ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, August 31, 1996 TAG: 9609030037
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Above
A GROUP OF UNDECIDED VOTERS found much to like in President Clinton's speech Thursday. But some worried about what wasn't said.
By the time "The Little Engine That Could" chugged its way into President Clinton's acceptance speech Thursday night, Susan Kern was wishing his train metaphors would lose steam.
"The train track analogy was really getting to me," said the Roanoke County woman. "When he brought up The Little Engine That Could, he was really pushing it to the outer limits of tolerance."
Kern is one of a group of undecided voters in the Roanoke Valley who were asked by The Roanoke Times to listen to the acceptance speeches for both Clinton and Republican challenger Bob Dole, then critique what they heard. She's quick to say that Clinton wasn't the only offender when it came to unimpressive rhetoric.
"Both candidates were skilled at red, white and blue rhetoric," she said. "Dole had magic solutions. Clinton had magic words. They're all playing with our minds."
In between references to the right track, the wrong track, the new track and the old track, Clinton managed to squeeze in some issues that caught Kern's attention as a public school teacher and parent of three. She recognized his proposal for college tuition tax credits as something that would benefit her personally, and she was pleased that he promised to provide more computers in classrooms like hers.
"He really did pinpoint issues important to people my age," she said.
Clinton didn't just score points with his fellow baby boomers, though. Janie Hardwicke, a retired school teacher and nurse from Dublin, said the president "acted like a gentleman."
"He just reminds me that he's a person that likes to get along with people," she said. "He said it would be a campaign of ideas and not of insults. The whole world is in kind of a mood to get straightened out, and I think this is a good man to lead the way. He doesn't blow his fuse easily."
And, if you get past the trains, Hardwicke said there were plenty of ideas in Clinton's speech.
"He is, fortunately, an exceptionally bright person, and he does give a good speech, and he's talented for coming up with creative ideas," she said. "This is a person that finds it easy to verbalize his ideas."
"In my eyes, he's a shrewd politician, and one thing he really does well is deliver a message," said King Harvey of Roanoke County. "He kind of had something for everybody. His speechwriter did a great job for him."
Harvey, a retired senior executive with the Internal Revenue Service, supports Clinton's ideas on education, gun control and tax credits for college and homeowners, but also recognizes that Congress would be a barrier to accomplishing them.
"When somebody promises you everything you have to say, `Wait a minute,''' he said.
Thais CherBo Barnett of Bedford County began to feel like "something for everybody" was too much to tackle in one speech.
"I wished it had been a little shorter," she said of Clinton's speech, which ran over an hour.
Still, she said, "He wowed the people. He wowed me."
Like Kern, Barnett found that some of Clinton's ideas spoke directly to her own experiences, particularly his proposal for tuition tax breaks that would enable every American to have at least two years of college education.
"There's a lot of kids out there, and I was one of them, that the opportunity is not necessarily there," she said. "I was thinking `Well, why didn't he say this four years ago?'''
Katie Yates, a Church of the Brethren minister from Roanoke County, would have stuck it out even longer if Clinton had addressed the one issue he avoided: religion.
"I appreciated him touching upon every subject possible in his speech, but was slightly disappointed in his not even giving mention of the Christian community," she said.
Still, she said she was impressed with the president's ideas.
"Dan Rather quoted someone as having said that a 'liberal' was someone who was too broad-minded to take his own side in an argument. I didn't see that from Clinton [Thursday] night," she said. "He had quite a few more definite ideas and goals for the people of our country."
One she liked was a tax credit for companies that hire former welfare recipients.
"I cheered his act of placing the burden of getting people off welfare from the shoulders of the American government and onto the shoulders of the American people who can and should make the difference - those able to hire them into jobs," she said.
However, Bill Nye of Dublin was a bit troubled by that idea and another proposal to create a program for recruiting literacy volunteers.
He said the literacy program would simply overlap with existing literacy groups, and he was fearful that the tax breaks would encourage businesses to lay off their existing low-income workers.
Nevertheless, Nye, who stayed up late for the speech even though he is recuperating from surgery, came away with a positive feeling.
"I like the way he stressed hope, because that's what we thrive on," said Nye, who is retired from farming and a job at Hercules. "None of the things he mentioned are specific, but they give you hope."
While he's feeling hopeful, he still counts himself among the undecided voters.
"If I had to go out today, I'd still have to do some deep soul-searching before I cast my vote," he said.
Bruce Prillaman, an industrial purchasing agent from Roanoke County, had his own concerns about the literacy and welfare worker tax cut programs. He warned that they would create more bureaucracy since some agency would be required to recruit literacy volunteers and another would be required to keep records on which companies are hiring welfare workers.
"I don't want more government," he said. "I want better, more-streamlined government."
Prillaman said what he was really looking for in Clinton's speech were clues to "where he's coming from and how he makes decisions." He didn't find many, and said he's still undecided.
"I have a good feeling for Dole the man," he said. "I don't have a good feeling for Clinton the man."
Bob Benoit of Blacksburg, on the other hand, was looking for something different: an agenda he can trace through the rest of the presidential campaign.
"I was pleased he laid out the things that need to appear in the presidential debates," said the Virginia Tech biology professor.
As do most of the panel members, Benoit wants more specifics. He wants to hear more about deficit reduction and Clinton's education proposals. He feels Medicare, which got only a brief mention in the president's speech, is important enough to get more attention. Finally, he wants to know both candidates' plans for getting any of their proposals through Congress.
Benoit said he didn't expect to get all of that in a single convention speech. He just wanted a starting off point, and that's exactly what he got from Clinton's speech.
"I liked it because it did give an agenda," he said. "I would hope the debates bring out the specifics."
LENGTH: Long : 132 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshots) Harvey, Nye, Barnett, kern. color.by CNBHardwicke. Benoit, Yates, Prillaman. KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENT