ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 14, 1996 TAG: 9608140015
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A13 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Cal Thomas
SOURCE: CAL THOMAS
IMAGINE THE quarterback who throws interceptions and gets sacked in the first half, drawing boos from the hometown crowd. Then, in the second half, he launches a touchdown bomb, turning the game and the fans around. Bob Dole is that heroic quarterback, Jack Kemp his TD.
This one decision by Dole immediately puts him back in the game and shifts the momentum from a seemingly unbeatable Clinton re-election campaign to a contest in which Dole and Kemp can set the agenda and make Clinton and the Democrats play defense.
Normally, the No. 2 spot does not affect the outcome of an election, but Kemp brings qualities to the ticket that enhance Dole. These include enthusiasm for ideas such as economic growth, opportunity and allowing taxpayers to keep more of their money. Kemp also has an appeal to minorities, along with a consistent vision not seen since the 1980 Reagan campaign.
Democrats, even though they have a 10- to 20-point lead in the polls, are clearly worried. How else to explain the blasts by Sen. Chris Dodd, the Democratic National Committee chairman, and Clinton-Gore re-election co-chair Ann Lewis? Both have called Kemp an ``extremist,'' which is about as credible as calling George Bush an adulterer.
Perhaps more than any other Republican on the national scene, Kemp speaks the language of average people. On CNBC's ``Equal Time'' Aug. 6, Kemp lamented the fact that so many families must have two incomes just to make it and that the economy is growing at less than its potential. ``Unemployment is low,'' he said, ``but there's a shortage of opportunity for people to move up into the economy and particularly for low-income people to get the access to capital and credit, so important for their version of the American dream.''
How many Republicans could walk into the inner city and get the kind of response normally reserved for Jesse Jackson? Kemp can - and that worries Democrats. Consider his comments to me in a 1988 interview. Asked why Republicans should care about poor blacks when most vote for Democrats, Kemp replied, ``Because it shows compassion, concern and kindness toward people who are less fortunate. Practically, it will result in a much expanded Republican Party, but, of greater importance, it will produce a more civil nation.''
Even when criticizing the ideas of Democrats, Kemp does it in a charitable way. The problem with the Great Society, he said, was not its objectives, which were good, but that it focused on redistributing income. ``What needs to be done,'' he said, ``is to increase individual income by increasing opportunities to earn money.''
Earlier in 1988, when he was a presidential candidate, Kemp said, ``We can't win an issueless, themeless, idealess campaign.'' No danger of that now. Bob Dole will have a surplus of ideas. And in Kemp, Dole has a genuinely likable guy, a wife and children who are a delight and a spirit that is infectious, even sweet, without being syrupy.
In his 1979 book ``An American Renaissance,'' Kemp wrote: ``Opportunity, the chance to make it and to improve your life, that's what the American Dream was and is all about. What poisons that dream is when government stands in the way, throwing up roadblocks that are really unnecessary. More and more people sense along the way that they're not going to fulfill their potential, not because of a deficiency in their ambition or ability, but because of a deficiency in the political structure. ... They believe, often rightly, that somehow the flaws of government have held them back or cut them down.''
When Jack Kemp thinks of hope, he doesn't think of a town in Arkansas. He thinks of what it will mean to Americans when there is no limit to what they and their country can achieve. Dole has made the most important decision of his campaign. He's right. Jack Kemp is more than a ``10.'' For the first time since the 1994 election, Republicans have hope.
Los Angeles Times Syndicate
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENTby CNB