THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 12, 1996 TAG: 9602120056
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
Here's how the GOP presidential race looks near tomorrow's finale.
Front-runner Bob Dole has bottomed out after losing upward of 15 percent of a 40 percent cushion. Pat Buchanan, a camel scenting water, is coming on strong, pulling heavily from the vote-rich Christian Coalition.
Strolling with his wife onto the platform of a pro-family rally, he called: ``Shelly is working on some changes in the White House Travel Office if you want a job!''
He gave a little cackling laugh as if astounded by his own quip. With a generous nose, squinty eyes, full ruddy cheeks and a flair for saying the unexpected, Buchanan has an air of a W.C. Fields.
In 1992 at the Houston GOP convention, he set off a shock wave by declaring a cultural war for the soul of America. Now he draws applause with far fiercer war cries. How far he goes shows how far the nation has come - or gone.
Told by a reporter that House Speaker Newt Gingrich would not feel comfortable with Buchanan as president, Buchanan said, ``Newt will just have to be uncomfortable.''
Ralph Reed, Pat Robinson's field general, said Sunday that coalition support for Steve Forbes was ``dropping dramatically like a rock from an upper story of a building.''
Reed estimated that Lamar Alexander would draw 10 to 15 percent of the coalition. Alexander is climbing after wandering around Iowa, his big bare face hanging out, like the fellow in the song yelling for Chloe in the swamp.
Becoming much more animated, he has dropped his tiresome theme about being an outsider after working in Washington for two presidents. Now if he would just hang up that cliche prop of a red flannel shirt, maybe we could see if Alexander is great.
Asked where he might place tomorrow, Alexander reckoned that, ``Dole and Forbes will persuade the voters that the two of them were right in what they were saying about each other, and I will run better than expected.''
All fired up, despite his loss to Buchanan in Louisiana, Gramm assured the pro-family rally: ``I haven't lost my ability to be outraged,'' adding, ``I don't want people coming to America with their hand out. I want them to come with their sleeves rolled up ready to work!''
But work is what those infiltrating the border want, even illegal work at near-starvation wages.
Of Buchanan, Gramm said: ``His economic views are kooky, he wants to build a wall around America.''
And, of Forbes: ``He can dish it out, but he can't take it.''
Forbes, with little peep eyes, fixed smile and robotic delivery, shows a lack of charisma that becomes charismatic.
With $22 million in negative advertising, he shook up the race, galvanizing the others. In plugging the flat tax, he tried to do to the income tax what Ross Perot did to the deficit.
His left arm chopping the air constantly, he said, ``The only thing to do with the income tax is scrap it and kill it and drive a stake through its heart and bury it so that it will never rise again to terrorize the American people.''
With all the emphasis on family, Forbes enlisted the aid of his wife and their five daughters during the closing stage of the campaign.
She listened to him with a proud smile and worshipful expression. When the family moved from point to point, the daughters were scurrying along like so many biddies to keep pace with their parents.
There was something touching about the family's sudden wholesale entrance into what was obviously a new experience.
It all beats the circus all hollow. ILLUSTRATION: Dole
Forbes
Gramm
Alexander
Buchanan
by CNB