Dole Vows Renewal With Trust

Promising sweeping tax cuts to revive America’s economy and old-time leadership to reverse what he termed the country’s moral slide, Republican Bob Dole accepted the nomination of his party Thursday night and pledged to create an administration “that is able, honest and trusts in you.”

The 57-minute address to cheering delegates served as a call to arms against President Clinton and his administration, as well as a paean to trust, values and character--traits, Dole said, he has reaped from a long life of hardship and experience; traits, he implied, his opponent sorely lacks.

While spelling out his policy differences with Clinton and seeking to turn his age from a potential liability into a precious asset, Dole, 73, signaled that he intends to focus his campaign on what his strategists believe is the incumbent’s chief weakness--public doubts about whether the president can be trusted.

He also sought to turn the concept of trustworthiness to another purpose: implying that his version of smaller government was evidence of the Republican Party’s belief in the power of the individual.

“The fundamental issue,” he said, “is not of policy, but of trust.” The question is “not merely whether the people trust the president, but whether the president and his party trust the people, trust in their goodness, in their genius for recovery. . . . For the government cannot direct the people, the people must direct the government.”

The speech marked a bold shift in tone for the convention. After three days of speeches designed heavily to appeal to women and moderates, Dole offered a strongly conservative--even combative--message.

The Democratic Party produced a 12-page response to Dole’s address even as he spoke. “Bob Dole’s speech said a lot more about his past than about America’s future,” said David Eichenbaum, the party’s communications director.

Senior Clinton advisor George Stephanopoulos said he was “surprised” by Dole’s speech. “It was way too negative,” he said. “It was as negative [an acceptance] speech as has been given since [Barry] Goldwater,” the GOP’s 1964 nominee.

On the convention floor, however, Dole’s speech was met with unbridled enthusiasm. “He epitomizes the American dream,” said Lucia De Garcia of Newport Beach. “Everything he said, he touched my heart.”

Employing the word “trust” no fewer than 10 times, Dole used the much-anticipated speech to “set a marker,” to “uphold a standard,” to repair a nation he said has lost its moral compass and become obsessed with material success.

“I am here to tell you that permissive and destructive behavior must be opposed, that honor and liberty must be restored, and that individual accountability must replace collective excuse,” he said to loud applause. “I am here to say to America, do not abandon the great traditions that stretch to the dawn of our history.”

He told the crowd, and he told the country, that we must not “topple the pillars of those beliefs--God, family, honor, duty, country--that have brought us through time and time and time and time again.”

Dole learned those values from a childhood of poverty in the wheat fields of Russell, he said, from the searing pain of a war wound suffered in the mountains of Italy, from near despair during more than three years of recuperation, from a long life of patriotism and of honor, from “the gracious compensations of age.”

“The old values endure,” he said. “Though they may sleep and though they may falter, they endure.”

Stoic Demeanor

Throughout much of his speech, Dole maintained his characteristically stoic demeanor, smiling only when his remarks were interrupted by cheers from the partisan crowd. His visage and hand gestures seemed to deepen the stern nature of the text.

The speech’s subliminal message was clear: Unlike Clinton, Dole would be a plain-talking president whom Americans could trust to tell the truth, not simply what they might want to hear.

As appealing as that might be for some, even some prominent Republicans said Dole runs the risk of sounding too much like an exacting parent, as when he uttered admonitions like this one: “Only right conduct distinguishes a great nation from one that cannot rise above itself. It has never been otherwise. Right conduct, every day, at every level, in all facets of life.”

After four days in which surrogates ranging from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas to his own wife, Elizabeth Hanford Dole, took to the podium to chastise the administration, the harshest attacks ultimately came from the Republican candidate himself.

“It is demeaning to the nation that within the Clinton administration a corps of the elite who never grew up, never did anything real, never sacrificed, never suffered and never learned, should have the power to fund with your earnings their dubious and self-serving schemes,” he said.

The issues Dole chose not to address said almost as much about the apparent direction of his campaign as the words he spoke.

He ignored the controversial issue of abortion, having lost a battle here last week with religious conservatives over his bid to insert a tolerance passage in the platform. There was no mention of the environment, nor any nod to the gender gap that plagues his candidacy.

Evenhanded Judgment

Immigration received only the briefest brush, and there was only a stealth reference to affirmative action, neutral enough to be uttered by a Democrat: “ . . . the guiding light of my administration will be that in this country we have no rank order by birth, no claim to favoritism by race, no expectation of judgment other than it be evenhanded.”

With Thursday night’s emotional address, Dole hopes to open a new phase in a come-from-behind race for the presidency that he earlier described as “one last mission” in service of his country.

Dole had characterized his acceptance speech as one of the three most critical moments of his entire campaign. The first--choosing Jack Kemp as his running mate--was widely viewed as a strategic success. The last--a series of televised debates against Clinton--still looms ahead.

In a politically bold--but risky--move, Dole faced head-on the issue of age, a concern that has dogged his campaign since the primaries.

“Age has its advantages,” he said. “To those who say it was never so, that America has not been better, I say, you’re wrong, and I know, because I was there. I have seen it. I remember.”

Keenly aware that most Americans know little about Dole, the GOP aired a seven-minute video--largely ignored by the major networks--on the life of the former Kansas senator that was filmed mostly in his native Russell a few weeks ago.

While Dole himself shied away from discussing his wounds from World War II, his townsfolk did the job for him. One old-timer reminisced in the video that the wounded young soldier was so thin when he came home after months in the hospital that his shoulder blades stuck out like “angel wings.”

Recalls Rural Roots

In one of the most personal passages of his acceptance speech, Dole recalled his rural roots, the parents he loved and the landscape that made him the man he is today.

“I come from good people, from very good people, and I’m proud of it,” Dole said, invoking memories of his parents, Doran and Bina. “There’s no moment when my memory of them and my love for them does not overshadow anything I do--even this, even here.”

Dole aides hoped that the speech would be the crowning moment of the scripted four-day love feast that has been this year’s Republican National Convention.

Hours before Dole’s remarks, the final holdouts from GOP unity fell into line, when gays and lesbian party members officially endorsed Dole.

Rich Tafel, the executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, acknowledged that the group had received no real policy concessions from the Dole campaign, which welcomed the organization’s backing.

Dole, however, faced several hurdles in his goal of making the speech the high point of the GOP extravaganza. The first was placed before him by retired Gen. Colin L. Powell, who gave a stirring defense Monday of the party he recently joined, saying it must always be “the party of inclusion.”

The second was placed by Elizabeth Dole, who took to the convention floor Oprah-style on Wednesday night, charming delegates and guests as she introduced them to Bob Dole the man.

“I think I’ll let her give [my speech],” Dole cracked as he watched his wife.

A third obstacle was the speech itself. At an angry meeting on Tuesday, Dole complained about the address, which has been in the works since April. One aide said the candidate “shredded” the speech. On Wednesday speech writer Mark Helprin left San Diego.

In his remarks, Dole took Clinton to task for reducing the 1992 election to the barren slogan, “It’s the economy, stupid.” He said, “In the last presidential election, you, the people, were gravely insulted.”

But he quickly segued to his own economic plan, which is based on a 15% across-the-board cut in income tax rates, a 50% cut in the capital-gains tax to 14%, an expansion of individual retirement accounts, a revamping of the Internal Revenue Service and a $500-per-child tax credit for low- and middle-income families.

“A government that seizes control of the economy for the good of the people, ends up seizing control of the people for the good of the economy,” he said.

Swipe at Government

Dole took another swipe at big government in an angry allusion to First Lady Hillary Clinton’s bestselling book, “It Takes a Village.”

“After the virtual devastation of the American family, the rock upon which this country was founded, we are told that it takes a village--that is, the collective, and thus the state--to raise a child,” he said. “I am here to tell you it does not take a village to raise a child. It takes a family.”

During a passage on national security, in which he advocated more military spending and the development of a missile-defense system, Dole also revisited the painful issue of the Vietnam War.

“The American soldier was not made to be thrown into battle without clear purpose or resolve, not made to be abandoned in the field of battle, not made to give his life for indifference or lack of respect,” Dole said. “I will never commit the American soldier to an ordeal without the prospect of victory.”

Dole received some of the most enthusiastic applause when he leveled sharp words at teachers unions, whom he blamed for the state of public education in America. Portraying the unions as defenders of the status quo and major backers of the administration, Dole added: “When I am president, I will disregard your political power--for the sake of the children, the schools and the nation.”

Bob Chase, president-elect of the National Education Assn., called Dole’s attack “silly,” and added: “Serious challenges facing our public schools aren’t addressed by scapegoating.”

Some Republicans, asking not to be named, said they worried that Dole might have gone too far in laying out his contrast with Clinton. Most, however, expressed pleasure with the speech.

Ken Khachigian, Dole’s California campaign manager, called the candidate’s address “a great introduction to the campaign. It was a great guidepost for the party and where it needs to go. It did everything it needed to do.”

California Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren offered an analysis Thursday that was Dole-like in its succinctness: “Jack Kemp was his usual exuberant self. Bob Dole was plain speaking. That’s the way he is. Get used to it.”

The feeling of unity in the raucous convention center, which was showered with red-white-and-blue confetti and balloons, spread rapidly.

“They [Dole and Kemp] are both really concerned about America--all Americans. That’s what I was so pleased about,” added Leo Burke, an alternate delegate from Stockton.

“This is a great man. We’ve got to give him an opportunity to lead,” said alternate delegate Don Donnelly, a retired firefighter from Rancho Cucamonga.

Earlier in the day, both Dole and Kemp were clearly upbeat.

Speaking at a luncheon honoring his wife, Dole cracked one joke after another.

“This will not be a mean and divisive campaign,” he told the National Foundation of Republican Women, pausing for effect. “Jack and I are going to get along fine.”

At the Hotel Del Coronado, where Kemp attended a GOP breakfast fund-raiser, reporters asked whether he was nervous about his acceptance speech.

“Quarterbacks don’t get butterflies,” the former professional football player replied. He added his own version of a line from Shakespeare: “If your mind is ready, all things be ready.”

Before being feted by the Republican women, Mrs. Dole took her patented performance--politician turns talk-show host--to a special convention session for future voters Thursday morning. In a reprise of her hit stroll through the delegates Wednesday night, she took to the convention floor again to wander among hundreds of cheering children. “You’re beautiful! We love you!” one shouted from the audience.

She carried two messages from the candidate himself, a “heartfelt thanks for the enthusiasm and the energy” that the hordes of young Republicans brought to the convention, and a suggestion that the audience watch television that night--and she didn’t mean the sitcom “Friends.”

“You are going to hear a speech that you will always remember,” she said. “So be sure to be tuned.”

After a harbor-side send-off rally this morning, Dole and Kemp are scheduled to fly to Denver to begin a three-day, cross-country campaign swing that will be capped by a rally in Buffalo, N.Y., where Kemp was first elected to Congress.

Times staff writers Janet Hook, Dave Lesher, Dan Morain, and Gebe Martinez contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

“If I am combative, it is for love of country.”

Bob Dole’s convention acceptance speech centered on three basic themes to reverse what he sees as America’s moral decline:

OLD-TIME VALUES: From crime and drugs to abortion and child abuse, solving the nation’s problems requires first a return to the values of the past.

“Let me be a bridge to a time of tranquillity, faith and confidence in action. To those who say it was never so, that America has not been better, I say you’re wrong. . . . Individual accountability must replace collective excuse...The old values endure.”

****

SMALLER GOVERNMENT: Government must help those who are in a time of need, but must not try to solve all problems.

“A government that seizes control of the economy for the good of the people, ends up seizing control of the people for the good of the economy.

“I have learned in my own life [that] in a time of need, the bridge between failure and success can be the government itself.”

****

NATIONAL UNITY: The current emphasis on diversity, racial identity and group entitlements has weakened the nation.

“When the blood of the sons of immigrants and the grandsons of slaves fell on foreign fields, it was American blood.

“I call on every American . . . to defend the unity of the nation for the honor of generations past and the sake of those to come.”