Smoking Out Bob Dole

...And the fact that it takes a tobacco company to alert Dole and his fellow Republicans to the need for a tougher stance on tobacco is the best evidence of all that their political antennae are badly out of whack...

...When Clinton announced an intitiative last August designed to limit teen smoking by placing new restrictions on sales and advertising, it was widely believed there would be such an intense backlash in tobacco-dependent parts of the country that he could write off states like North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky then and there...

...it's considered an appropriate act by a government serving in loco parentis...

...Clinton is getting big points on this...

...The poll also found nearly identical levels of support among Republicans and Democrats for curbing teen smoking...

...But even if he keeps his attack focused, Dole is going to bump up against some tricky politics...

...That, in turn, has emboldened Democrats to accuse Dole and the GOP of being in the pocket of that old villain, a "special interest": the tobacco lobby...

...And that, in turn, will give the administration more fodder if Dole tries to attach himself to it...

...Al Gore recently charged that "the Republican party does whatever the tobacco companies tell them to do" and described the party as "almost a wholly owned subsidiary of the tobacco industry...

...Dole's blunder was in publicly questioning the addictive qualities of nicotine rather than the regulatory frenzies of the FDA and its power-hungry administrator, David Kessler...

...The legislation would ban vending machines, distribution through the mail, and the sale of individual cigarettes, while setting a federal minimum age of 18 for any tobacco sales...

...He has, to the surprise of most political analysts, found himself on the wrong side of a potent political issue...

...Clinton's anti-smoking efforts have been met with open arms by the voters...

...And while it's unclear how much of that, if any, is due to the teen-smoking issue, a recent Time/CNN poll found 49 percent of registered voters saying they would be more likely to vote for someone who tries to restrict children's access to tobacco...

...That Philip Morris chose to craft and push an initiative designed to limit smoking, even if just by teenagers, underscores the nation's anti-tobacco climate...

...But the latest polls show him leading or narrowly trailing in all four...

...someone dressed in a cigarette costume began appearing at Dole campaign rallies in California...

...Hillary Rodham Clinton captured the theme two months ago when she spoke before the Democratic party in Los Angeles: "We know that if we have a government that takes on the tobacco lobby, we have a government that stands with families and parents who are trying to protect their children...

...and both Jay Leno and David Letterman joked that Dole was in bed with the tobacco industry...

...In polling done for Philip Morris, Republican pollster Linda DiVall found that 89 percent of those surveyed identify teen smoking as a "serious problem" and that 72 percent believe Clinton deserves "a significant amount of credit" for trying to do something about it...

...This could have some traction: The Time/CNN poll found 46 percent of registered voters saying they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who accepts tobacco money...

...How will Dole fight the bad public relations...

...Smoking Out Bob Dole by Matthew Rees When Bob Dole Traveled to Kentucky on June 13, he hoped to convey to the state's huge tobacco constituency that as president he would end the Clinton administration's war on nicotine...

...To others, they can take it or leave it...

...Among married couples, a majority of whom haven't voted for the Democratic presidential nominee since 1964, Clinton leads Dole by 13 points, according to a recent Los Angeles Times poll...

...To some people," Dole said, "smoking is addictive...

...Indeed, not only has a backlash against Clinton failed to materialize, there isn't going to be one...

...One option is to embrace a new piece of legislation, not yet introduced, that mimics many of the administration's own teen-smoking initiatives but keeps tobacco regulation firmly in Congress's hands...

...An assault on teen smoking isn't considered a big-government intrusion...

...There's one problem, however: The legislation is the brainchild of Philip Morris...

...Bill Clinton devoted his weekly radio address to the dangers of tobacco...

...With numbers like these, it's not surprising Clinton is using teen smoking to portray himself as a true "family values" candidate...

...These politically imprudent words drowned out Dole's sensible utterances about keeping the Food and Drug Administration out of the tobacco business, and the onslaught began...

...No matter that there are laws against teen smoking in all 50 states...

...To bolster the point, the Clinton/Gore campaign recently publicized Dole's receipt of $383,350 in campaign contributions from the tobacco industry...