On the podium was Jack Kemp, once before and perhaps once again a candidate for president, one of the Republican Party`s genuine stars, giving one of the convention`s best speeches, telling the delegates, ”We must be the party that gives everyone a stake in the system.”
Down on the floor, one of the Republican Party`s more active and influential operatives, who will remain unnamed, was not listening.
It was not that he didn`t like Kemp. He liked him fine. He just wasn`t interested.
”My president spoke last night,” he said, referring to former President Ronald Reagan. ”The rest of this is nonsense.”
This reaction could not really be called typical.
Of the thousands of Republican delegates, alternates and guests on the floor of the Astrodome, many, perhaps even most, did listen to Kemp, the secretary of housing and urban development, and had listened earlier to Rep. Newt Gingrich of Georgia and would listen later to Texas Sen. Phil Gramm`s keynote address.
And at the appropriate moments, cued by one of the many floor ”whips,”
linked to each other and to delegation leaders with lightweight, high-tech walkie-talkie systems, enough of those on the floor would cheer, chant or wave placards to give the impression that the hall was full of enthusiastic, happy partisans.
It was not. It had been, briefly, the night before, when Reagan really did quiet the floor and inspire its inhabitants with one of those funny, inspiring addresses which only he can give. Reagan had such control over the crowd that he could overpower the handiwork of those whips.
”Yes, yes,” he said, almost scolded, to quiet the organized cheers so that he could go on. Like all great performers, Reagan knew the importance of timing, and knew that it was already past prime time on the East Coast.
He wanted to finish, and he needed no artificial cheers. He inspired enough spontaneous ones. Because of Reagan`s speech there was ”a much better mood on the floor today,” in the judgment of one of those whips, surveying the scene from beneath her earphones.
And so there was, for a while. But it didn`t last long.
Halfway through the evening session it became clear that a goodly proportion of the seats were empty.
”Oh, she didn`t come tonight,” said the seatmate of one delegate from a Northeastern state to an old acquaintance searching for her. ”She went to dinner. Maybe she`ll come tomorrow.”
She was not alone. Lots of delegates didn`t bother to attend.
It would be an exaggeration to call the Republican convention dispirited. Nervous would be more accurate.
Like everyone else, the delegates seemed to be waiting for something to happen. The most-discussed possible ”somethings” were that President Bush would announce some kind of a tax-cut proposal in his acceptance speech Thursday night and that he, or someone, would announce a major reshuffling of his Cabinet for his second term, if there is a second term.
Re-elected presidents usually appoint several new Cabinet members for a second term. In this case, however, with Bush far behind in the polls, the president himself hinted at some changes, and one of the television networks reported that five top officials would be fired, including Kemp.
The report was aired only minutes before Kemp took the podium. It hardly seemed credible.
The housing secretary is one of the few members of the administration with a devoted following and with an obvious interest in domestic policy. Ousting him would anger his conservative followers and add to the impression that Bush is not interested in domestic affairs.
So most of the delegates who heard the report dismissed its accuracy. Still, it added to the nervousness, the waiting for Thursday night. Which was the real reason for the lack of enthusiasm.
The Reagan speech had been fun, but really the only thing this convention can do is to wait until Thursday night when Bush tries to revive his political fortunes with his acceptance speech.
”This whole convention comes down to one hour,” said a political strategist. ”Bush either does it or doesn`t do it Thursday night.”
Like all sweeping statements, that one may be a bit exaggerated. At the end of Tuesday night, Republicans had spent two days lambasting Bill Clinton and the Democrats, and even the more pessimistic of them assumed that the attacks had had some impact.
The tracking polls being taken by news organizations and by private pollsters did indicate a slight seepage of the big lead Clinton had over the weekend. But some of Clinton`s big lead was likely to slip even if no one had said a critical word about him.
In all the surveys, the Democatic nominee still held more than 50 percent of the vote and Bush could not claim even 40 percent.
”It`s OK,” said one leading Republican, himself a candidate facing an uphill battle in November. ”Reagan was the real keynoter.”
On Wednesday, for the first time, there will be no daytime session. The third day begins at 7 p.m. CDT.
It`s family night, with Barbara Bush the star speaker. Republicans like her. But they don`t really think she can win the election for her husband any more than Reagan can. And she`s only scheduled to talk for a few minutes.
It looks like another night, followed by another day, of waiting. Waiting gets a political party nervous.
