For Idaho’s GOP delegation chairman Blake Hall, the difference between Bob Dole and Bill Clinton is the difference between real life and Hollywood.

To prove his point Monday, he introduced the 23 Idaho delegates to the Republican National Convention to Adrian Cronauer, the Armed Forces Radio disc jockey who was played by Robin Williams in the movie, “Good Morning, Vietnam.”

“I see where Robin Williams will be going to Chicago” to the Democratic National Convention, Hall said. “It’s typical that the Democrats would settle for a cheap imitation. We have the real thing.”

Cronauer, now a Washington lawyer, Republican activist and co-chairman of Veterans for Dole, was one of three speakers sent by the Dole campaign to rally the state delegations on the first day of the convention. Also speaking were Lyn Nofzinger, a former political adviser to Ronald Reagan, and Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson.

“Now, I find veterans around the country are disgusted with the prospect of having a commander in chief who was one of those longhaired hippies,” Cronauer said. “Veterans are appalled that we have a chief executive, a man who talks so glibly and piously about service, who refused to serve his country in uniform.”

In fact, he said, Clinton “pulled more strings than Jim Henson to avoid it.”