Only Forbes Able To Relate To Voters

Robert Dole stood in an Iowa auditorium last Wednesday and fired an angry shot at his challengers. The issue these days, he said, is not who can make noise. “The real question is: Who produces?”

His challenge inspired members of his audience, mostly folks in jeans, to shuffle their feet.

If that moment portends anything, 1996 will be the dullest exciting year in American political history. With barely six weeks remaining before Republican voters begin selecting a presidential nominee, Dole has eviscerated his fellow Nixonkinder, Phil Gramm and Lamar Alexander, by stealing the issues they hoped would earn them a place in history.

The two pretenders have deepened their predicament by failing to generate any real excitement among voters. Gramm seems to think of leadership as a rite of butchery, best performed by guys who brandish sharp, glinting blades. And Alexander has adopted the Mr. Rogers approach to power: He governs best who bores the most.

If voters find Dole dull, imagine the impact of Alexander and Gramm, who have defined themselves as Dole mutants - folks who share his agenda, but not his style. If either candidacy collapses in the wilds of New Hampshire, will anybody notice?

One man will: Steve Forbes. While career politicians have bobbed helplessly in Dole’s wake, Forbes has managed to move quietly into the No. 2 spot in Iowa and New Hampshire. One recent internal poll even places him atop the heap among likely Arizona voters.

The bespectacled tycoon has become a matinee idol because he understands the first rule of seduction: Talk more about your love object than yourself.

While Dole invites people to consider the nuances of his long legislative career, Forbes talks about stuff voters understand. He reminds everyone about his five daughters - thus bringing a wince to every parent who worries about teen-age sex, drugs, crime, educational failure and fascination with lugubrious bands from Seattle.

He complains about the Byzantine tax code and promotes a flat tax so simple that workers could put the necessary information on a postcard: “Having a wonderful time. Glad most of my money is here.” (Nothing like a laugh at the taxman’s expense.)

Forbes seems to understand that Americans are tired of listening to legislators, including Newt Gingrich Himself, who talk as if they were reared on a spaceship by folks who had only read books about the United States.

Of the Republicans chasing the presidency, only the rich kid Forbes speaks common English. He doesn’t rant about CBO growth estimates. He reminds crowds that a good government just gets out of the way and lets men and women take care of their daily business - working, paying bills, saving for the future and trying to figure out how to balance love, ambition and familial obligations.

This is a new kind of populism. Forbes worships success and doesn’t seem embarrassed by the fact that he has accomplished a fair amount in his short and privileged life. It’s fun watching him tweak his stone-faced foes by noting that he has chatted with more living, breathing world leaders than any of them - with the possible exception of Richard Lugar.

If Pat Buchanan is the muse of angry gringos, Steve Forbes plays Bing Crosby for the optimists among us. He appeals to people who cherish their dreams more than their frustrations.

And now, as 1996 begins, he is poised to play a pivotal role in the elections. GOP partisans seem ready to nominate the Senate majority leader, but many party regulars look forward to a Dole candidacy the way men anticipate prostate exams - as an unpleasant formality.

Bill Clinton would like nothing more than to face a Republican who talks in clipped syntax about legislative processes. He smoked one of them in 1992, and his folks consider Dole easy pickings.

But their strategy could collapse if Dole were to begin humming a few bars of Forbes’ melody. While the president can feel people’s pain, Forbes appreciates their hopes and ambitions. That’s a crucial nuance, since people naturally prefer cheery neighbors to leeches who hover at the bedside, wearing practiced sad faces.

Jack Kemp’s Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform will release guidelines next week for a kinder, gentler, simpler tax code. Dole created that outfit, and he can seize its report to appropriate some of Forbes’ sunny, flat-tax message.

If he passes up the opportunity, watch out. Malcolm Stevenson Forbes Jr. could shock everybody - and emerge as the GOP standard-bearer himself.

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