Go Ahead - Make My Day

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On issue after issue since his second term began--loan guarantees for farmers, the MX missile, aid to the Nicaraguan contras--the President has been talking almost as tough as he does on taxes. He left no doubt that his approach is deliberate. Addressing the Magazine Publishers Association the morning after his "make my day" speech, Reagan noted, "Some stories recently (have suggested that) remarks of mine on taxes and defense and freedom in our hemisphere have been--well, shall we say, plain and direct." The stories, the President happily confirmed, were entirely correct: "We have an obligation now to be as candid as we were last fall when these issues were very clearly debated and, I think, emphatically decided by the people." It was an example of the way he has been invoking his overwhelming reelection as a mandate for all his stands, whether or not he discussed them much during the campaign.

In dealing with foreign powers too the President has been self-confident and assertive. Secretary of State George Shultz last week had barely begun to list the pros and cons of the President's going to Moscow to attend the funeral of Konstantin Chernenko and meet the new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, when, seeing Reagan's wry smile, he stopped and said to the President, "I can tell by the look on your face . . ." Reagan interjected, "Yes, but go on." To no one's surprise, the President decided not to go--because, explained a senior aide, Gorbachev "is not yet ready" for a meeting. But Reagan did invite Gorbachev to a summit whenever the Soviet leader is ready, and this time without the usual stress on careful preparation and strong prospects of agreement.

While thus sounding a cautious overture to an adversary, Reagan did not shy away from disappointing a key friend in the Middle East. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called at the White House to make an impassioned plea for the U.S. to resume active efforts to mediate an Arab-Israeli peace settlement. He urged Reagan to invite a JordanianPalestinian delegation to Washington to discuss procedures and proposals.

Reagan's reply was a polite but very firm no. He repeated what has become the standard U.S. position over the past year: Washington will not engage itself again until it is sure that both Arabs and Israelis are ready for direct, productive negotiations, and it is still a long way from being convinced.

Mubarak gambled that he could change the President's mind in part because he genuinely fears that a chance to reopen negotiations is slipping away, and in part because he reasoned that a re-elected Reagan would be more willing to risk an initiative that might offend American supporters of Israel. His miscalculation drew the expectable jeers from radical Arabs: the Libyan news agency JANA scoffed that his reception in Washington had lowered Mubarak "to his natural position as an employee of the U.S. State Department." Reagan sought to soften the blow by lavishing praise on Mubarak's peace efforts, but the Egyptian President charged in a speech to the National Press Club that Reagan was taking "an almost defeatist approach."