THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 12, 1994 TAG: 9406090552
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KEITH MONROE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940612 LENGTH: Long
At the Richmond conclave, delegates got a preview of the sort of thing the rest of us will probably see eventually on our home screens. North's speech to the convention was preceded by a brief video.
{REST} In it, he was shown in a famous pose - raising his hand to be sworn in before the Iran-contra committee. His image, ramrod straight in full uniform, was juxtaposed against stills of Teddy Kennedy, Jesse Jackson, Chuck Robb and other figures from the conservative's idea of a rogue's gallery. The screen then filled with the question: Which Side Are You On?
Next came filmed testimonials from a veteran who served with North in Vietnam, a grandmother expressing fear of crime and his Iran-contra superior officer, Adm. John Poindexter. Then North spoke.
Unlike national political conventions, which no longer transact much business, this meeting really did convene to decide which contender would be the party's Senate nominee. But like the national conventions, it was also a stage set. When the parties meet every four years, they are essentially conducting elaborate TV programs - a four-day-long ``infotainment'' aimed at getting free air time.
This Virginia Republican convention was also in the business of show business. And North showed he's very skillful at it. He gave two speeches - one seeking the nomination, another accepting it after the ballots were counted.
Not long ago, politicians tried to include pithy one-liners in speeches, hoping to make those the message the media would pick up. Now, speeches like those North gave resemble Rodney Dangerfield monologues. They are nothing but one-liners, one sound bite after another so that whatever the news media choose to quote will be equally impervious to editing. And every bite is designed to push a hot button.
So North compared the present day to D-Day. Now, he said, the enemy is not across an ocean but across the Potomac. Now there is only one hill to take - Capitol Hill.
In this battle of us against them, the people are pitted against the politicians. Not surprisingly, the politicians come off badly. North scorned ``potentates of pork,'' a Congress full of ``back-slapping good old boys,'' a White House run by ``twentysomething kids with an earring and an ax to grind,'' a president self-lacerated by ``peccadilloes and personal distractions,'' and the shadowy legions of ``Washington power brokers.''
Against them are arrayed the forces of light, ``hard-working families'' whose children's future is being sacrificed ``on the altar of some politician's re-election.'' And North's mission is to lead the people as they storm ``the corridors of power.'' The battle cry: ``This is our government. They stole it, and we're coming to take it back.''
Many of North's remarks were familiar cliches, but familiarity is not a drawback in this sort of rhetoric. Anymore than it is in advertising slogans. It was a bit odd to hear North quoting Jimmy Carter's demand for ``a government as good as the people'' or echoing John Kennedy's call for ``a new generation of leadership.'' But it made perfect sense for him to expropriate a Clinton line and to declare himself ``the real comeback kid.''
During his speeches, North was by turns winning, sincere and angry. He spoke now intimately into the camera lens, now with eyes turned to the rafters of the hall, now with a voice theatrically husky with emotion. He may be as skilled a political actor as the commander in chief he once served.
And the stage management of the convention was shrewdly calculated too. At the conclusion of North's first speech, recorded music played at high volume - ``The Caissons Go Rolling Along'' and ``The Eye of the Tiger'' - to rev up the crowd. At the conclusion of his acceptance speech, the trite but tried and true theme from ``Rocky'' blared.
A balloon drop rained the objects down in a narrow band of the hall - between the podium and the camera stand for maximum television effect. Similarly, confetti was tossed between North and the eye of the camera. No doubt we will be treated to those images and sound bites as the campaign unfolds.
Time will tell whether voters buy North's sales pitch and accept him as a genuine populist, a man of the people unlike all those establishment captives of the Beltway.
But in another sense, the votes are already in on the question of professionalism. North is easily the most professional politician in the race. These days, after all, the profession of politics assumes skill at speaking in sound bites, a telegenic demeanor, a mastery of the medium. And on the tube, North made Miller and is likely to make Robb, Coleman, Wilder or any other ``professional'' politicians appearing against him look like the amateurs. He has already called for TV debates, understanding his superior command of the medium.
Politics also requires a person to be adept at direct-mail fund-raising appeals, and nobody since Jesse Helms and his Congressional Club has been so successful at making checkbooks spring open.
North won the nomination largely because he outorganized and outhustled the competition. He tirelessly crisscrossed the state, helping like-minded local politicians get elected. In the process, he demonstrated his political viability, perfected his stump speech, raised funds and built up a huge stack of IOUs. Many would regard that kind of from-the-bottom-up organization building as the very essence of professional politics.
Finally, professional politics calls for the shrewd use of modern advertising techniques to persuade voters and influence perceptions, to recommend one's self and demonize one's opponents. And as North says, his ads are already in the can.
{KEYWORDS} U.S. SENATE RACE CANDIDATE ELECTION
by CNB