Dole Plays Defense In Detroit

DETROIT (Oct. 21) -- Inside a warehouse in Detroit, some of the Republican governors who are privately complaining about Bob Dole's campaign gave him a public standing ovation.

He gave them a game, but clearly defensive, performance. He pushed for his tax cut. "Oh, I've listened to all those people who say Bob Dole had this reputation as a deficit hawk. And I still do. I am a deficit hawk. Jack Kemp is a supply sider. We both recognize to make this work, to make it work in the right way we have to cut spending."

Dole lit into the president, a man he thinks gets credit for everything and blamed for nothing. "Finally," he said, "we are getting foreign aid in America from Indonesia and other countries. And it is all coming to America," Dole said to a roar of laughter from the crowd. "I didn't think I would live long enough to see us get foreign aid -- the trouble is it's all going to the Democratic party.

Dole ran the gamut from school vouchers to Medicare to Bosnia. But between the standard passages, he seems to be groping for an explanation -- not for what went wrong, but for why it has never gone right. "So maybe there is no interest in politics," he said. "Maybe nobody cares. Or maybe they are just getting around to focus on it. Getting to make up their minds."

He alone cannot say aloud what so many other people are thinking. So while the governors held a news conference to swear they think Bob Dole will win -- "We think that there's a very, very excellent opportunity to win this election," said Michigan Gov. John Engler, "and we view that from the perspective of what's going on in Michigan, or Ohio..." -- Dole left the Detroit warehouse and took his bus tour to Chelsea, Michigan, then to Jackson, Marshall, Kalamazoo and Saginaw.

Fourteen more days till the election.

Dole Plays Defense In Detroit

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