WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 1988 (UPI) - In 1946, the GOP broke the Democrats' 14-year grip on Congress by asking, ''Had enough? Vote Republican.'' In 1988, George Bush won the presidency on the flip side of that slogan: ''Don't worry; be happy.''
After a campaign in which the candidates gave the voters precious little on which to base a rational choice of differing programs for governing the country, Americans appear to have settled on the familiar yardstick of the need for change in making their selection.
So, for all of the mud that was slung and all the emotional hot buttons that were pushed, the vice president's greatest political asset was that most of the people liked the way Ronald Reagan presided over the country and believed Bush could carry on for him.
There is a contrast with 1960 in this. Dwight Eisenhower, who like Reagan could probably have had a third term for the asking had not the Constitution forbade it, gave only the most tepid endorsement of Richard Nixon 28 years ago and did little campaigning for him. But Reagan endorsed Bush like a biblical patriarch anointing his eldest son and then sealed the blessing with enthusiastic campaigning for his political heir.
Not that Bush has the overwhelming trust of the people who voted for him. An ominous 35 percent of the voters interviewed by CBS said they had reservations about the man they voted for and 13 percent said they voted for one of the candidates because they disliked the other candidate more.
It is a universal axiom of politics that most elections are decided on ''pocketbook'' or ''bread and butter'' issues. At a time when unemployment was at a 14-year low and inflation about one-third of its 1980 level, Democrat Michael Dukakis simply could not convince the voters that hard times were here or on the way.
Out of the welter of exit polls election night came some salient findings:
--CBS found that 52 percent of the voters it interviewed believed the country should remain on the course steered by Reagan and 93 percent of that group voted for Bush.
--ABC found that 41 percent of the voters in its interviews said economic issues were most important to them, and they went to Bush 53 percent to 47 percent.
Bush also profited from the ''war and peace'' issue that sometimes overshadows domestic concerns. ABC's exit pollsters found only 22 percent who placed defense and foreign policy issues above all others, and the vice president got the vote of 88 percent of them.
Dukakis's big vote came from people who placed so-called social issues at the top of the heap. Twenty-five percent ranked them first and the Massachusetts governor got their vote, 77 percent to 22 percent.
It also was of note that the Pledge of Allegiance and prison furlough issues, which Bush pounded from August to November, were not as telling as the emphasis given them might indicate. Only 12 percent told ABC they considered the pledge issue important and only 11 percent gave heavy weight to furloughs.
On election eve, Bush devoted much of a very costly 30-minute prime-time television broadcast to emphasizing his link to Reagan, the successes of the last eight years and the ''risk'' inherent in changing leadership. Dukakis used his time to stress specific problems, pointing to the economic and societal flaws in Reagan's America that need attention.
It appears that Bush was on target.
