A Lesson for Dole
BARNES, FRED
A Lesson for Dole by Fred Barnes When Washington attorney Robert Light-hizer, a former Senate aide of Bob Dole and now a senior adviser, returned from New Hampshire the day after the February 20...
...And he sent his campaign manager, Bob Beckel, to confer endlessly with Jackson...
...But he alienated Reagan, who refused to be considered as Ford's running mate...
...The alternative is a poisonous convention, a split in the party, and the reelection of Bill Clinton...
...If you want a polarizer, I'm not your candidate...
...Walter Mondale made sure of that...
...Governor Reagan couldn't start a war," a Ford ad blared...
...It doesn't mean he's bound to bolt if he doesn't get the nomination...
...If Dole is the nominee-and despite losing in New Hampshire, he is the frontrunner-Dole will desperately need them in the fall...
...A Lesson for Dole by Fred Barnes When Washington attorney Robert Light-hizer, a former Senate aide of Bob Dole and now a senior adviser, returned from New Hampshire the day after the February 20 primary, he got an earful...
...Dole didn't have to say...
...The tactic isn't new...
...Bob Dole is not some kind of fringe candidate," Dole declared...
...Sure, Mondale lost in a landslide to Reagan, but that was for other reasons...
...Ford won the nomination...
...This infuriated Buchanan...
...Well, guess who is...
...Been there, done that," Sipple said...
...The TV ad was aired after Dole narrowly topped Buchanan in the Iowa caucuses on February 12...
...And who believes in "intolerance in America...
...This now is a race between the mainstream and the extreme," Dole said...
...Dole might win the Republican presidential nomination with that tactic, but he's jeopardizing his chances of defeating President Clinton...
...It puts him at odds with virtually the whole Republican party...
...Dole (or Lamar Alexander if he wins the nomination) must assimilate them in the Republican party, not ostracize them...
...Buchanan hardly deserves a free pass...
...President Gerald Ford used it against Ronald Reagan in 1976, with dire results...
...I know [Buchanan] appeals to the fears in people, he plays on the fears of people...
...I'm the mainstream conservative...
...The Dole campaign dropped the ad after two days, but Dole revived the theme the morning after the New Hampshire primary...
...He said "his movement and his people" will find it difficult to back any "name-caller" like Dole...
...On the plane, Lighthizer encountered Bay Buchanan, manager of her brother Pat's presidential campaign...
...There's a lesson for Bob Dole in the Mondale approach...
...Yet that is Buchanan's line, one he espoused again in the Arizona debate...
...She insisted Dole is making an awful mistake by attacking Pat Buchanan as an extremist...
...It's one thing to criticize his presidential rivals...
...He skipped the next televised debate in Tempe, Arizona, a week later...
...Sharp criticism of his occasionally wild statements and wrong-headed policy ideas is warranted...
...President Reagan can...
...But he'll have enough delegates to play a big role at the GOP convention in August...
...Buchanan may be the Jesse Jackson of the GOP, but his followers are not like Jesse's...
...So unless they (and Buchanan) are treated well, they'll abandon the Republican party in a heartbeat...
...Some Dole campaign staffers agree...
...Worse, Reagan did little to keep the newcomers he'd attracted in the Republican fold...
...Dole himself seemed uncomfortable with the effort to isolate Buchanan...
...Later that day, Lighthizer sent a memo to Dole, urging him to stop calling Buchanan an extremist...
...Media consultant Don Sipple suggested that the Dole TV ad in New Hampshire zinging Buchanan as an extremist was unhelpful and would not be repeated...
...And who might "take the Republican party over the cliff...
...Buchananites look like they just came from the bowling league or Pentecostal church social...
...Dole and the Republican establishment can either accommodate him in the platform, the convention speeches, even in choosing a vice presidential nominee-or else...
...But his tendency is still to demonize Buchanan, though in milder terms, rather than concentrate on combating his ideas on trade, the economy, immigration, and America's role in the world...
...His anti-establishment rhetoric is often sweeping...
...Buchanan attracts people from outside GOP ranks: independents, Perotistas, conservative Democrats...
...It's suicidal...
...Jackson didn't in 1984...
...They're folks for whom Dole has little appeal...
...Conservative activists Donald Devine and David Keene have urged Dole to soften his rhetoric...
...He's alienating both Buchanan and his followers, who constitute one quarter to one third of the GOP electorate...
...Reagan said, however, that Dole was acceptable, and Dole was selected...
...True, Buchanan isn't likely to win the nomination...
...I want to appeal to their hopes...
...It's another to dismiss the entire Republican Congress as a tool of Fortune 500 corporations and K Street lobbyists...
...Fortunately, Lighthizer isn't the only Dole adviser who believes attacks on Buchanan as beyond the political pale are counterproductive...
...And for the moment, Dole took it...
...It cited two items from Buchanan's old newspaper column and concluded: "He's too extreme and he can't beat Bill Clinton...
...He'd better heed it...
...Holding the Buchanan brigades won't be easy...
...But all that worked...
...In the short run, the tactic worked...
...When Buchanan confronted him about the TV spot in a New Hampshire debate on February 15, Dole became defensive and never fully recovered...
...Calling a conservative an extremist also "drives every conservative activist up the wall," says Jeffrey Bell, a Republican strategist who's friendly with the Dole campaign...
...The trick is doing it in a way that treats him and especially his followers with respect...
...Dole did this implicitly after dropping the "extremist" stuff...
...The Jackson constituency is largely black, and for decades black voters have been reliable Democrats...
...Mondale had to make concessions on the platform and give Jackson a prime-time spot for a convention speech...
...Not only are many of them lukewarm about the Republican party, they don't resemble regular Republicans in income level, demeanor, or dress...
...He campaigned only sparingly for Ford in the fall...
...Good advice...
...After losing the New Hampshire primary to Gary Hart, Mondale called Hart and sought to keep their disagreements within bounds...
...And guess who's not the candidate from "the mainstream...
...Ford also accused Reagan of wanting to dismantle Social Security...
...There were a lot of hard feelings," recalls Bell, a Reagan staffer in 1976...
...Like it or not, they're now a major force and so is Buchanan, their leader...
...Like Jackson, Buchanan makes normal civilities difficult...
...The Democratic party remained unified...
Vol. 1 • March 1996 • No. 24
