C 8 THE WASHINGTON POST, SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 1 9 8 4  
Because unemployment has dropped and economic signs have turned more favorable, the Democratic candidates for president are being urged by political analysts, and even some of their own advisers, to downgrade the economy as a political issue and concentrate on foreign policy.</br></br>This would be a very big mistake. It assumes that voters are ready to forgive President Reagan for his ill-conceived Economic Recovery Program, that supply-side fantasy that sent the economy into a tailspin, idling 33 percent of the nationÛªs productive capacity, driving unemployment up to 12 million, creating over $400 billion in deficits, boosting mortgage interest to 18 percent and, in the process, forcing cutbacks in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, food stamps and unemployment compensation.</br></br>That sort of polity, and the pall it cast over the economy until last summer, are not so quickly forgotten. The way Democrats can keep the issue alive is by pointing to the next four years. Long after the need for a shift in economic policy became imperative, Reagan was the one who insisted on ÛÏstaying the course.Û So it is almost certain that, at the first sign of renewed inflation, a second Reagan administration would send the average American through the economic wringer again. All of those who lost their jobs before would be out on the street again.</br></br>If this does not have the makings of an effective election issue, I donÛªt know one when I see it. With some of the best media experts in the country on their side, such as Norman Lear, David Sawyer, Tony Schwartz and Robert Squier, the Democrats can present the economic issue in countless and ingenious ways.</br></br>There is an even better reason for Democrats to stress the home front this year. The party out of power takes a real risk when it campaigns on foreign policy. An incumbent president controls both the initiative and the information in foreign policy. In his quiver are both arrows and olive branches.