ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 7, 1996 TAG: 9603070017
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
BY SWEEPING Tuesday's primaries, Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole has effectively assured his nomination as the 1996 Republican presidential candidate - but not because of adulation from any particular sect of the GOP communion.
Rather, he has emerged, albeit battle-scarred, from the fray because he commands a measure of respect from all factions in the party - and because most Republicans are more interested in denying Bill Clinton a second term than in nominating a "message" candidate whom a majority of Americans would never accept.
For rejecting the dark populism of Pat Buchanan and the flat-tax mantra of Steve Forbes, GOP voters are to be congratulated.
In rallying behind Dole, they have in effect awarded the GOP nomination to an experienced insider who rides herd on the U.S. Senate, who knows how to cut a deal, and who can be a fierce partisan or a cooperative compromiser, depending on the situation. The party is set to nominate, in short, a professional politician.
While that is not the only or most important qualification for the presidency, it does come closer to fitting the job requirements than do TV demagogue (Buchanan) or publishing heir (Forbes).
Former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander, a better politician before he set about running a gimmicky, dumbed-down presidential campaign, and Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, a thoughtful candidate who failed to secure a single delegate, announced their departures from the race on Wednesday. But at last report, Forbes, with a campaign well-funded from his personal coffers, and Buchanan, fueled by his exploitation of Americans' fears and insecurity, planned to stay the course.
After Tuesday, the temptation regarding Buchanan might be to dismiss him as a player who has strutted and fretted his hour upon the page, to be heard no more. But he has a constituency of true believers who won't be silenced. And the candidate himself will be heard, staying in the race, dogging Dole, threatening to exercise leverage over the party platform and Dole's vice-presidential selection.
Moreover, Buchanan's tale, while full of sound and fury, does signify something. In his protectionist predilections, Buchanan is dangerously wrongheaded. In his voluble resentment of immigrants, minorities, feminists, gays and others, he is mean-spirited or worse. For that alone, the rejection of his candidacy in Tuesday's primaries is welcome, and a credit to his party.
But in attacking the growing inequality of wealth and income in America, Buchanan has identified an issue that Republicans - and, increasingly, Democrats as well - are generally loath to raise. It must be addressed if the country is not eventually to sink, amid a whirlwind of change, into a permanent Third World-ish division of haves and have-nots.
Against Buchanan, Dole has won the battle for the heart and soul of the GOP. Against Clinton in November, Dole will have to deliver a message beyond the dangers of Buchananism.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENTby CNB