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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 14, 1981)
The Battalion V IE WPOINT September 14,198 Slouch By Jim Earle “Any word about when well be getting our name tags?' High interest rates: No. 1 GOP problem , By CLAY F. RICHARDS United Press International WASHINGTON — While President Reagan is still getting high marks from the public and his tax and budget cuts are popu lar, there are storm clouds gathering over the CypP that could halt the dramatic Re publican comeback drive. After returning from the August recess and talking with fellow GOP House mem bers, Republican leader Bob Michel went straight to the White House to tell Presi dent Reagan in strong language there were big problems with the voters back home. There was a growing concern among voters, the GOP House members reported, that while the Reagan tax and budget cuts were fine, they didn’t mean much because high interest rates put a new car — let alone buying a home — out of the reach of many Americans. Few Republicans are more fconcerned about the interest rate problem than na tional chairman Richard Richards who sees the problem as the potential end of his dream of establishing the GOP as the domi nant party for the rest of the 20th century. “Interest rates are indeed a problem and our polls reflect it,” Richards said. He said polling also shows that “the typical voter is going to give us more time” to solve the problem, “but I don’t know how much time. “The average guy understands high in terest rates better than he understands other problems, ” Richards said, explaining how interest rates could become the GOP’s biggest problem at the polls next fall. On the positive side, Richards adds: “The president knows that and he is work ing on it.” While Richards says he doesn’t know how much more time the voters will give Republicans, he believes the public’s pati ence will have worn out if things are not better by next November. “If we haven’t turned the corner and haven’t improved significantly, we will not do well in the 1982 elections,” he said. “If we don’t build more homes and sell more cars, some of our early supporters will fall off.” “In 1980 we got votes that traditionally had been Democratic all their lives,” he said. “They thought Reagan had a better idea — but if we don’t prove we can lead, they will step back to their traditional vot ing pattern.” Richards says he is worried, but not pessimistic, because the tax cuts that are crucial to the success of the Reagan econo mic program don’t even go into effect until October and the full impact won’t be felt until next year. riding “I think the president is still high,” he added. But he adds glumly: “If supply side eco nomics and Ronald Reagan fail, we will step back to the 29 percent rating we had a year ago — we re going to lose the 19 percent we gained in the last year.” “We certainly don’t have any longer than November 1982 — we may not have that long,” he said. “If we don’t turn things around we will pay the price.” the small society by Brickman <£U>THir*<£ AMP A TAy ^H£LTf=^- ©1961 King Features Syndicate Inc World rights reserved 3 -so Warped Miss America Pageant: spend) an evening in a meat market Watching beauty pageants never has ranked high on my list of favorite time- killers. I suppose I prescribe to the feminist complaint that pageants put women on a par with a package of meat at Safeway. So, what did I do Saturday night? Since I had been assigned to report on the pageant from a local angle, I watched the Miss America Pageant — all two hours and 20 cereal commercials of it. Aside from the fact that I now feel like a close friend of Tony the Tiger, my opinion of beauty pageants hasn’t changed a bit. When you think about it, the entire premise is ridiculous. How can a small group of judges choose the most beautiful, talented, poised, etc., etc., woman in the United States? Besides, look at the panel of judges. The judges for the 1982 pageant included a game show host, a man who made his name in the entertainment industry portraying a drunk and several former Miss Americas. Maybe the people who chose the judges know something I don’t, but I can’t believe hosting “Tic Tac Dough” makes Wink Mar- tindale an expert on the All-American Denise Richter V woman. But, at least we now know what happens to former Miss Americas. When the judges were introduced Saturday night, we learned that pageant oldies become fashion consultants and beauty advisers. I had always wondered about that — I thought former pageant winners might spend their first crownless year trying to get the stiched-on smile off their faces and then wander around the rest of their lives look ing for a crowd to wave to. One of the latest additions to beauty pageants is the stress now placed on “scho larship. ” According to pageant officials, contes tants are judged on the basis well as beauty, because any worn represents the best America should be intelligent. This attemptli out the meat market approach is thought — why don’t I believe it? Could the way the MissAmerkaen gown competition was handled hats thing to do with my doubts? Prol In case you missed the pageant, a brief recap of this portion ofthepr^j Each finalist walked to the mil stated her name, age and other pt information, then turned her television camera and just stood then stood there. And stood there. I may be gullible hut I cant person’s mental capacity can be from a 30-second rear view. Andifij the test is in serious trouble, In spite of my objections tobeaiilj tests, I watched the entire pageariH glad Sheri Ryman did as well as iBe But, the concept behind pageant** of seems like a waste — despitethep- J women have made in their fig sexual stereotypes, the yearly lat special” continues to be held. sig OOUJWJC' CWTO ej w iKwont n n ncwD smarm-- Let s hear it for economic jargon By DICK WEST United Press International WASHINGTON — The United States, according to one of my favorite economic analysts, is entering a period of “negative growth.” Oooh, I just love economic jargon. Don’t you? It’s all so exquisitely meaningless. I mean, what in the everloving, blue eyed world is “negative growth?” Is it any thing like “positive shrinkage,” do you sup pose? When I went to school, the economy either grew or it didn’t. Went up or down, so to speak. Or else stayed in the same place. Nobody had yet figured out a way for the economy to go up negatively. As a re sult, people pretty well knew where they stood. People could be fairly certain that if times didn’t get better, or didn’t remain as they were, which, goodness knows, was bad enough, why then times most surely would get worse. It was that simple. This sense of exactitude lent a certain stability to life. It was somehow reassuring to know the economy was going to either expand or contract. But borrrrring! I much prefer modern economic trends and predictions. There is such an air of excitement about them; a venture into the Great Unknown. Those of us whose spirits tend to lapse without constant stimulation are grateful when the economists come up with tingling terms like “negative growth” to enliven our rather humdrum existence. Don’t quote me as an authority on this, but I get the impression that “negative growth” was made possible through the ad vent of “supply side” policies. For that, we can tip our hats to President Reagan. Except for Reagan’s backing, the “supply siders” could never have prevailed and the country probably would have continued down the path of “stagflation.’’ Nobody in his right mind wanted that. “Stagflation,” which apparently de veloped under President Carter and perhaps other recent chief executives, occurs when we have economic stagnation and inflation simultaneously. Thisisi* as bad as having “recessive prospenjl Stagnation alone is an awful loa® inflation by itself can be devastalin* them both together and you can S'® advantages of switching to growth.” Meanwhile, whatever happenedifil “tight money the economists wf vigorously kicking around a few! ago? One seldom hears that term high levels any more. What one hears a lot of nowaday: of returning to the gold standard 1 there is an issue we can all understaS If you think the present kind of negative, imagine what we wot under the gold standard. “Dynamic^ is my prediction. By Scott McCullar CLARK, I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU REVEAL THAT YOU'RE . REALLY superman! I'M GOING TO THROW MYSELF OUT THIS WINDOW The Battalion USPS 045 360 MEMBER Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Congress Editor Angelique Copeland Managing Editor Marcy Boyce City Editor JaneG. Brust Asst. City Editor Kathy O’Connell Photo Editor Greg Gammon Sports Editor Ritchie Priddy Focus Editor Cathy Saathoff Asst. Focus Editor Debbie Nelson News Editors Jennifer Aftlerbach, Bernie Fette, Belinda McCoy Diana Sultenfuss StaffWriters Frank L. Christlieb, Gaye Denley, Terry Duran, Nancy Floeck, Phyllis Henderson, Colette Hutch ings, Denise Richter, Rick Stolle Cartoonist Scott McCullar Graphic Artist Richard DeLeon Jr. Photographers Brian Tate Becky Swanson, Dave Einsel The Battalion also serves as a laboratory neMp? students in reporting, editing and within the Department o{Communications. Questions or comments concerning any should he directed to the editor. 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