THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 6, 1996 TAG: 9601060263
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Guess who's not coming to dinner?
Bob Dole, for starters. Phil Gramm won't be there either. Lamar Alexander and Steve Forbes are maybes.
And President Clinton?
``The president will not be attending,'' said April Melody, a White House spokeswoman. ``It was just difficult to schedule.''
What are all these candidates skipping? A neighborhood barbecue? The Lint Collectors' Society?
No, actually, a gathering of 600 Americans in Austin, Texas, on Jan. 18, willing and prepared to discuss the most pressing issues of the 1996 presidential campaigns.
All of which is testing the idealism of government professor James Fishkin, who has been working to get the National Issues Convention off the ground since he dreamed up the idea nearly eight years ago.
His response? The show must go on.
``Of course I'll be disappointed if the candidates don't come, but I'm an inveterate optimist,'' Fishkin said. ``We can do it without the candidates or with the candidates.''
PBS also said it wouldn't back off plans to televise the event - even though the current TV schedule calls for three Saturday night prime-time hours featuring the Republican candidates and two Sunday morning hours with Clinton. Jim Lehrer of the ``NewsHour with Jim Lehrer'' has agreed to moderate.
``This is an important event,'' said Dan Werner, the executive producer of the telecast. ``It's the first time that a representative sample of the nation has ever been gathered together in one place, and the fact that they'll have a chance to discuss the issues among themselves is important.
``The stars in Austin are the 600 people.''
However, the candidates apparently believe those 600 people are from the wrong states. While some no doubt are from Iowa and New Hampshire, the first and among the most important primary states, most are not.
The campaign staffs explained Friday that it's just too close to the primaries in February for candidates to spend that much time in Texas.
Yet Fishkin and his allies are still scrambling to get the candidates, if only because without them the event won't draw much media attention. They will probably permit candidates who don't show up to participate via satellite - if the candidates are willing.
What keeps Fishkin going is his bedrock belief that the centerpiece of the convention - an idea known as the deliberative public opinion poll - can contribute to a healthier political debate. Current polls, he maintains, only take a snapshot of mostly uninformed opinions. They measure ``top-of-the-head opinions or even opinions that don't exist at all,'' he said.
The 600 citizens who will participate in this month's deliberative poll will get background material on three issues that surveys have found matter most to voters: the economy, the family and the United States' role in the post-Cold War world.
They'll get the chance in Austin to talk about those issues among themselves, and perhaps with the candidates, and then express their well-informed opinions - which Fishkin thinks may be why some candidates are reluctant to show up.
Fishkin said: ``If the candidates don't come, it will turn out that I overestimated their willingness to talk substance as opposed to be scripted with soundbites.''
KEYWORDS: NATIONAL ISSUES CONVENTION by CNB