The Michigan Daily - Sunday, October 7, 1984 - Page 5
Expert offers debating tips to Reagan,Mondale
NEW YORK (AP) - Walter Mondale
has to come out fighting, but not too
aggressively. President Reagan has to
appear above the battle, but not too
distantly.
These are the observations of Jack
Hilton, a corporate television con-
sultant who worked in the presidential
campaigns of John Kennedy, Lyndon
Johnson and Gerald Ford, as well as in
hundreds of congressional, state, and
municipal races for candidates of both
major parties.
SINCE MOVING from advertising to
the TV consulting business in 1975,
Hilton has advised 320 of the Fortune
500 corporations on how best to utilize
television. His clients have included
Mobil, Ford Motor Co., General Elec-
tric, ABC, and CBS.
Hilton has not done consulting for
Reagan or Mondale, but in an interview
with The Associated Press he en-
thusiastically offered free advice to
both camps before the candidates'
presidential debate in Louisville, Ky.
The debate will be televised by ABC,
CBS, and NBC tonight. The second
presidential debate is scheduled for
Oct. 21 in Kansas City, Mo.
HILTON ACCEPTS the conventional
wisdom that the debates probably won't.
help Reagan. "This incumbent in par-
ticular has nothing to gain and poten-
tially a lot to lose," he said.
With the Democratic ticket far
behind in the polls, most political ex-
perts consider the two presidential
debates and the vice presidential
debate Oct. 11 as Mondale's main hope
to stem the Reagan tide.
"It's a paradox for Fritz Mondale,"
said Hilton. "On the good side of the
equation, he'll be seen on Sunday night
by an estimated 100 million people on
the same platform and as a seeming
equal to the president of the United
States. That's by far the best forum he's
had.
"BUT THE bad side," he added, "is
the predicament that the challenger
must be the aggressor. Our populace
seems to have a low tolerance for
prosecutors, especially against a
popular president. If he attacks too
stridently, it could be counterproduc-
tive."
Hilton recalled that in 1976, vice
presidential candidate Robert Dole was
''sarcastic and savage" in attacking
vice presidential candidate Mondale in
their debate, and it hurt the
Republicans.
Hilton's advice to Mondale is to at-
tack "in- the third person," saying
things like "they're insensitive" to the
problems of the poor. "I would raise
issues hypothetically and state con-
clusions or differences with past
policies and make every effort not to
get personal."
FOR HIS PART, Reagan should
"ignore Mondale and the focus on the
questioner and the audience at home,
which is what he did in 1980," stridently
said Hilton.
But for a president who has been
characterized by his critics as asleep at
the controls, Reagan also must convey
the image of a forceful, well-informed
leader.
"I don't think he can just hold the
lead," said Hilton. "He has to demon-
strate a mastery over his ad-
ministration and statements. He has to
demonstrate a knowledge and
familiarity and a control over his
programs and cabinet departments and
foreign policy."
AND AT all costs, he has to avoid a
gaffe. "The history of debates shows
that you recall more momentously the
gaffes than the triumphs," said Hilton.
In 1976, Ford blundered by saying
Eastern Europe was not under the
domination of the Soviets.
"They're looking for trouble when
they start to ad-lib in public, which is
something that we advise politicians
never to do, especially in a forum this
important," said Hilton.
"IF HE (Reagan) goes a capella too
often with remarks like equating the
catastrophe in Beirut with remodeling
a kitchen, or that he's declaring the
Russians illegal and will start the bom-
bing in five minutes, he's in for an ex.
tended rest at the ranch in late January
of 1985."
Today's debate format, in which the
same questions are asked of each can-
didate with little chance for direct con-
frontation, would seem to quash spon-
taneity. So does the cautiousness of the
two men. The candidates' responses,
Hilton suggested, will be their basic
stump speeches "chopped up into mor-
sels."
Mondale
... faces campaign paradox
Reagan
... needs to appear strong
------ --------
Prime-time debate will highlight candidates' domestic positions
" ~ I~ , iuup~ wiuu ia-
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WASHINGTON (AP) - President
D Reagan says Walter Mondale wants to
tax Americans "from here to eternity."
Mondale accuses Reagan of "icy indif-
ference to human needs."
Their differences on the domestic
front - from taxes to farm policy to
social programs - will be aired in
prime-time tonight in the first of two
nationally televised presidential cam-
paign debates.
LIKE THE campaign as a whole, this
first 90-minute debate may be
dominated as much by the personalities
of the two men as by their ideological
differences.
The debate agenda covers only
domestic policy. Foreign affairs will be
discussed in the second debate Oct. 21.
But the candidates may not be able to
avoid the subject of military spending
in their first go-round because of its
huge impact on the budget.
Reagan wants to continue his
program to "rearm America" to bring
the Soviet Union to the bargaining
-table. Mondale says he would slow the
growth of the Pentagon budget while
pressing for arms controls.
Mondale has said he would raise
taxes to deal with budget deficits;
Reagan says he is against any tax in-
crease except as a last resort; many
economists in both parties think some
kind of increase will be necessary
regardless of which candidate is elec-
ted.
. Here is a summary of the candidates'
view on key domestic issues:
EDUCATION
REAGAN favors discretionary block
grants to states and communities,
reserving federal funds for the disad-
vantaged and handicapped. He backs
merit pay and competency testing for
teachers. In a chapter in a book
published by the conservative Free
Congress Research and Education
Foundation, he called for "good, old-
fashioned discipline" and a return to
the basics, saying schools should teach
"the basic moral values on which
America was built."
MONDALE says he would consider
merit pay, but opposes Reagan's
proposal for tuition tax credits. He
favors more federal funds to improve
schools and says he would advocate
more support for minority and needy
children. In his acceptance speech, he
said, "We will launch a renaissance in
education, in science and learning ...
Parents must turn off that television;
students must do their homework;
teachers must teach, and America
compete."
TAXES
MONDALE made taxes a major
campaign issue in his acceptance
speech AT THE Democratic National
Convention, saying, " Mr. Reagan will.
*raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell
you. I just did."
On Sept. 10, the former vice president
unveiled a plan to raise $85 billion
through tax increases on upper-incom-
e taxpayers and corporations. The plan
would postpone the effect of a law
designed to protect taxpayers,
especially the wealthy, against in-
flation. It would also limit, for families
earning more than $60,000 a year, the
effect of the third year of the tax cut
,steered through Congress by Reagan
after his election in 1980. It would im-
pose a 10 percent surcharge on families
earning more than $100,000 and a 15
percent minimum tax on corporations.
He said his plan would have an "ex-
cellent chance" of congressional sup-
port.
REAGAN says, "A president of the
United States should never say never,
but a tax increase has always been for
me a last resort." He has proposed "a
complete overhaul of our tax system to
make it more fair and provide greater
incentives for everyone to work, save
and invest." He said the present system
"makes honest people feel like cheats
and lets cheats pose as honest citizens."
But at the same time, Reagan has
pledged to preserve the deduction for
home mortgage interest, saying it
"symbolizes. . . the'American dream,"
and he also wants tax breaks for com-
panies that locate plants in inner cities
or depressed rural areas and tuition tax
credits for families who send their
children to private or parochial schools.
Congress has refused to go along with
either.
DEFICITS
MONDALE says his plan would cut
the deficit, projected at $174.3 billion for
the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, to
$86 billion by 1989. High deficits, he says
"ch'eat our kids and shrink our future."
He says he would reduce spending by
$75 billion, most of it by saving $51
million on the amount paid out in in-
terest on the deficit. He proposed a $25
billion saving in defense, including~
elimination of the MX multi-warhead
missile; $12 billion in health; $4 billion
in agriculture and $8 billion in "selected
discretionary domestic programs." He
said $5 billion would be saved through
improved management.
REAGAN says the way to cope with
deficits is by "contributing our
economic growth and by reducing
wasteful government spending." His
budget calls for the deficit to decrease
to about $139 billion by 1989 if Congress
adopts legislation that he wants.
Without the legislation, it would be
about $162 billion.
He has increased military spending
to an estimated $237.5 billion in the
fisc'al 1984 budget, about 28 percent of
the budget total, compared with 23 per-
cent in 1980. He has not spelled out
proposed cuts, but has charged that
Mondale's tax proposals would put a
"ball and chain around America'si
neck."
ENVIRONMENTt
MONDALE has the support of the1
Sierra club, the first presidential en-
dorsement ever by the large environ-
mental organization. He says he would
expand the "superfund" to clean up
toxicnwaste dumps and provide aid for
ill or displaced victims of such waste.C
He pledges to reduce acid rain by cut-
ting sulfur-dioxide emissions from fac-
tory smokestacks by 50 percent. He
promises to "end the lawlessness .. '
that's destroying our environment" and
"take a polluter to court, not out to lunch.t
REAGAN says his environmental
record is "one of the best kept secrets in,
Washington," claiming that as gover-
nor of California he helped cleanse Los
Angeles of smog and pioneered strict
auto emission standards. Two former
officials. in his administration,
Secretary of the Interior James Watt
and Environmental Protection Agency
Chief Anne Burford, were lightning rods
for environmental criticism, but both
have been replaced by low-key suc-
cessors. Reagan has pledged to "be
sensitive to the delicate balance of our
ecosystems, the preservation of en-
dangered species and the protection of
our wildnerness lands."
JOBS
REAGAN, in addition to his proposed
tax credits for inner-city employers,
wants to award similar credits to em-
ployers who hire disadvantaged youths
and the handicapped. He wants to en-
courage hiring of teen-agers by permit-
ting employers to pay less than the
minimum wage, a proposal strongly
opposed by organized labor.
MONDALE favors creating jobs
through a government program to,
rebuild roads, bridges and other public
works. He proposes expanding the in-
vestment tax credit to include training
and education of workers. He says his
training and employment jobs would be
targeted to the chronically unemployed
and young people.
RELIGION
REAGAN touched off a debate on
church-state relations when he told a
prayer breakfast audience at the
Republican National Convention that
'religion and politics are necessarily
related" because, both are linked to
morality. The president favors a con-
stitutional amendment to permit volun-
tary organized prayers in public schools
and has charged that opponents of the
measure may be 'intolerant of
religion.",
MONDALE, a minister's son, op-
poses the school prayer amendment,
siding with those who say it would be
unfair to religious minorities. In a
speech to students at San Joaquin Delta
College in Stockton, Calif., he said, "It
is one thing to ask God's blessing and
guidance, that's what our faith is all
about. It's another thing for politicians
to claim they have been given God's
blessing and advice and therefore are
able to act in his name."
ABORTION
REAGAN opposes use of federal fun-
ds to finance any abortions. He favors a
constitutional amendment banning
abortions except when the life of the
mther is endangered.
MONDALE says he is personally
against abortion, but believes it is a
woman's individual choice and suppor-
ts the Supreme Court's decision
striking down state anti-abortion laws.
WOMEN'S RIGHTS
REAGAN opposes the Equal Rights
Amendment, but says he will press for
equal pay for equal work. He advocates
reducing the "marriage penalty" on
taxes of two-income families.
MONDALE supports the. ERA and
says he would seek to eliminate sexual
discrimination in insurance and pen-
sion programs. He favors equal pay for
comparable federal jobs, whether held
traditionally by men or women.
FARM POLICY
REAGAN announced on Sept. 19 a
program to aid debt-ridden farmers by
increasing federal loan guarantees and
deferring repayment of some gover-
nment debts. He says he has acted "to
help family farmers and ranchers turn
things around for good" by such steps
as ending the grain embargo imposed
by the Carter administration after the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He says
he favors a market-oriented approach,
rather than government subsidies for
reuucing Lne #- ia"ringe f ^eiutiey OH
tarmers, and opposes rewaraing iar-
mers for retiring land for long periods
for soil conservation. He favors guaran-
teeing export credits for farm goods
and barring aid for crops grown on
marginal land.
MONDALE belittled Reagan's latest
announcement, asking, "Where's he
been for 3 years when we needed
him?" Charging that Reagan's policies
would "destroy family farming," the
former vice president says he would
halt farm foreclosures and stretch out
loan repayments. He also pledges to
expand export credits and broaden the
Food for Peace program to provide
more markets abroad.
AINN
5th Avenue at Uberty St
761-9700
DAILY 1 st MATINEE $2.00
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12A
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Every Monday Night
with
D. J. Bryan D
-Cover Charge: $1.50
Ladies Admitted Free
Student Discount
18 and over welcome*
Drinks: Doubles for the price of Singles.
510 E. Liberty
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN
994-5436
*Monday night only
LAST 5 DAYS!
Emotionally Touching
and Richly Haunting...
WENDY HUGHES
TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX PG x
SUN. 12:50, 3:00, 5:00, 7:20, 9:30
MON. 1:00, 7:20, 9:30
DAILY MATINEES
Debate his an experienced sponsor
WASHINGTON (AP) -The League
of Women Voters isn't at all shy about
its political mission. A pamphlet of
"facts" about the league proclaims in,
large type:
"We put laws on the books.
"We register millions to vote.
"We keep politics a process for the
people."
THE LEAGUE has been around for a
long time -64 years - but until 1976 its
focus was " mostly on the local level.
Then it set out to bring presidential
candidates Gerald Ford and Jimmy
Carter together in' a series of forums
and debates and its national reputation
as, a sponsor of presidential debates
was made.
The organization was founded in 1920,
members decide on their national
program, then gather facts and present
them to the community.
For years, state and local leagues
have provided non-partisan forums for
candidates to discuss campaign issues
- an effort to give voters a side-by-side
comparison.
In 1976, the league sensed that Ford
and Carter would be willing to debate
and it offered its services as a sponsor.
The presidential candidates accepted
and engaged in threerdebates, in
Philadelphia, San Francisco, and
Williamsburg, Va. Their running
mates, Sens. Robert Dole and Walter
Mondale, had one debate in Houston.
In 1980, the league again set out to
sponsor debates, but the task was more
difficult. President Jimmy Carter ob-
jected to including independent John
Anderson in a debate. He said he would
be willing to be in a three-way debate
only if it was preceded by a one-on-one
with Reagan.
Reaganaand Anderson debated in
Baltimore under league sponsorship,
S Tr of
_ __
STUDENT PHONATHON
CALLERS WANTED
Part Time Employment
Nights
The School of Education will be interviewing students by phone to
call alumni nationwide for an alumni fundraising phonothon.
* Phonathon held Sunday through Thursday evenings
October 28 through November 29
* Callers will be expected to work two of the five nights each
week with some opportunity for additional hours.
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