Gop Candidates Are Polite, For Now
In a polite prelude to next winter’s primary battles, the Republican presidential contenders stuck to their scripts and struck few sparks Wednesday night in the first televised forum of the ‘96 campaign.
The 10 GOP candidates, appearing together at a New Hampshire TV station, heeded the warnings of local Republican leaders to keep to the issues and avoid attacking one another during the 90-minute program.
Sen. Bob Dole, the early leader in the Republican race, focused his fire on President Clinton, accusing him of “using the presidency to spread fear and divide us” in his re-election bid.
Asked if age would be an issue in the campaign, Dole, 72, attempted to dismiss the question with a joke, as Ronald Reagan did in a 1984 debate.
Turning to the nine rivals seated behind him, the senator remarked: “They look all right to me.”
“I’m not going to make health care an issue in the 1996 race,” added Dole, who would be the oldest man ever to become president. “I’m in good health, and if any of these fellows want to follow me around for a few days, they’ll find out.”
Aides to several opposing candidates were critical of Dole’s performance, pointing to a passage in his closing remarks that he appeared to read from a prepared script.
“And why do I want to be president? Because I will not permit the slow decline of America, a country that I love,” said the senator, who has often been criticized for lacking a clear vision of why he wants to be president.
Several rivals, including Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, made vague allusions to Dole’s reputation as a deal-cutting insider and implied that he was a prisoner of the status quo in Washington. But they steered clear of any sharp criticism.
Gramm, during a pre-debate rally with cheering, whistling local supporters, dared Dole to sign a pledge reaffirming his commitment to a $245 billion tax cut. But during the TV forum, the Texan never brought it up; a Dole aide dismissed the challenge as “old news.”
The debate format was designed to give the candidates a chance to showcase their largely similar conservative credentials to the conservative GOP electorate of the first primary state, and most of them took advantage of it, presenting condensed versions of their stump speeches and campaign commercials.
A technical glitch provided the only real surprise of the evening, when the lighting on the set failed for about five minutes at the start of the program. “We promise there’ll be plenty of light shed on the debate at some point,” quipped New Hampshire Gov. Steve Merrill, who was speaking at the time.
Billed as an important event in the Republican contest, the forum was the first opportunity for a large audience of ordinary voters in a key state to see and hear the candidates. The event was broadcast in prime time on WMUR-TV, the state’s most-watched station, and carried into millions of homes nationwide by CNN.
Figures weren’t immediately available on the size of the viewing audience. But the forum’s sponsors dodged a potentially disastrous conflict when a planned TV interview of O.J. Simpson was canceled; however, the political broadcast still had to compete with the baseball playoffs for viewer attention.
Patrick J. Buchanan, who finished second in the New Hampshire primary four years ago, called for term limits and other political reforms in Washington, a position echoed by two other “outsider” candidates in the race, former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander and millionaire publisher Malcolm S. “Steve” Forbes Jr.
Rep. Bob Dornan used the event to announce that he was filing for reelection to his California congressional seat but intended to remain in the presidential race.
Alan Keyes of Maryland, a fervent opponent of abortion, delivered the sharpest retort of the evening. He upbraided moderator Carl Cameron, telling him to “stop asking that stupid question,” in response to a query about legislating morality.
And Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, one of the longest shots in the field, tried the only real stunt of the evening, holding up an outsized tax form for the cameras, to dramatize his proposal for a national sales tax.
With the primary still four months away, most New Hampshire voters have yet to settle firmly on a candidate, according to a recent poll. The statewide survey, conducted by Dartmouth College, found that up to two of every three Republicans in the state would consider switching their allegiance if Colin Powell were to enter the race.
Dole remains the clear favorite of New Hampshire Republicans, as he has been since he announced his candidacy in February. The Kansas senator was the first choice of 35 percent of likely primary voters, according to the Dartmouth poll. Buchanan, Forbes, Alexander and Gramm trailed, with less than 10 percent each.