A recurring Salto feature. Today, Bush on his Quayle pick:

Within days of selecting Dan Quayle for the 1988 Vice Presidential nomination, George Bush wrote in his diary: ''I blew it.''

In a new biography of the former President, a historian, Herbert S. Parmet, wrote that as Mr. Quayle became the butt of jokes, Mr. Bush ''did everything he could to show his confidence in the younger man.'' But in his diary, Mr. Bush wrote, ''It was my decision, and I blew it, but I'm not about to say that I blew it.''