THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 9, 1996 TAG: 9603080021
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
It appears that Sen. Robert Dole will be the Republican nominee for president and face Bill Clinton in the fall. After a slow start in the primaries, his string of victories has chased all other mainstream Republicans from the contest, including Sen. Richard Lugar and former Gov. Lamar Alexander.
That leaves only the self-funded, quixotic campaign of diehard supply-sider Steve Forbes and Pat Buchanan's divisive populist crusade. And even Buchanan admits Dole is now the likely nominee. He's got the money, the middle ground and the party apparatus.
What Dole has lacked is enthusiastic support, probably because a Dole candidacy is a mixed blessing for Republicans. He's got stature and gravitas and is a brilliantly effective legislator. He can play off his maturity against Clinton's fecklessness. But he has shortcomings.
Dole's age is a problem for many voters. If elected, he'd be 78 at the end of his first term. He's also a consummate Washington insider and professional politician at a time when that's anathema. The Republicans would love to run against Clinton on the basis of Whitewater, Hillary's cattle futures, the cronyism of travelgate, but a Dole candidacy makes too much complaint about wheeling and dealing impossible.
Dole jets around the country on corporate planes, has a long history of passing legislation favorable to heavy contributors and, in Liddy, has a wife as high-powered as Hillary with sweetheart deals of her own to answer for.
As to Dole's experience, cutting deals as a legislator does not require the same skills as are expected of a chief executive. In fact, Dole has never run a large organization. His campaigns have been faulted for disorganization, and he's notorious for refusing to delegate.
Another skill presidents ought to possess is the ability to use the bully pulpit, to lead by articulating a vision. So far, Dole has proved incapable of doing so. He's fast with a quip and lapses easily into campaign boilerplate, but appears to lack passion or conviction. His stands on the issues often seem to be a function of how many votes he can round up.
This isn't surprising. Aside from a prairie aversion to debt and a World War II soldier's commitment to a strong defense, Dole has steered by few fixed stars. He's been a legislative mechanic loyally serving a variety of Republican masters.
For Nixon, he voted for legislation now denounced by his own party as social engineering and ran a bitterly partisan National Committee. He was Ford's attack dog running mate. For Reagan, he helped pass supply-side budgets despite his own qualms about debt. When revenues were needed, he helped raise them. That caused Newt Gingrich to brand him ``the tax collector for the welfare state.''
As president in a time of Republican revolution, Dole would presumably follow the lead of Congress. But presidents are expected to do the leading, not the following. And Clinton has demonstrated the dangers of too much malleability in the White House.
Dole's poor showing in the early primaries reflects his lack of appeal for key Republican constituencies. Many social conservatives don't feel he shares their zeal, despite an impeccable voting record. Supply-siders know he's not of their persuasion. And anti-government Perot and Buchanan supporters dismiss him as Washington incarnate. What happens in the fall if large swatches of the party are lukewarm toward the nominee?
Personally, Dole has a dark streak that occasionally surfaces and is unlikely to play well against Clinton's irrepressible can-do attitude. The contrast between Clinton's upbeat State of the Union Address and Dole's dour response was not in Dole's favor. And in a debate with the glib Clinton, Dole could be outclassed.
The race now looks like a matchup of two candidates with great talents, but also with serious flaws. It will pit the last World War II candidate against the first baby-boomer president. Age against youth. A pessimist against an optimist. A pragmatic legislator against an airy visionary. A Democrat implausibly proclaiming the era of big government is over against a Republican proclaiming - what? ILLUSTRATION: SENATOR DOLE
by CNB