THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 10, 1996 TAG: 9603080006
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: PERRY MORGAN
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
Lmar[sic] Alexander's gone but his question lingers: How in the world is Bob Dole going to keep his head above water in debates with Bill Clinton? Dole sharpened the question during the early primaries, avoiding debate when he could and messing up when he did participate in South Carolina.
Asked a simple, direct question about abortion, he wrongly stated his well-known position and looked tense and edgy in the process, very much the ingenue waiting for the prompter. Sure, this in small part might have been because he knew every word was being weighed for use against him by litmus-test elements of the party who distrust the compromising that is Dole's art and craft. But for the most part, Dole in debate appears like a cow on ice because verbal sparring goes against his nature. He has the spare language of the flat country places of his youth where getting to the point was important, and words were picked over like scarce coins in a palm.
Perhaps he despises the artifice - the need, under the gun, to finesse complex questions with quick, rounded responses that are not answers at all. Surely he tires of holding the temper that got him a reputation for meanness during a debate with Walter Mondale in 1976 and raised the question of whether Gerald Ford had sunk his own re-election chances by picking Dole as his running mate. But the best assessment has come from a woman voter in South Carolina who exclaimed: ``Why, the man can't talk.'' Not easily from a text and not more than a few strained sentences off the cuff when the pressure's on.
Following his eight-state sweep on Tuesday, Dole said Republicans have ``elected a leader'' - meaning, it slowly dawned, himself. He often speaks of himself as a third person. The political stage has places for different kinds of leaders, but presidential nominee is a speaking part, and at that Bill Clinton is gifted. Pat Buchanan also is gifted - and merciless; it pleases him to say on camera and to Dole's face that his candidacy is ``vapid'' and, for emphasis, ``empty.''
Not so, but it certainly appears that way. Dole is being borne to victory on the shoulders of governors and senators who speak, work and flex their organizations for him. The senator just shows up and, when possible, hands off the microphone. The argument for his candidacy issues not from his mouth but from a life story (vividly contrasting with Clinton's) that doubtless will make a memorable campaign movie.
The other part is his record as a loyal broker who can be counted upon to mesh, adjust and serve the various and competing interests of his party.
Dole is history alive, part of a Republican Party that once vied to extend the New Deal and now sounds retreat. In this period, as columnist Mary McGrory observes, Dole doesn't want to highlight his work for civil rights and food stamps or, one can add, his pre-Gingrich willingness to curb entitlements and raise taxes to fight deficits. In this time of attack commercials, no principled stand is likely to go unpunished. So how to extract the essence and balance of Dole's record and get it through a mouth with a Gary Cooper clamp is a very hard question.
In any event, Dole's nomination seems at hand and so does a public rationale for his election. He would end the stalemate between the Congress and the White House and allow the presumptive majority party to govern. The question is whether a fickle public that has flinched from GOP ``revolutionaries'' like Phil Gramm and Newt Gingrich will find that a promising or a fearful prospect.
Will voters prefer to take their fiscal medicine from Dr. Clinton or Dr. Dole or (who knows?) not take it at all? Neither Clinton nor Dole yet knows the answer, but when the debate comes Clinton will have an advantage other than a supple tongue and long practice in talking himself out of tight places. As to issues, positions and philosophy, Clinton is as mobile as Dole will be fixed. His refusal to stay in character could vex Dole, and on the record a vexed Dole either clams up or blows up. Lamar Alexander most likely will warm up his television set before the bout begins. MEMO: Mr. Morgan is a former publisher of The Virginian-Pilot.
by CNB