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
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©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
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