Now Comes the Hard Part

By Hugh Sidey

The Presidency

If Ronald Reagan is the winner next week, those deficits are going to be just as big and bad as they ever were. If Walter Mondale comes out on top, he may find that the Soviets aren't as eager for a summit as he is--or that Soviet Boss Konstantin Chernenko has checked into a Moscow hospital.

The problems seem so easy out there on the stump. Deficits shrink with a rhetorical flourish. And all you have to do for a summit is ring up the Kremlin and say, "Hey, Konstantin, let's get together next week in Geneva."

Whoever wins power at the polls must shift gears to guide this nation. The transition from politics to governing gets more difficult with each election. We love the blather and boast, the charge and countercharge of campaigning. Governing is a tougher deal. A President must level, yield and plead. He must take action and then assume responsibility. The army of technocrats who run campaigns doesn't want to give up the raucous joy of the hustings. The legions of reporters who cover politics don't want to quit the clash and thunder of electoral combat for the dry duty of analyzing the federal budget.

As a consequence, we have created the perpetual presidential campaign. Too often in these past years the candidate handlers have imposed a motorcade mentality on the Government and tried to run the country by confrontation rather than compromise. The press has often sought conflict over information.

After his White House years, Henry Kissinger concluded that a successful President should have two complete teams--one to handle his politics and the other to move in and govern. The skills and attitudes needed for the two functions are so dissimilar, said Kissinger, that if a President maintained his campaign mentality too long, his Administration tended to be preoccupied with political process rather than results. Regrettably, neither Reagan nor Mondale seems to grasp that truth.

Whatever happens on Tuesday and however either man acts to consolidate his power, the time for dramatic action is limited. At the White House, some aides calculate that Reagan has "a window of opportunity" of about eight months in which to move on the deficit, arms-control talks with the Soviets, the spreading problems in farming and health-care costs. Those are the big four crises that will demand action from either Reagan or Mondale.

More time would be granted to First-Termer Mondale, allowing him to rest his tired troops, gather his helpers and prepare his plans. But outside events rush forward even in the final, sweaty hours of the campaign. The opportunity to begin another chapter in the life of this nation will open next Tuesday night when one man or the other raises his arms in victory. The quicker he drops campaign politics the better.

There are plenty of ideas that are being hashed out over lunch in Washington by the men and women left behind by their nomadic brethren out stumping. At the White House the memos are piling up suggesting a bill that would overhaul the Government's farm program, now a dreadful mishmash of legislation passed over decades. Kissinger is lobbying for a bipartisan commission to sit down and try to work out a better relationship with the Soviets.

Some Republican powers in the capital, believing that Reagan will be the winner, have left an intriguing idea on the White House doorstep. They would like to see Reagan have his Thanksgiving dinner at Camp David and invite such Democratic stalwarts as Louisiana Senator Russell Long, Illinois Congressman Danny Rostenkowski and Oklahoma Congressman James Jones. After the turkey and pumpkin pie, Reagan should take his goblet of Cabernet Sauvignon and ask everyone there to pledge himself to a great legislative crusade to reform the tax system, raise revenue, cut spending and banish those hideous deficits. For that kind of commitment, the American people would surely give thanks.