ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 28, 1996 TAG: 9608280065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
THE CONVENTION RATINGS according to this little poll stacked up somewhere between ``ho-hum'' and ``no way.''
For the folks working at Angle Florist in downtown Christiansburg Tuesday, the first night of the national Democratic Convention in Chicago amounted to a big yawn.
"I just wasn't interested, to be frank with you," said Rachel Wimmer, a widow who said she had "pretty much" decided already how she was going to vote.
She said she preferred to read about the issues.
Wimmer's only connection with the start of the Democratic Party presidential campaign Monday night came when she talked to her sister-in-law on the phone. Her sister-in-law had glimpsed President Clinton during one of his cross-country train stops.
"She just told me that," Wimmer said. "She didn't act excited about it at all."
"I just watched a little bit," said Assistant Manager Herbert Simpkins, an admitted channel surfer. "I saw [former Reagan Press Secretary James] Brady come on the stage. But after that, I switched to something else."
Simpkins has not yet certain how he will vote in November, preferring "a wait-and-see attitude." But he did not think watching either party's convention would sway him one way or the other. "It's really not going to make any difference, anyway," he said. "They don't do what they say they're going to do."
"I watched that Nashville Channel," said Kaula Dowdy. She has watched political conventions in past years, but just did not feel it would be worth her time this year. "I don't know, just don't care for it," she said.
She thinks she has decided how she will vote, anyway, which is one reason she has not been interested in the conventions.
Bryan Bowen is 17 but will be 18 in time to vote in November, and has already decided which candidate he will support. He chose to watch a 1992 Eddie Murphy movie, "The Distinguished Gentleman," during the convention coverage.
One reason, he said, was that he had watched part of the National Republican Convention in San Diego and it turned him off. "I couldn't believe they put the other opponent's name in the mud like they did," he said.
Kevin Mann, 20, had the same reaction from his brief glimpse of the GOP gathering. "I watched, like, a couple minutes of it but I didn't watch that much," he said, "mainly because of the same reason - bashing Clinton real bad. I just didn't feel like listening to it."
He figured he would hear similar bashing of Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole at this convention, so he skipped it, too.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: PAUL DELLINGER. At Angle Florist, Herbert Simpkinsby CNB(left), Rachel Wimmer, Bryan Bowen and Kaula Dowdy all switched
channels. KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENT