THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 20, 1996 TAG: 9602200021
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
AS THE BALLOTS are tallied in the New Hampshire primary tonight, Portsmouth's very own Bill Schneider will take his place on camera next to CNN anchorman Bernard Shaw to explain how and why the vote went the way it did.
He is Bill Schneider, analyst. Not Bill Schneider, commentator.
The difference?
``Commentators say, `This is what happened today, and here's what I think about it.' Analysts say, `This is what happened today, and here's what it means.' I'm an analyst. I'm an explainer,'' Schneider said at a recent gathering of TV writers in Los Angeles before dashing off to Iowa and New Hampshire.
From Portsmouth, where he was educated in the public schools and had teachers who also taught his mother, Doris, Schneider moved to Brandeis U. in Waltham, Mass., and later earned a Ph.D. in political science at Harvard. CNN plucked him from academia six years ago.
His face may not be as familiar to the CNN audience as Larry King's, but Schneider's profile is rising as the election year rolls on. He is seen weekdays at 4 and 8:30 p.m. on ``Inside Politics,'' Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on ``Inside Politics Weekend.'' And there is no getting away from him as CNN covers primaries, conventions and the November elections.
Mostly, it's live television. It's analysis on deadline. It's intense. It's pressure.
``It happens immediately,'' said Schneider. ``There isn't much time to let the information settle in. I have to be fast in figuring out what I'm going to say.''
Schneider doesn't ramble. Shaw throws him a question. Schneider answers with sentences that are short, to the point.
Will Bob Dole's age become an issue? He's 72. ``If he begins to look worn down, his age is likely to become an issue.''
Now Shaw on ``Inside Politics'' is calling for polls to be analyzed.
Schneider has distilled the results of five polls into an up-to-date picture of the Republican campaign.
The explainer explains. ``The polls show Buchanan gaining steadily since the Iowa caucuses. He's now catching up with Dole.''
Shaw is impressed. ``You make those numbers so easy to understand.''
He's a tall man, 51, who wears glasses, favors whites shirts and wide ties, has white hair on top where there is hair. If you were casting him in a movie, you'd give him the role of college dean.
In Schneider, CNN hired a man of many pursuits - resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, a contributor to The Los Angeles Times, National Journal and The Atlantic Monthly. He recently held the O'Neill visiting professorship of American politics at Boston College.
``I write. I teach. I do television.''
That's Schneider on Schneider.
His resume dazzles.
He is a proud mother's son.
``I talk people to death about him,'' said Doris Schneider in Portsmouth.
Of his schooling in Portsmouth, Schneider said, ``It was a superlative school system that prepared me to compete. I had some great teachers. I never felt deprived of an education because I went to public schools.''
He left Portsmouth for Brandeis with a $2,000 scholarship from The Ledger-Star.
With only a handful of electoral votes, Virginia doesn't figure to be a major player in the November elections. Or does it? Here is analysis from the man called the Aristotle of American politics by The Boston Globe:
``If the Republicans lose Virginia, they can't win the presidential election. Virginia is critical as part of the new Republican Southern base. If they hope to win, the Republicans must hold Virginia just as the Democrats must hold New York if they hope to win.
``The politicians will be paying a lot of attention to Virginia this year.'' by CNB