Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 23, 1992 TAG: 9201240598
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
THE PRESIDENT
OUR PATRICIAN president likes to show solidarity with common folks. During his recent campaign swing through New Hampshire, one woman - complaining to Bush about the state's economy - recalled a country-western tune that goes, "I don't know if that's a light at the end of the tunnel or a train coming the other way."Bush ad-libbed a retort: "I would remind you of another country-western song by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. `If you're going to see a rainbow, you've got to stand a little rain.'" He was so pleased with himself that he used the line again. And again.
Until it came out: "Nitty Ditty Nitty Gritty Great Bird."
Even that silver-foot-in-the-mouth version was more indicative that the president is in touch with economic concerns than some of his other responses. To a question about extending unemployment benefits again, he answered: "If a frog had wings, he wouldn't hit his tail on the ground. Too hypothetical." Then there was the line he used to describe how "blessed" he feels to face the recessionary challenge: "Don't cry for me, Argentina."
Not that he isn't eager to show his worry. At a campaign stop in Exeter, he read from a script meant to instruct him in compassion. "Message: I care," he said. In Portsmouth, he revealed this: "I think I've known . . . this economy is in free fall. I hope I've known it. Maybe I haven't conveyed it as well as I should have, but I do understand it. I don't know what I have to do to convince people here that I really care about this. I do."
When Bush gives his State of the Union speech next week, let's hope he has his birds, frogs and ducks in a row - and is ready to lead this nation, not Argentina, in addressing the long-neglected accumulation of domestic problems. It's time, Mr. President, to get down to the nitty-gritty.