THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 TAG: 9602140376
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Nothing humanizes as abruptly as defeat. Conceding in Iowa, Phil Gramm said, ``I leave this state with a heart full of love.''
His hard, obdurate face seemed rimless, softened nigh to tears, a tender-hearted gramps.
He is withdrawing from the race. Often cross-grained, he fought for what he believed.
Bob Dole blurts what's on his mind. Instead of florid rhetoric on winning, he worked his way like a saw through a knothole, saying: ``Maybe I can't offer you eloquence, but I can offer you a lifetime of Midwestern common sense.''
Isn't common sense an even rarer commodity than rhetoric? Beneath Dole's rugged exterior runs a sentimental streak. Later he said he would associate Iowa with a song he heard while rehabilitating from war wounds, ``You never walk alone.''
``I think I'll just stay where I am, a main-stream conservative who gets things done.'' In the center, Dole must try to pull conservatives from Pat Buchanan and moderates from Lamar Alexander.
Buchanan, talking nonstop the last day with 20 radio hosts, finished just behind Dole, with the help of the religious right and those who fear for their jobs.
He'd heard Bill Clinton wanted to run against him. Brash Buchanan shouted, ``Mr. President, Mr. President, you're the fella I want to run against!''
His showing is not that of one man, it's a movement, he said, ``for a cause that's larger than all of us, a new spirited conservatism from the heart.''
Has there ever been an optimist as entrenched as Steve Forbes? He proclaimed his fourth-place finish a ``a good springboard to New Hampshire.''
Next day he was rethinking his campaign. Critics say he should have stopped negative ads a week before the caucus - or, even better, never have started them.
He should have stayed on course plugging the flat tax and counterpunching when his foes piled on.
Now fire the negativists on leave from Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C. Their harsh tactics don't play outside North Carolina.
First to reach a mike to claim victory came sly, slip-sliding Alexander, saying he could ``paint a brighter picture'' of America's future in a two-way race with Dole.
Reminded that Buchanan had finished a close second to Dole, he said, ``Pat's message is wrong for our party and our country, and he shouldn't be our nominee.''
What he wanted to do, he told the interviewers, having already undercut Dole and Buchanan, was ``talk about the country's future and leave to you the politics.''
Informed that the White House was said to be worried about him, Alexander replied, ``I hope they are and I think perhaps they should be. They're afraid of running against somebody from the real world.''
He said Dole had been a ``legislative engineer'' since 1960. ``I'm a visionary architect. He's good at getting a bill out of committee, not the one to debate Bill Clinton.''
But, he said, ``Dole ought to have a chance to say something first.''
But may not Clinton feign to favor Alexander because he wants to run against him? That's why they call him slick Willie. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Phil Gramm is withdrawing from the race. So be it. In any soap
opera, you miss anybody who drops out.
by CNB