CAN BUSH SURVIVE HIS HANDLING OF DRUG QUESTIONS?

A decade ago, the kind of turbulence that hit Texas Gov. George W. Bush's
campaign this week might have threatened to knock a candidate out of the
presidential race. For better or worse, President Clinton has changed the
rules.

Bush's high-flying campaign was brought to earth over the question of
whether he ever used illegal drugs, and even some supporters think he will
be hurt by the events of this week. Whether the damage is serious or
long-lasting was not clear yesterday.

The episode revealed a Bush campaign that, however smoothly it was
operating, could be knocked off stride by one ingenious and unanticipated
question. But it also showed how a decade of scandal politics - and the
example of Clinton - have taught politicians not to crumble when the first
crisis hits their campaigns.

There once was a familiar pattern when political scandal erupted: the media
feeding frenzy, the campaign deathwatch and the inevitable scene in a hotel
ballroom where a contrite or defiant candidate withdrew from the race. That
was the way it played out in 1987 when Gary Hart was hit with allegations
of marital infidelity.

But after a 1992 campaign in which Clinton weathered scandals involving
infidelity, the draft and smoking marijuana, and then the past year in
which he survived the Monica Lewinsky affair, that old pattern has been
replaced by something new.

"You can keep your head down and plow through it," said Republican
strategist Ralph Reed, a Bush adviser, "and after you have, you're a
stronger candidate because people see you're not going to be knocked out by
it."

Bush took a calculated risk that the public will forgive mistakes of the
distant past if they are convinced a politician has learned from them - and
will not repeat them.

"I think that ultimately voters will have a sense that the governor has
admitted to mistakes that were made in his youth and will fall into two
camps," a Bush adviser said yesterday. "Either they respect that position
or they disagree with it, in which case they'll find another candidate. And
we feel far more will agree than disagree."

A poll for CNN and Time Magazine by Yankelovich Partners released yesterday
offers some reassurance to Bush campaign officials. The poll found that 84
percent of Americans said that, if Bush used cocaine in his 20s, that
should not disqualify him from serving as president.

Bush also hopes to benefit from public backlash against the press. "From
everything we've seen, people are fairly fed up with the notion of how
reporters go after this stuff and the prying into public lives," one Bush
adviser said. The poll for CNN and Time underscored that view. Almost three
in five (58 percent) of those surveyed said reporters should not be asking
Bush questions about cocaine use.

But Bush also has gambled that he can partly answer the question without
definitively saying he did or didn't use drugs. What he did this week was
effectively deny using drugs since 1974 (when he was 28) but then refuse to
say whether he used them earlier in his life.

The danger is that, after a Clinton presidency replete with evasive answers
to simple questions, Bush has created the impression with voters that he is
being cute or coy rather than forthcoming. Ultimately, say some political
analysts, Bush may be forced to offer a clear-cut answer to the drug question.

"I think being forthright is the key to this," one GOP strategist said. "I
don't think America expects you to be a saint. They do expect you to shoot
straight with them."

Bush campaign officials say their candidate is taking a much different
gamble by refusing to answer detailed questions about his past: Voters may
assume he engaged in behavior that never occurred. But, they say, Bush
feels strongly that he must draw the line on personal questions in order to
help change the climate of politics.

Bush to kids: 'Don't use drugs'

AKRON, Ohio - Presidential candidate George W. Bush said yesterday that he
and other members of the baby-boom generation have a responsibility to
share with their children the lessons they learned from their own youthful
mistakes.

Asked if he had been forthright with his teenage twin daughters when
discussing drugs, Bush responded:

"I appreciate your question, but I'm going to leave my daughters out of the
campaign. I think parents, particularly baby-boomer parents, ought to say
to children, do not use drugs. I think we owe the children that
responsibility - to share our wisdom.

"I worry about a society that sends a different message. One of the
interesting questions facing baby boomers is, have we grown up? Are we
willing to share the wisdom of past mistakes? I think the message ought to
be to all children, don't use drugs, don't abuse alcohol."

Asked how a parent should respond if asked directly by a child about drug
use, Bush said, "I think baby boomers ought to say I've learned from
mistakes I may or may not have made and I'd like to share some wisdom."