Harvard is the 'real world'

Unlike many undergraduates eager to break into the real world of politics, vice presidential press secretary Peter Teeley looks upon his stint at Harvard as an IOP fellow as a chance to return to the "real world"--the world outside the Washington. D.C. beltway.

A veteran of one U.S. Senate campaign and one Presidential campaign when he joined the Bush staff in 1979. Teeley has since logged over 600,000 miles traveling with the vice president both on the campaign trail and on official state visits since Reagan's inauguration. And after two years of writing speeches and press releases which aspire to uphold the vice presidential qualities of readiness and reticence that expected from the person who holds the nation's number two position, Teeley is ready for a change.

"It's a pleasant change to come here--people are interested in many things other than politics," Teeley says from his office at the Kennedy School of Government over looking John F. Kennedy St. But he adds it is not politics he grows tired of--otherwise the campaign trail would have long ago lost its appeal--but rather it is the "peer politics" among his colleagues at the White House and those on Capitol Hill from which he welcomes a change. In this sense he says, "Washington L.C. is not the real world--Harvard is."

From his "real world" base in Boston Teeley plans to make frequent trips to the Miami under-world to research his book on drug trafficking, a subject he became interested in when Bush began heading a Presidential task force on drug enforcement. The book, in addition to being a profile on two Colombians who have made their fortune from the drug trade, will be an analysis of the drug problem in southern Florida, concluding that the best solution to the problem in southern Florida, concluding that the best solution to the problem is on the federal level--using FBI agents to back up the already overworked local police force.

It is just this sort of recommendation-making and planning that Teeley enjoys about politics. An aid to former Sen. Jacob Javits (R-N.Y.) starting in 1973 and a press officer in the 1976 Ford Presidential campaign. Teeley spent the off-years during the Carter administration at the Republican National Committee. There he worked under then-Committee Chairman William Brock devising campaign strategies that were to help bring about a Republican comeback in 1980. "When you're in the party out of power, things are a lot easier." Teeley recalls. "You can fairly attack the administration, take offense at their every mistake and gleefully leap upon them."

Taking office again can be a "sobering experience, and one that is not unique to the Reagan Administration." Teeley points out Being in office means having to be more defensive than offensive, which means the job of the press secretary has very little policy-making and more packaging. ["In my White House job] there is very little policy-making," he says, adding that during the campaign he enjoyed an advisory role. In addition. Bush's staff is now subordinated to the President's, he says, adding. "Though I can convey my ideas to the vice president, we clearly have to accept the fact that we are number two."

But the distinction between candidate and President may become more blurred if the recent trend of organizing campaigns earlier and earlier continues. 1984, according to Teeley will be the test year for the trends of 1976 and 1980 when the two long-shot candidates--Jimmy Carter and George Bush--made their reputations by heavy campaigning for the Iowa caucus, a full month before the opening game, the New Hampshire primary. Teeley predicts that the Iowan caucus will find all the candidates working the crowd, but foresees no new dark-horse candidates emerging. "Nothing dramatic will happen," Teeley says.

The abundance of straw polls--events which Teeley claims are more often than not created by the media when world leaks that a major network is covering a dinner where a straw poll is planned will also begin to push up the starting of campaigns. This is one of the reasons why Reagan has not yet announced his candidacy, which Teeley predicts Reagan will announce in January. "He wants to be President Reagan, not candidate Reagan for as long as he can."

Once the campaigning starts. Teeley says he expects to increase his mileage with the Vice President and so he is hurrying to finish his book by then. "Bush will be carrying a lot of the campaign burden of the President that means we'll be doing a lot of traveling."