SYMPOSIUM: What Now?…A Roundup of Advice for Bush - George W. Bush

By RICHARD BROOKHISER

ONE temptation in giving advice is to ask for conversions on issues; if the correct position is shared by most Americans, all the better. So will W. support medical marijuana or ending our immigration party (BYOC-bring your own cousins)? No way-so let it be. Another temptation is to give staff advice: Fire this one, hire that one. In the end, though, a candidate makes or breaks himself. Here then are my four points.

Stay on message. Your victory interviews Super Tuesday night hit tax cuts and education reform (vouchers and accountability). These are good ideas, popular ideas, and ideas Al Gore can't poach, since he is committed to "risky scheme" and the NEA. Keep it coming.

Stay home. Don't take foreign trips to show that you know where the Grecians live. Reporters will ambush you with questions ("How many nations share a border with Iceland?") and headline every mistake. Give a major speech on China-"My administration will defend Taiwan and our military secrets, and refuse illegal campaign contributions"-and Mexico- "We will continue to support trade and economic development" (so they won't all have to move here).

Keep busy. Austin is a nice place, but you'll carry Texas. Hit the trail, cowpoke.

Forget your name. When your father campaigned with you in New Hampshire, you choked so hard you needed a Heimlich maneuver. George H. W. Bush is indeed a good man. But you're a better politician, and you're different. Run your own race.

-Mr. Brookhiser is an NR senior editor.

By DANIEL CASSE

INTEGRITY. Honor. Character. These words should have no role in George W. Bush's campaign for president. Republicans have been unsuccessfully running "character" campaigns against Clinton for eight years. It is time to stop rewarding Democrats with such a predictable and easily defeated tactic.

Rather than talk about "restoring honor to the White House," Bush needs to argue vigorously that Gore's ideas are even more dangerous than his unbridled ambition. To do this requires not only a set of better ideas but also a penetrating critique of the Gore agenda. That critique has been conspicuous by its absence in the race thus far. Reminding voters of the Buddhist temple and "no controlling legal authority" is no substitute.

Bill Bradley learned this lesson the hard way. Intoxicated by his own integrity, he tried playing the character card in his bumbling, reticent way. Gore blasted back with a frightening vision of Bradley's voucherized school system and Medicare sold to the highest bidder.

John McCain's short-lived popularity was not a function of his indisputable character and integrity. He was popular because he took the longest, sharpest stick he could find and stuck it into the eye of every overbearing GOP pooh-bah in the country. But after the novelty of this act wore off, McCain, like President Bush and Sen. Dole before him, had nothing left to offer voters but his character. Bush needs to avoid this mistake and enter the fall campaign more heavily armed.

-Mr. Casse is a senior director of the White House Writers Group, a public policy communications firm.

By DAVID FRUM

1) Resurrect Rex Harrison for English-language-immersion lessons;

2) Place a phone call to the Saudis and Kuwaitis to remind them of their debt to the Bush family-and to gently hint that the time may have come for $45-a-barrel oil;

3) Hope like hell that Alan Greenspan does his duty by his party and raises interest rates at least a couple of points before Memorial Day.

-Mr. Frum's current book is The '70s-The Decade That Brought You Modern Life (For Better or Worse).

By DAVID GELERNTER

ELECTIONS are won when vague, ubiquitous knowledge crystallizes around the right words. Everyone knows that Clinton-Gore is a moral tragedy; Bush's job is to say so in the right way. Americans are sick of being told how happy we are. These messages are demeaning, because they assume that happiness can be measured by polls and bought for cash. Bush should ask: Is America a better place to rear your children today than eight years ago? But he can't be preacherly. He should start by quoting Omar Bradley: "I would not have us think less of ourselves than we should." Look around you, Bush needs to say; the business boom is great. But is this it? Are we satisfied? With public schools that embarrass us every day? A public culture we struggle to protect our children against? The armed forces as an institute for experimental feminonics? Americans pray that their sons won't take after the president, that their daughters keep far away from him and all his sleazeball type. Would Omar Bradley have been satisfied? Could you vote for more of this and still face yourself in the mirror?

Before talking about taxes, establish some premises. ("The budget is balanced because you've been sending in dumptruckloads of cash. This is YOUR MONEY, not Washington's!") Bush should be the technology man; Gore has nothing to offer. I assume McCain will be his running mate-a bookend to the left to keep him from slouching. Still: It all comes down to one big question. If Bush can diagnose America's moral condition in 20 words or less, he wins.