Babbitt, Du Pont Get Campaign Boosts in Iowa Debate : Dark-Horse Candidates Receive ‘Badly Needed Attention,’ Republican Chairman Says

DES MOINES —  Two presidential dark horses--Democrat Bruce Babbitt and Republican Pierre S. (Pete) du Pont IV--matched wits and wisdom here Friday in a debate that foreshadowed the probable battle lines in next year’s general election struggle for the White House.

Babbitt, as representative of the challenging party, lashed out at President Reagan for his alleged lack of leadership. “Behind that TelePrompTer, there is no one in charge,” the former Arizona governor declared.

Du Pont, the former governor of Delaware, pounded away at past Democratic presidents and the present leadership of the Democratic-controlled Congress. “How quickly Bruce forgets in condemning Reaganomics that it has been much more successful than the malaise of Jimmy Carter,” he said.

Unaccustomed Spotlight

Not incidentally, each contestant appeared to have gained a badly needed campaign boost from the debate. They shared an unaccustomed spotlight in this state, which is one of the earliest and most critical battlegrounds in the competition for convention delegates.

The debate, held in a Drake University auditorium, drew a sizable contingent of political reporters from around the country, most of them here to cover a Republican regional leadership conference. The confrontation was also telecast nationally over the C-SPAN cable channel.

“I think they helped themselves,” said Republican National Chairman Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., among the 200 or so guests in the audience. “They each got some badly needed attention, isolated from the other contenders.”

Fahrenkopf and other observers thought each candidate benefited from the debate format. Instead of having journalists ask questions, the two candidates confronted each other directly for 52 minutes, each getting the chance for rebuttals after their opening statements.

Show of Humor

Babbitt’s supporters were particularly pleased by their man’s show of humor, a trait for which he has not been celebrated.

During his attack on the Reagan Administration’s trade policies, for example, Babbitt noted that the President had been dickering with European countries about low prices of wine and cheese exports. “But we’re not talking about hors d’oeuvres,” Babbitt complained. “We’re talking about the collapse of the entire international trading system.”

Mocking Du Pont’s attempts to defend the Administration on one hand and to propose drastic changes on the other, Babbitt said: “What you are trying to tell us is that things are better than they have ever been--and you are the only guy who can get us out of this mess.”

But Babbitt got his biggest laugh when he told Du Pont: “You’re saying that everyone in the country has benefited from Reaganomics. Well, unfortunately the country is Japan.”

Innovative Ideas

As for Du Pont, the debate gave him a showcase to demonstrate his vaunted capacity for innovative ideas, which his supporters hope will help break him out of obscurity. As Du Pont’s partisans see it, this is a strength that would enable Du Pont, better than any other Republican contender, to avoid being kept on the defensive, which is exactly where Babbitt sought to put his adversary.

Du Pont labeled Babbitt “the most unabashed pessimist I’ve ever run across.” Policies favored by some Democrats to raise tariffs if the trade deficit does not ease are “kamikaze economics,” Du Pont said.

He called for phasing out federal farm support programs. “We’re spending faster than ever before and farmers are going under faster than ever before,” he said.

‘Prison Without Walls’

He also urged abolition of the current welfare system--”a prison without walls,” he called it--in favor of requiring all able-bodied beneficiaries to work at some sort of job.

Du Pont also did not shy away from mentioning, as he put it, “the two big ‘S’ words-- Social Security.”

Du Pont warned of future dire financial problems facing the system. In the face of widespread belief that the Social Security system is politically sacrosanct, he called for giving some workers a chance to partially opt out of the system by setting up their own retirement accounts in return for giving up a portion of benefits.

“I don’t believe you can tinker with welfare or Social Security or the agriculture programs on the margins,” he said. “We need a President who will empower people, not a President who will encourage bureaucrats in Washington.”