No Rain On Dole's July Fourth Parade

WHEATON, Illinois (July 4) -- One mile of adulation and enthusiasm, and fireworks of the non-political sort were just what the doctor -- make that campaign advisors -- ordered (or should have anyway) for Bob Dole.

"This is like going to Russell, Kansas," Dole quipped.

July Fourth in Wheaton, Illinois certainly seemed like a tonic for the candidate who needed something after being beaten up over the tobacco issue.

There was no rain on this parade. In fact, even a ray of political hope emerged in the form of Henry Hyde, the Illinois congressman in charge of working out the abortion platform problem at the Republican convention.

"I'm telling you that it's going to be worked out," a casually dressed Hyde said. "It is almost worked out and we won't have a problem."

As for the candidate, he was happy to bask in a controversy-free day, pushing the already-committed in this Republican stronghold. "The future of America is in your hands, and you will make important decisions -- the choice you make November 5, 1996 will be Bob Dole for president, Bob Dole for president, Bob Dole for president!"

Still, this was the Fourth of July and this was a political speech. So a small poke at the Clinton White House was expected and delivered: "A nation, in Abraham Lincoln's words, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. I've been wanting to talk to Lincoln but all the lines are tied up." (160K WAV sound)

Friday, Dole meets again with his vice presidential search team. A lot of parade watchers thought Dole's parade companion, Illinois' popular GOP Gov. Jim Edgar, was a pretty good looking team. He's an oft-mentioned vice presidential possibility, and another photo in a photo-friendly day.

It was a Norman Rockwell, main street, middle America kind of fourth. Enough to provide a respite, but probably not an end, to the tobacco controversy which has dragged on the Dole campaign on the first, second and third.

This story originally appeared on CNN's "Inside Politics."

No Rain On Dole's July Fourth Parade

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