My week inside the enemy camp turned out to be a lot more enlightening than I thought it would be. Sure, GOP chief Haley Barbour threw me off the convention floor, but I’m not so sure we’d want the likes of him lurking in dark corners next week in Chicago. Since it wasn’t my party, I didn’t have to run around putting out fires; instead, I could observe the controlled mayhem – and talk to reporters – from a comfortable distance. Here’s my grand conclusion. For all the GOP’s attempts to project an image of an inclusive party facing the future, Bob Dole made the contrast between himself and the president pretty clear: either we can repeat the cynical supply-side mistakes of the Reagan years (the ones Dole made fun of until he got desperate) or give President Clinton the chance to finish the job.
In some ways, the Republicans were successful at spackling over their differences. You couldn’t help but get caught up in the emotion of Nancy Reagan’s tribute. Colin Powell gave a fine performance, too. But here’s the problem: neither of the convention’s two most memorable speeches had anything to do with the Republican candidate. How many people saw the tear-jerker for Ronald Reagan or watched the retired general promote his views and then decided, ““That’s it, I’m voting for Bob Dole’’? Elizabeth Dole’s speech was better. Not because she could walk and talk and go on forever without a TelePrompTer, but because you thought Bob Dole was a more humane guy when she finished.
But then Dole got up and undid a lot of that good work. First off, his shots at President Clinton hurt Dole, and the party – especially all the Hillary-bashing. Big-bounce post-convention polls aside, I think the GOP would have gotten a better reaction from undecided voters if it had stayed away from spitting on the other guy. It only reminds people that despite all the make-nice talk, Republicans are mean after all. Fact is, people already have their perceptions of the president, some good, some not so good. What they wanted from the convention was to find out more about Dole, a guy they don’t know so much about. What they got was a slightly softer glimpse at his snide side.
And right about now, people at home are starting to total up all the things Dole promised in that speech – tax cuts, education vouchers, defense, and on and on – and wondering, how’s he going to pay for all this? Voters are suspicious, and Dole’s only answer is ““Oh yeah, we’re also going to balance the budget.''
I’m not complaining. The Republicans may have made our job a whole lot easier. In Chicago, the president’s got just one task: to convince working Americans that his economic plan, and his presidency, is a work in progress – it’s not done – and persuade them to let him have a chance to finish the job. If I had to reduce it to a theme, it’d be something like: ““Democrats – We’re Better Than You Think We Are.''
