Peretz Predicts Bush Will Fail

"By the time we get to the midterm elections in 1990, J. Danforth Quayle will have been elevated to the level of a serious statesman."

No, this was not the punchline of last night's David Letterman monologue. It was one of many observations and predictions Martin H. Peretz, editor-in-chief of The New Republic, offered last night to a Cambridge audience of about 50.

Peretz, who is also a lecturer on Social Studies, began his speech on the presidential campaign by saying, "I am going to talk about the election--about why Dukakis lost and why Bush won't be able to govern."

The loss had two primary causes. Dukakis's personality and his ideology, Peretz said. "I can count on my one hand the Dukakis voters who were not in his direct employ who were actually enthusiastic supporters of Mike Dukakis on November 8."

The most telling moment in the campaign came during the second debate, when Dukakis was unable to name his personal heroes, Peretz said. "One begins to think that this man's only hero is really himself."

"This was the first national campaign ever not to be run out of Washington," Peretz said. "It was run by Harvard men and women and all Harvard men and women are serenely confident."

Ideologically, much of the campaign's difficulty reflected problems in the Democratic Party itself, Peretz said. "The Democratic Party has become the party of Blacks, some Hispanic groups, and liberal white women. It's an interesting coalition but not one that can win."

Peretz spoke at the home of two members of the Cambridge Civic Assocation, a local political group that sponsored the talk.

Israeli General Speaks at Hillel

The policies of the next Israeli government may lead to another Arab-Israeli war, a retired Israeli general told a Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel audience of about 100 last night.

Dr. Ephraim Sneh, the former chief of civil administration on the West Bank, said, "I think now we can issue a death certificate [for the peace process], if this is the government that Shamir is going to force."

Yitzhak Shamir heads the Israeli Likud party, which is expected to form the next Israeli government.

The policies of the Likud party regarding the Palestinian uprising call for tougher measures than those taken by Yitzhak Rabin, the current Minister of Defense, Sneh said, adding that he thinks these policies will isolate Israel in the international community.

The more aggressive actions of a Likud government will result in pressure on Egypt to end diplomatic relations with Israel, and Egypt would then unite with the other Arab countries, Sneh said.