THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, March 16, 1996               TAG: 9603160010
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A10  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   43 lines

BOB DOLE IS OF PRESIDENTIAL QUALITY

It appears that Sen. Bob Dole will survive the crucible of the Republican primaries and will become the challenger to Bill Clinton.

Dole vs. Clinton is an easy contest for me. Dole is a serious leader who has served the majority of his career as a minority party member in Congress. The rap he gets as a compromiser is perhaps more a badge of honor than shame. When the Democrats wanted to raise taxes and Dole did not have the votes to stop it, his only recourse was to diminish or slow down the increase with negotiation. If the Republicans can hold or increase their majority in Congress, there will be little or no need for compromises by a Republican president.

Dole's willingness to continue in a minority status for so many years in Congress with little influence shows a fortitude I can respect.

My fear is that the election will be a pandering beauty contest rather than deciding who has the better experience, judgment and integrity to serve as president. When our president stands up and tells me that I or my son must go to a foreign land and put our life on the line because of a vital national interest, I must be able to believe him. How can I believe anything Bill Clinton says when even he doesn't believe it?

When I think of the future federal judicial appointments, tax policies, educational decisions, criminal-justice initiatives and economic policies to be decided by the next president, the choice is easy for me. I have had four years of Bill Clinton and his crowd of adolescents running the country without a User's Manual. They swerve left at every opportunity and veer right only when the political wind forces their hand.

We desperately need respect, dignity and competence at the top of the American pyramid. Where I can find these qualities in Bob Dole, they are sorely missing from the current occupants of the White House.

BOB PERRY

Virginia Beach, March 7, 1996 by CNB