THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 16, 1996 TAG: 9608160551
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A15 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
LENGTH: 71 lines
Thursday night, gone was the faltering Bob Dole of the early race. He was dapper, glowing, and his deep voice conveyed assurance and energy.
``By the way, I talked to Ronald Reagan this afternoon,'' he said, ``and I told him we will win one more for the Gipper!!'' The crowd roared.
Absent, too, was any mention of the deficit.
Bob Dole made a five-page speech to the Republican convention without discussing or even mentioning the nation's fearful deficit. In San Diego that is the discouraging word that is never heard, as the prairie song says.
Dole repeated the broad outlines of his economic package that has at its heart a budget-busting $540 billion tax cut. It was designed to jump-start Dole's campaign.
Dole listed the goodies of how much people would receive in tax cuts, but he never even indicated how he would find revenue to pay for the package.
In the presidential race of 1992, the issue of the deficit was a major one thanks to third party candidate H. Ross Perot yapping at the heels of the two major candidates. It may still be in the minds of many, especially baby boomers who have their own growing boomlets and worry how much longer Social Security and Medicare will be there.
Still to be seen is whether the voters have forgotten the dire forecasts of the looming deficit. They will be reminded Sunday when the Reform Party nominates either Richard Lamm or Perot as its candidate. But Dole touched on the issue of his advancing years that may worry some voters.
``Age has its advantages,'' he said, like Ulysses in Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem preparing for one last fling at adventure.
``Let me be the bridge to an America that only the unknowing call myth. Let me be a bridge to a time of tranquillity, faith and confidence in action. To those who say it was never so that America has not been better, I say, you're wrong, and I know, because I was there. I have seen it, I remember.''
And in a sense denying his rosy scenario, Dole said that our nation though wounded and scathed has outlasted revolution, civil war, world war, racial oppression and economic catastrophe.
``We have fought and prevailed on almost every continent and almost every sea. We have even lost but we have lasted and we have always come through.''
The social chaos may be attributed to the ``virtual devastation of the American family, the rock on which this country was founded. We are told it takes a village, that is the collective, and thus the state to raise a child.'' (``It Takes A Village'' is the title of a child-rearing book by Hillary Clinton.)
The state is more involved than ever in raising children and they are more neglected, abused and mistreated, he said.
``This is not a coincidence and with all due respect, I am here to tell you: It does not take a village to raise a child, it takes a family.''
Dole scolded teachers unions: ``If education were a war, we would be losing it. If it were a business, you would be driving into bankruptcy. If it were a patient, it would be dieing.''
He charged Clinton with failing to provide adequately for our future defense. ``For whatever reason his neglect, it is irresponsible.''
He promised to set the nation on a course that will end our vulnerability to missile attack and rebuild our armed forces. And he warned terrorists, ``America will pursue you to the edge of the Earth.''
He said he would never commit the American soldier to an ordeal without the prospect of victory.
At nearly every sentence, waves of applause crashed across the hall.
At one point, telling how his father had traveled by train from Kansas to Michigan, he noted that his feet were swollen from standing the entire way.
``My father was poor. And I love my father. Do you imagine for one minute that as I sign the bills that set the economy free I will not be faithful to Americans in need? You can be certain that I will, for to do otherwise would be to betray those whom I love and honor most, and I will betray nothing!''
They arose, applauding.
KEYWORDS: REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION 1996 by CNB