In Kemp, Hope for Rekindled Reagan Magic

SAN DIEGO —  A place teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, open to anyone with the will and the heart to get there; a beacon, a magnet for all who must have freedom.

--Ronald Reagan’s “Shining City Upon a Hill”

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An 11-car Amtrak rented by California Republicans was swaying and jerking down the coast south of San Juan Capistrano on Saturday when former Reagan aide Marty Anderson pointed to a subdivision high on a cliff. “You and I look up at that hill and we see houses,” he said. “Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp see the possibility of a shining city.

“They’re real believers.”

Kemp might also see a future enterprise zone, an expansive government program of urban renewal involving tax incentives. By contrast, Reagan would want government to “get off the people’s backs.”

Kemp is no Reagan--not even close--but right now he is the nearest thing Republicans have to their party icon.

There are obvious things Kemp is not that Reagan the politician was:

* He is not a great communicator. Kemp is more a lecturer with a monotone, raspy voice. Reagan was crisp with inflection and honed timing, in the rare league with FDR and JFK.

* He does not have an insatiable hunger to be president; at least he has lacked the appetite for 16-hour days of campaign schmoozing and performing. Reagan wanted it so badly he challenged an incumbent Republican president; beaten, he ran again and won at age 69.

No one who was there ever will forget Reagan’s parting words to the California delegation at the 1976 GOP convention in Kansas City. Borrowing from an old Scottish ballad, the defeated candidate proclaimed: “I may be wounded, but I am not slain. I’ll lay me down and rest awhile and then I’ll fight again.”

Embarrassingly corny, no doubt, coming from any politician except Reagan. Today, eight years following his presidency, millions of Republican activists pine for their leader and hero.

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Kemp, a Reagan protege, now will get a chance to show America what he’s all about as Bob Dole’s running mate.

Look very closely, and you’ll see some similarities to Reagan.

* They’re both Californians in their way, of course. Kemp, a native who moved to New York; Reagan a transplant from Illinois. Both exude a Western independence.

* Reagan stuck with “star wars” against others’ advice and forced the Soviets out of the arms race. As housing secretary, Kemp stubbornly battled the blue-chip economic policies of President George Bush but lost. Once at a cabinet meeting when an advisor told Bush, “We’ve got good news--’real wages’ are down,” Kemp hit the ceiling.

* Both have an empathy for and an attraction to blue-collar workers, the so-called Reagan Democrats. Kemp also is popular among minority leaders and constantly exhorts the GOP to return “to the party of Lincoln.” Each can excite the Republican base but appeal far beyond it.

* They are upbeat “city on a hill” politicians who preach hope and opportunity, not fear. Kemp reportedly made Dole promise he wouldn’t have to be a hatchet man. As with Reagan, Kemp’s crusade is supply-side economics and he is eager to sell Dole’s tax-cut plan.

* Kemp and Reagan are true believers. Neither needs a poll or a focus group to tell them what to say, let alone think. Neither, in fact, particularly enjoys discussing political strategy. Reagan was big picture--beat the commies, cut taxes, reduce government. He batted 2-for-3. Kemp is just a policy wonk generally.

* Both are anti-abortion but don’t dwell on it; they have far higher priorities. Says former aide Lyn Nofziger of Reagan: “He was smart enough to know it was a dumb thing to make into a national issue.”

* Both have star quality and began their political careers as celebrities from glamour professions. They were union leaders: Reagan as president of the screen actors guild, Kemp as head of a professional football players association.

“Ronald Reagan’s irreplaceable; he’s a national treasurer,” says Steven Merksamer, a longtime California political strategist and a Dole senior advisor. “But Jack Kemp is made from the same mold. He preaches that we can be a conservative party and also a tolerant party.”

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By coincidence, Kemp is one of five people who tonight will be honoring Reagan during a six-minute video to be shown convention delegates.

“This is still Reagan’s party,” says longtime aide Michael Deaver, who is choreographing the convention for television. “These are Reagan people and their children.”

The most prominent child now is Kemp. And Dole and the GOP hope he turns out to be somewhat of a chip off the old block.