Moving to the Outside : Maintaining the Big ‘Mo’

By burning his bridge to the U.S. Senate, Bob Dole has made it clear that, come November, he’ll have, as he said last week, “nowhere to go but the White House or home.” The White House press secretary said President Bill Clinton was surprised. No wonder. In his resignation statement, Dole exhibited two qualities the president often lacks--brevity and decisiveness.

Before Thursday, the American political scene seemed to have been flipped upside-down. The Democratic Party, best known for the internal divisiveness and self-destruction that kept it out of the Oval Office for all but four years from 1968-92, looked more like a well-oiled political message machine than a slapstick gang that couldn’t shoot straight. Clinton was showing that, as far as political battles are concerned, he’s a first-rate commander-in-chief. The faxes of the infamous “war room” were humming.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party was shooting itself in the foot. Last month, three prominent Republicans questioned Dole’s qualifications as the party’s nominee, leading Haley Barbour, the party chairman, to tell them to shut up. Unfortunately, this contretemps was followed by several GOP governors making high-profile noises about the one issue Republicans would do well not to highlight--abortion--only to be countered by allies of Patrick J. Buchanan invoking Winston Churchill and threatening to take the “battle” just about everywhere. To top it off, and most egregious of all, Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, one of the national co-chairs of Dole’s campaign, blasted the Republican speaker of the House the same day Dole was giving a major speech, thereby, simultaneously escalating the fratricide and overshadowing the presumptive nominee.

Dole’s courageous decision to leave the Senate has left much of this on the back burner. His emotional and eloquent statement will go far toward creating the momentum and cohesiveness necessary to drive his campaign through the Republican National Convention and on to victory in November. Dole’s move has shaken the expectations of the pundits and politicians and given the American public another opportunity, and another reason, to take a serious look at him. That’s all to the good. By changing the dynamics of a political campaign that was leaving him behind in the polls, Dole has shaken some of the smugness out of the White House staff.

But to maintain momentum, Dole needs to take three steps. First, he needs to assert his primacy as the party’s leader and bring into line the Republican whiners and critics undermining his campaign.

Their criticisms reflected the truth of the old maxim that, “in politics, it’s always your friends who do you in.” If this campaign were war, Dole was being hit by “friendly fire.” Over the full length of a campaign, such public infighting can stall what otherwise could be a successful effort. It may be going too far to ask all Republicans to follow Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any Republican.” But if Republicans truly care about winning in November, they ought to at least be able to follow the 11th’s corollary: “Thou shalt not publicly undermine the party’s nominee for president.”

Reining in these critics probably would not be necessary if they had any hands-on experience at the top levels of presidential politics. Sadly enough for Republicans who are interested in recapturing the White House, none of them have any such experience. Sometimes, inexperience can be compensated for or overcome by good judgment. It wasn’t in these cases, however.

The only real solution for these problems is for Dole and the Republican Party to find a way to muzzle the malcontents. That will require leadership. But by asserting his leadership over the party, Dole won’t only show who is in charge among Republicans, he will also show who has the leadership qualities to usher America into the next century.

The second step Dole must take is to develop new ideas by drawing on the “wise counsel” of the American people, as he said in his resignation statement. New policy initiatives can serve to favorably contrast the Dole candidacy with that of Clinton--who often speaks one way and acts another. With control of the executive branch at his fingertips, Clinton can be counted on to unleash every department and agency to attack every problem possible, and to expand his sphere of political patronage and presence. The press will likely count these as “initiatives.” The question of whether they make sense in terms of public policy, or how much they cost, will be lost in the blizzard of photo-ops of a president apparently hard at work.

In addition to developing new policy initiatives, Dole should at least consider two campaign-related moves. First, he should consider announcing his vice-presidential nominee before the Republican convention in August. That would give his campaign another high-profile voice to send its message. While an early choice raises the risk that the news media will spend some time nitpicking the nominee, waiting until the convention in San Diego runs a greater risk. In a convention atmosphere, the announcement of a vice-presidential nominee naturally generates a media “feeding frenzy” and can lead to the type of snap judgments we saw in New Orleans in 1988. Moreover, everyone expects Dole to wait on this decision; an early and unexpected choice can be another way to maintain momentum and cause the media and public to reevaluate the race.

Dole might go one step farther and announce the names of various people he is counting on for advice in different policy areas--individuals who naturally would then be seen as potential players in a Dole administration. That would show the true face of a Dole government and create another contrast with Clinton and his administration--which is peopled by individuals whose past records belie the president’s rhetorical efforts to move to the center and to expropriate Republican issues and themes.

Third, and most important, Dole needs to build on the emotion of his statement. He can draw on a life richly devoted to public service and use his sophisticated understanding of the machinery of government to develop themes that resonate with the American people. Here are three he might consider:

* A common-sensical and competent conservatism that has the experience, maturity, integrity and discipline to use the government for good, but that realizes that individuals and families will renew America, not Beltway bureaucrats.

* A courageous conservatism that knows the cost of war and is prepared to pay the price of peace through international engagement and a secure defense.

* A compassionate conservatism that cares about and is tolerant of all Americans and knows the solution lies in personal responsibility and private initiative, not perpetuation of the welfare state.

Clearly, the road ahead for Dole will not be easy. But, like so much else in Dole’s life, traversing that road, while tough, is doable. Now he has taken the very courageous and all-important first step on that tough but definitely doable journey.*