N.H. Crowds Cheer Forbes’ Message

After a blizzard of television ads promoting his flat-tax plan, Republican presidential hopeful Steve Forbes on Saturday brought his anti-Washington message directly to the people in a pair of town meetings.

Enthusiasm was high--and mutual--as Forbes’ assault on capital insiders appeared to be hitting home during his stops in the state that will hold the campaign season’s first primary Feb. 20.

“Go, Steve, go!” cheered 400 people crowded into the Hesser College gymnasium in Manchester, N.H.

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Two hours later, Forbes was in this rural community that is home to the University of New Hampshire, smiling broadly and shaking hands.

“Behold,” said former New Hampshire Sen. Gordon J. Humphrey, acting as Forbes’ toastmaster, “does he look like a slick, packaged candidate?”

At each stop, the 48-year-old multimillionaire magazine publisher delivered a stump speech outlining the fundamentals of his proposed 17% flat tax and berating the “dead-weight culture of Washington.”

With his friend Rep. Bob Franks (R-N.J.) at his side, Forbes stressed that he was speaking “very slowly, because we have some people from Washington here.”

Repeatedly, he called the present tax code unwieldy and “immoral.” Each time Forbes used those phrases, his audiences applauded.

Forbes expressed outrage over a broadcast ad sponsored by rival GOP candidate Sen. Bob Dole that takes issue with his flat-tax idea. The ad features a message from New Hampshire Gov. Steve Merrill, a Dole ally, and is ostensibly based on a study that found the flat tax unworkable.

“They are stopping at nothing!” Forbes fumed. “I am calling today upon the Dole campaign to publicly apologize to Gov. Merrill for feeding him this bogus information.”

Forbes said the Dole ad omitted an explanation of his flat-tax exemptions, and added, “It is never wise to put an untruth on the air.”

Many of the questions from prospective voters at the meetings centered on details of Forbes’ tax plan. Several told Forbes that their calculations had shown that the flat tax would actually cost them money. He assured them there would be “a transitional attempt” to ease the move to a new tax rate.

Asked about crime, the publishing magnate advocated strict “truth-in-sentencing” laws and an end to the current “three strikes” policy in many states.

“My attitude is: Why have two violent crimes on the house?” he said.

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To a query about immigration, Forbes summoned up the image of his immigrant grandfather to praise the contributions people from other countries have made. In his admittedly “very Pollyannaish” vision, he said he foresees an economy so healthy that “America will have another kind of problem--labor shortages.”

While the exchange was polite, Forbes stopped short of agreeing to one questioner’s request that he pledge to halt all negative campaigning.

“All the ads that my campaign has done have been on direct issues,” Forbes replied, refusing to discuss the personality politics that troubled his questioner.