October 27, 1992

President Bush set aside his unremitting assault on Gov. Bill Clinton for a few hours this morning to make a final attempt to address the currents of discontent in 1992. He painted himself as a "conservative activist" combining the most popular attributes of Ross Perot and Mr. Clinton. But by midafternoon in Albuquerque, Mr. Bush was back on the full-throated attack, talking about his opponents' "crazy ideas" and directing the ire of his supporters at the press while his advisers tried to come to grips with a rapidly changing political landscape.

Bowing to intense pressure, Randy Daniels withdrew as a deputy mayor of New York City yesterday, indicating that his effectiveness as a media and community affairs adviser to Mayor David N. Dinkins had been destroyed by allegations that he sexually harassed a woman who worked for him five years ago. The Mayor, announcing the decision at a City Hall news conference that Mr. Daniels did not attend, stressed that the allegations remained unsubstantiated and that Mr. Daniels continued to insist he had been falsely accused and would fight to clear his name.

ONCE again it is the season to beware the Big Lie, "granfalloons" and the fear-appeal technique. These are but a few of the propaganda devices that psychologists are warning about in anticipation of an advertising blitz in the last days of this year's election campaigns. Of course, it is every candidate's proper task to sway voters. But psychologists who study persuasion techniques caution that many political advertisements are unfair appeals to bias and emotion, distortions of logic intended to subvert the reasoned evaluation that ideally lies at the heart of the democratic process.

A Federal bankruptcy judge yesterday cleared the way for the sale of The Daily News to Mortimer B. Zuckerman, marking a new chapter in the ailing newspaper's long struggle to regain financial health. "We swept the boards," Mr. Zuckerman said jubilantly hours after Judge Tina L. Brozman rejected moves by two of the bankrupt newspaper's unions to block the sale. She said she planned to sign certification papers making the sale official after clearing up some minor technicalities.

The American Express Company announced late yesterday a $205 million loss in the third quarter because of expenses associated with its efforts to cut costs in its charge-card and travel businesses by closing offices, eliminating jobs and reducing other expenses. Those expenses, called a restructuring charge by the company, totaled $342 million after taxes. The company's charge-card business has been hurt by increased competition from banks and other credit-card issuers. It said it expected to recover the restructuring charge by cutting $1 billion in expenses from the charge-card and travel businesses over the next three years.