962, says `the Democrats are soft

on communism and I'm dead against that.' CUTLINE:IN ATLANTA: Visiting

from Buffalo, Republican Marilyn Sims says today's GOP `is for the rich man

and not the hard-working middle class.' CUTLINE:IN NASHUA, N.H.: Real

estate agent Joan Santos, left, says Bush has done `a good job up to this point.'

Daughter Robin, a college student, says the country `has been in terrible shape

for the past four years.'

PHOTO;b/w,Cheri Conklen;PHOTO;b/w,Kevork

Djansezian,AP;PHOTO;b/w,Jeffrey Boan,AP;PHOTO;b/w,W.

Harewood,AP;PHOTO;b/w,Marcia Curtis,AP