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Jewish World Review March 11, 1999 /23 Adar 5759

Don Feder

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In praise of negative campaigning

(http://www.jewishworldreview.com) WHEN A POLITICIAN IMPLORES his rivals to disavow negative campaigning, I wonder what part of his program or record he doesn't want discussed and why.

Last week, Arizona Sen. John McCain, the Republican the media wants to go home with when the bar closes, urged candidates for the GOP presidential nomination "not to stoop to negative campaigning against fellow Republicans."

"Don't let's go down the road of mindlessly destroying each other," McCain pleaded. The senator warned that "scorched-earth Republican primaries will lead directly to an Al Gore presidency."

Seconding the call for a tepid beauty pageant, GOP Chairman Jim Nicholson threatened to "blow the whistle" on those who speak ill of fellow Republicans.

Conventional wisdom (almost always wrong) holds that attacks on Bob Dole by Steve Forbes and Pat Buchanan, during the 1996 GOP primary campaign, contributed to Dole's defeat in November.

Buchanan
This is a fascinating theory, lacking only a basis in reality. Try to imagine circumstances in which the lackluster, dyspeptic Dole could conceivably have defeated Clinton.

In answer to criticism that he was being too hard on the then-Senate majority leader, Buchanan observed, "If he can't stand up to me, he won't be able to stand up to Bill Clinton." Dole couldn't and didn't.

In 1988, Pete DuPont and Jack Kemp bashed George Bush as a coupon-clipping Republican, challenging his right to Reagan's supply-side mantle by reminding voters that Bush called Reaganomics "voodoo economics" in 1980. The vice president took his lumps and moved to the right on taxes and spending, thereby adopting a strategy that allowed him to defeat Michael Dukakis in the general election.

Clinton's Democratic rivals were even harder on him when he was the front-runner for the nomination in 1992, questioning everything from his wife's business dealings to his slavish devotion to special interests (the pander-bear, the late Sen. Paul Tsongis called him).

Negative primary campaigning isn't a harbinger of disaster in November. An interparty love-fest is no guarantee of victory.

It's easy to see why McCain, who has undisguised presidential ambitions, would favor primaries devoid of substance.

McCain's tobacco bill included a minimum of $47 billion annually in new taxes. The anti-First Amendment McCain-Feingold campaign-finance bill would have made it illegal for advocacy groups like National Right to Life and the ACLU to comment on an incumbent's voting record.

These statist measures -- the proposals for which McCain is best known -- should have as much appeal for GOP primary voters as solicitations for the Clinton presidential library.

Grover G. Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and a key advisor to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, notes that when companies began comparing their products to their competitors' in the 1970s, the advertising strategy was considered a major advance for consumers.

As long as Bayer Asprin's references to Buffrin and Excedrin were factual, its ads were deemed to be valuable consumer input.

Primary voters are also consumers, choosing a product that they hope will be durable enough to last through November and four years in office. The GOP needs the kind of vetting that so-called negative campaigning provides.

If Texas Gov. George W. Bush Jr. has taken a position or favored legislation that demonstrates a lack of commitment to a limited-government, pro-family values vision, I want to know about it before he has the party's nomination.

If Forbes or Gary Bauer brings this to my attention, I'm grateful for the intelligence.

I want to know exactly where the candidates differ and why. I've been around long enough to be able to distinguish between valid criticism and distortions driven by desperation.

Norquist notes that challenging a candidate's record or positions "toughens him, inoculates him or kills him." Presidential primaries are the equivalent of boot camp. Better a would-be warrior fails here than in hand-to-hand combat.

Following McCain's prescription would make for a lively primary season. Bush to Forbes, "Oh, Steve, I just love your flat-tax proposal." Forbes: "Why, thank you, George. And your compassionate conservativism is certainly intriguing." A few months of that, and the footnotes in Gore's "Earth in the Balance" will seem spellbinding by comparison.

As long as the rap is accurate and issue-oriented, Republicans shouldn't be afraid to mix it up. Voters might actually begin noticing them.

Up

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©1999, Creators Syndicate