ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 18, 1996 TAG: 9608190088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Above
Bruce Prillaman's favorite part of Bob Dole's acceptance speech wasn't even in the speech at all.
"What impressed me the most was the video that preceded it," said the industrial purchasing agent from Roanoke County. "I'm interested in where a guy's coming from and how he makes decisions. The man came through some adversity. He's been there and done that, and anybody that can get through what he did is made of pretty good stuff."
But five minutes into Dole's speech, he had run out of that good stuff and was "pandering to everybody and his brother," Prillaman said.
While many viewers who tuned into the Republican National Convention Thursday night might have reached for the remote, Prillaman stuck with Dole to the end. Prillaman is on a panel of undecided voters in Western Virginia who have agreed to critique the acceptance speeches of Dole and President Clinton, who will be renominated at the Democratic convention Aug.29.
Most agreed Dole isn't a great speaker but turned that into an asset, saying they could better identify with the former Senate majority leader.
"Even if I don't agree with everything he said, I think he was very believable," said Sarah Honer, a third-year college student from Roanoke who will be casting her first vote for president this November. "He was very real in his speech. He'd kind of stutter, and he kept clutching that pencil."
Dole's presentation, or lack thereof, rang true for all age groups.
"I liked his humble attitude," said retired farmer Bill Nye of Dublin. "I think he is an honest, humble gentleman."
"I think he is a plain person who likes to get right to the point, and that's not bad," agreed Janie Hardwicke, a retired teacher, also from Dublin.
Dole also got high marks for emphasizing party unity, but the undecided voters said they will need more specifics before they enter the voting booth.
"I was impressed that he went back and stressed this was really the party of Lincoln," said Bob Benoit, a professor in the biology department at Virginia Tech, "but I was disappointed he talked more about values than issues."
At the same time, Benoit said Dole raised more questions than he answered on the one issue where he chose to be more specific - his economic plan. Benoit said the proposed 15 percent tax cut would help him personally, but he's confused about how that fits in with Dole's stands on deficit reduction, protecting Medicare and Social Security, and increasing spending on national security and crime prevention.
"To me, this just does not add up," he said. "I like Dole as a man. I am concerned he's decided to gamble this entire campaign on his economic proposals."
Thais CherBo Barnett of Bedford County was similarly skeptical.
"He seems very definite that things can be turned around, and I'd like to know how he's going to do that," she said. "A lot of times what the president wants and what he can do are two different things."
Still, bits and pieces of Dole's policy proposals hit home for undecided voters. Barnett, for example, was buoyed by the Republican's stance on national defense because her son is attending the U.S. Naval Academy.
"He said he will rebuild the military, and I think that needs to be done," she said. "Since I see my son as one who might be sent out there, I want a president who will be behind him."
Nye, who is still smarting from his tax bill after he sold his farm a few years ago, liked what he heard about Dole's proposal to cut capital gains taxes.
"You hear how it hurts the rich people," he said. "It hurts the little man, too. The farmer."
King Harvey, a retired senior executive with the Internal Revenue Service, snapped to attention when Dole said he would streamline the IRS, but was disappointed when the Republican quickly moved on to another issue without elaborating.
Harvey said he's not surprised. George Bush's "read my lips" is still fresh in the memories of voters who view a speech filled with too many promises with suspicion.
"I think he took the safe ground," Harvey said. "Most of the things he talked of could be attainable. He really didn't do a whole lot of promising."
Katie Yates, a Church of the Brethren minister from Roanoke County, agreed.
"Although he spoke of high possibilities with the usual problems - one of the greatest of which was balancing the budget - I did not hear him make any hard-to-believe outright promises to America," she said. "I appreciate hearing his hard, honest approach to hard, unyielding problems faced by our country. Perhaps it's just a campaign strategy to reach those who are undecided like me, I don't know. I do know that I appreciate hearing and seeing a candidate with a defined integrity and honest approach that goes above and beyond the importance of the position of presidency."
While Harvey and Yates compared Dole's speech with others they've heard, political newcomers such as Honer were overwhelmed by the rhetoric.
"It was all a bunch of empty promises without a philosophical basis at all," Honer said. "He had nothing to say to me. It was all party-oriented."
The biggest surprise for most of the undecided voters was Dole's zinger aimed at the National Education Association.
"It was a gutsy move, but it was kind of dumb," Prillaman said. "What he was really trying to do was pick a fight with them."
"That kind of surprised me, coming from a presidential candidate, because he's writing off the entire teachers' union," added Harvey, an advocate for education issues locally.
Dole threw punches at United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party, and everywhere he landed a hit, he also garnered a frown from at least one undecided voter.
"I didn't like his comment about Boutros Boutros-Ghali," Nye said. "I think he's worked hard to bring peace to the world's trouble spots."
"I didn't like the reference to elitism [in the Democratic Party]," Hardwicke said. "It is not an elitist party. In no way, shape or form has it ever been. ... I don't like that aspect of Mr. Dole. He gets a little vicious. It was kind of nasty."
Most members of the panel said they're still weighing what they heard, reviewing their notes and talking with friends and family members. Still, they said, nothing in Dole's speech is likely to be a deciding factor in how they vote in November.
"I think it was a very powerful speech," Barnett said, "but when it comes November, it probably won't mean anything."
"In my opinion, Bob Dole's speech is one of the least important actions of his career," Yates said. "Sure, some of his ideas, goals or outright dreams for our country may actually be remembered by November. But ... the average voting, working-class American will remember and base their vote upon the very last act seen or heard by those who are doing the campaigning. The nervous, fumbled speech, the missed public visit or the last, darting arrow at their opponent will be what is remembered and decided upon for our country, even up to the moment of actually voting. Most everyone does it even without realizing it, and it's sad, when overall performance during one's lifetime should be the means of measuring the candidate."
LENGTH: Long : 128 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshots) Dole, Clinton, Katie Yates, Thais Barnett,by CNBBob Benoit, Janie Hardwicke, Bill Nye, King Harvey, Sarah Honer and
Bruce Prillaman. color. 2 Charts: What undecided voters say. KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENT