Clutching a ringing endorsement from Persian Gulf War hero Colin Powell and blessings from Ronald Reagan, the most popular Republican president of modern times, Bob Dole moved toward his long-sought presidential nomination Monday, his contentious party now patched together if not truly united for the battle for the White House.
Powell, once courted as a Republican presidential contender and by far the most attractive potential Dole running mate, ended all speculation about where he stands on the GOP and its White House ticket in a compelling tribute to Dole and the Republican version of traditional American values.
The retired general also waded deep into the two issues that have threatened to tear this party apart, abortion and affirmative action, declaring there was more than enough room in the GOP for all viewpoints– weighty words to Republicans who have been battling over those issues for years.
Former Presidents Gerald Ford and George Bush also went to the podium as the San Diego convention opened, its raging debates over abortion rights, immigration and a host of lesser issues set aside as the Republicans pumped themselves up for the Dole nomination later in the week and the coming battle with President Clinton.
There was a video tribute to Reagan, whose eight years in the White House were the high-water mark of modern Republican success in the executive branch. Reagan, in retirement and suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, was represented by his wife, Nancy, who was welcomed with long, loud applause.
Even feisty Pat Buchanan, whose thunderous far-Right campaign handed Dole an embarrassment in New Hampshire and nagged him from February right up until the moment Dole and running mate Jack Kemp sailed into San Diego Sunday, finally climbed on the bandwagon with an endorsement.
None of it happened by accident. The Dole Republicans constructed a high wall between the convention and a collection of moderate governors who wanted to come to speak on a menu of uncomfortable issues–immigration, abortion and affirmative action chief among them.
In a move worthy of their traditionally contentious opponents, the Democrats, the GOP convention organizers tossed juicy red meat to the far Right in the form of a strongly conservative platform approved in the oblivion of daytime TV.
Like those that preceded it, this platform is likely to be all but forgotten by the end of the week.
Then, aware of the image problem they caused four years ago when conservative themes set the tone of President Bush’s convention in Houston, the Republicans called Powell and the forces of moderation to the prime-time stage.
Taken together, the speakers Monday night sent a message to the ideological middle of the country, where presidents are generally elected and where the Republicans desperately need to collect votes.
Bush and Ford were important players in that effort, both creatures of a more centrist Republican tradition than the fire-breathers who came to power with landslide victories in the House two years ago.
Powell’s affection and respect for Dole were unmistakable. He endorsed the former Senate majority leader, whom he first met while working for the Pentagon on Capitol Hill, as one soldier to another, a hero of a recent war bowing to a hero from a war at mid-century.
“Later this week we will nominate our leader. He is a man of proven courage. He showed his courage in war. He showed even greater courage in overcoming the wounds of war. He, too, has lived the American dream,” said Powell, in an endorsement that included an indirect but unmistakable slap at Clinton.
“I know this man. In an era of too much salesmanship and too much smooth talking, Bob Dole is a plain-spoken man. A man of strength, maturity and integrity. He is a man who can bring trust back to government and bring Americans together again.”
Repeatedly interrupted by applause and cheering, Powell received mild boos from some delegates when he reached the portion of his speech addressing abortion and affirmative action. But he handled those critics within the party with almost as much aplomb as he handled the Iraqi troops in Desert Storm.
“I became a Republican because I want to help fill the big tent that our party has raised to attract all Americans. You all know that I believe in a woman’s right to choose and I strongly support affirmative action,” the retired general said.
“And I was invited here by my party to share my views with you because we are a big enough party, and big enough people to disagree on individual issues and still work together for our common goal: restoring the American dream.”
Powell’s presence and his strong address gave the party a rock solid symbol it could point to, a man who embodies black success and has a reputation for compassion, but is every bit as much an advocate of tax cuts and smaller government as Dole and his running mate, Jack Kemp.
“I became a Republican because I believe the policies of our party will lead to greater economic growth, which is the only real solution to the problems of poverty that keep too many Americans from sharing the wealth of this nation,” Powell said.
“I became a Republican–like you–because I truly believe the federal government has become too large and too intrusive in our lives. . . . I became a Republican because I believe America must remain the leader of the free world.”
Former President Bush was effusive in his praise of Dole, saying the former senator was at his side as Bush presided over a tumultuous era in which communism collapsed and Eastern Europe and the Baltic states emerged into freedom after years of Cold War.
“In all of these triumphs Sen. Bob Dole stood at my side, never cutting and running when the going got tough. His support and leadership were vitally important,” Bush said. “Bob Dole, himself bloodied in combat, tested by fire on the battlefield and in the world of politics, has proved his service to country.
“There is no substitute for personal sacrifice, for courage, for honorable service. Bob Dole has served his nation, his state and the Congress, always with honor. . . . He will be a president we can look up to. He will do us proud.”
Bush also paid tribute to his wife, Barbara, for the integrity and style with which she served as first lady, an implied criticism of the problems the president and his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton have wrestled with over the past four years.
Ford, the veteran congressman who was the party’s salvation in one of its darkest periods after President Richard Nixon’s resignation at the height of the Watergate scandal, said he knew Dole well. The Kansas senator was Ford’s running mate in 1976.
“My friends, I know a thing or two about Bob Dole. And if there was anything I didn’t know, I checked it out before choosing him as my running mate. . . . I found then Bob Dole fit to be president; I find him even more qualified today.”
Powell and the former presidents, along with a tearful former first lady who thanked the nation for the cards and best wishes for her ailing husband, set the tone for a day that began with a seeming endless stream of activists, members of Congress and would-be officeholders who sang the praises of whittling down government and bashing tax collectors.
On another serious note, 12-year-old Hydeia Broadbent, an African-American girl who has been infected by AIDS since birth, read a poem: “You can’t crush my dreams,” it ended. “I am the future and I have AIDS.”
“I may lose my own battle with AIDS,” said Mary Fisher of Boca Raton, Fla., an HIV-positive artist, mother and former aide to Ford who also addressed the 1992 convention.
“But if you would embrace the moral courage tonight and embrace my children when I am gone, then you and Hydeia and I would together have won a greater battle. You would have achieved integrity.”
The schedule of the convention dominated the day inside in San Diego, but the warm weather, an abundance of big-time lobbying money and luxury yachts the size of houses combined to lure delegates and officeholders alike to dockside parties all day.
