ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 13, 1996 TAG: 9610140007
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: guest column
SOURCE: THOMAS L. DEBUSK
Political conventions are like circuses. Flags wave and balloons drop. Posters, buttons and confetti smother everything in sight. Music blares and the crowd rises to its feet, begging for more while speakers parade gallantly through the center ring.
Media acts dominate another ring. With 10 journalists per delegate, it's easy to see why. Photographers at the Republican convention vaulted through the crowd just to bag the Christian Coalition's Ralph Reed smiling at fellow delegates.
They performed death-defying leaps over chairs to snap a delegate with enough moxie to mix church and state with a religious slogan on his T-shirt and Dole/Kemp signs in his hands.
Like prancing lions, many of the major media types looked pretty bored when they weren't performing. One prankster slapped a Dole/Kemp sticker on Sam Donaldson just to liven him up a little. It worked.
Delegates of all shapes and stripes cascaded through the third ring, each with a unique story about how they got there. One woman covered herself with political buttons from events she'd participated in, then told the screening committee about each one to win a spot on the state convention ballot.
Two delegates, husband and wife, got automatic seats because they were the only candidates to make the filing deadline. Several other people duked it out at their district convention for the single remaining slot. Another delegate had no trouble getting elected, but couldn't find the money to finance the trip until the week before the convention.
Why did we make the effort?
Because unlike circuses, political conventions do more than entertain. We Republicans convened in San Diego with a single purpose: to nominate the next president of the United States.
That's a responsibility we took very seriously. We didn't intend to nominate a sideshow freak with an embarrassing history. So it's no accident the man we picked isn't much of an entertainer.
But he'll make a fine president.
I wasn't a huge Bob Dole fan before the convention. I'm still not. But I know we won't be worrying about what he's doing when the cameras aren't watching. With Bob Dole what you see is what you get.
And what will we get? A man who said "Yes!" when his country sent out the call to fight, then pushed aside crippling injuries to aspire to the highest office in the land. We'll get a man wise enough to surround himself with trustworthy people of like character and conviction.
A man with enough faith in the rest of us to say, "Their message is my mandate: to rein in government and reconnect it to the values of the American people."
Shameless pandering? I don't think so. Bob Dole understands the difference between putting on a good performance and running the greatest country on earth. We've already seen what kind of circus results when the man at the top gets the two confused. I think it's time we gave Bob Dole a chance.
Thomas DeBusk, a Blacksburg native, started law school this fall in Virginia Beach.
LENGTH: Medium: 61 linesby CNB