THE REPUBLICANS IN NEW ORLEANS

THE REPUBLICANS IN NEW ORLEANS; BUSH CHOOSES SENATOR QUAYLE OF INDIANA, A 41-YEAR-OLD CONSERVATIVE, FOR NO. 2 SPOT

By R. W. APPLE Jr., Special to the New York Times

Published: August 17, 1988

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 16—
Vice President Bush today chose Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana, a wealthy, 41-year-old conservative with scant national reputation, as his running mate on the 1988 Republican ticket.

Striking an aggressive posture in the face of a tough Democratic challenge from Gov. Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts, the Vice President said of his quest for the White House, ''I do not intend to fail,'' and the enthusiastic Mr. Quayle, who had shed his jacket in the fetid heat, shouted, ''Let's go get 'em!''

The Vice President's strategists said they hoped the Senator, who was introduced by the 64-year-old Mr. Bush as a ''dynamic young leader,'' would add strength in the Middle West and among women. James A. Baker 3d, chief of the Bush campaign, asserted that the Vice President had sought and found ''someone who is extremely well qualified to be President, someone who would be compatible with the President, someone who hopefully would help the ticket but, in any event, would not hurt it.'' The Torch Is Passed

Mr. Bush announced his choice, saying he made it only this morning, within hours after his arrival in this old river city on the second day of the Republican National Convention. He moved to center stage as President Reagan, who repeatedly endorsed him in a speech to the convention Monday night, was leaving for California, and the two met briefly at nearby Belle Chasse Naval Air Station.

In a carefully choreographed ceremony meant to symbolize the passing of the torch of Republican leadership from one man to the other, the Vice President said his vision was clearer because he had stood on the shoulders of giants like Mr. Reagan, and the President said Mr. Bush was the country's best hope for ''continued peace and prosperity.''

The selection of Mr. Quayle, taken together with the convention's adoption today of a platform that endorsed staunchly conservative positions on such contentious questions as abortion and aid to the Nicaraguan rebels, constituted a reaffirmation by the Grand Old Party of the path that it followed in the 1980 and 1984 campaigns and from which the Reagan Administration has seemed to stray in recent months. [ Excerpts from remarks by Mr. Bush and Mr. Quayle and from the platform are on pages A18 and A20. ] Kean Speaks of the Future Mr. Baker said the choice, for the first time, of a national candidate born after World War II demonstrated that the Republican campaign this fall would emphasize ''freedom and family'' and would be ''future-oriented.'' And at the Louisiana Superdome tonight, as if on cue, Gov. Thomas H. Kean of New Jersey delivered a keynote address in the guise of ''a journey into America's future.''

Mr. Kean painted his party as the sure guide to that future, accusing the ''Dukakis Democrats'' of practicing ''the politics of delusion and exclusion.'' He charged that they were trying ''to hide their true colors,'' an idea the Republicans plan to pound into the national consciousness.

''At a time when costs are rising, when we are paying more for insurance, housing, medical care and college tuitions,'' Mr. Kean said, ''the liberal Democrats want to take money out of the pockets of working men and women because they think that Washington can spend it better.'' Something for Everybody

Mr. Kean represented the new, hybrid breed of Republican - liberal on civil rights and other social issues, conservative on economic questions - on an evening whose program contained something for every faction. Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, former chief delegate to the United Nations, spoke for the so-called ''movement conservatives,'' Pat Robertson spoke for the evangelical Christians who supported his failed Presidential bid, and former President Gerald R. Ford spoke for the old, traditional Taft conservatives.

Each was greeted with the traditional blend of blaring band music, loud cheers and bobbing placards, including ''Kean in '96'' and ''Greeks for Bush'' and (this a gibe at Mr. Dukakis) ''Taxachusetts'' and, atop the Indiana delegation's signpost, ''Bush-Quayle.'' But the real drama of the day took place off the floor, in the sudden emergence of James Danforth Quayle.

The selection surprised many of the 2,277 delegates, but few if any objected to it. Although Bush aides had floated the Hoosier's name starting last weekend, most experts had considered this a diversionary tactic and had thought that if the Vice President felt obliged to choose a conservative running mate, he would select Representative Jack F. Kemp of upstate New York, whose Presidential campaign this year made him a national figure.

Introducing Mr. Quayle at a jazz-accented rally on the New Orleans riverfront after a trip from the naval base aboard the sternwheeler Cajun Queen, the Vice President stressed the Senator's youth and his Midwestern origins, describing him as a ''dynamic young leader for the future of our party.'' Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, the Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee, is 67 years old.

Mr. Bush had been eager to mollify conservatives who have suspected him, since his 1980 campaign against Mr. Reagan for the Presidential nomination, of secretly harboring moderate or even liberal attitudes on some issues. But he had also been concerned about his poor standing among women, which had led some to suggest that he might choose Elizabeth Hanford Dole, the former Transportation Secretary. And he had worried about his relatively poor showing in polls in the Middle West, always a key to Republican victory. What Quayle Brings to Ticket