The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

it's big it is bees and i have a limited complements that with a more people with huge of our country and i stand before you the survivors it made sense of the larger a

fighter by principal and the most optimistic man in america it's blue my life is proof that america is a land without limits with my feet on the ground and marco rubio i put my faith in you why i'm convinced that america's best day three of the gum may god bless you and may god so set in in

in as betty boop work's been the patient is

this section this week the players but it's been so

there are the conventions they had long as it was not a disciplined state i'm david

greene people mill bases or another come to camp family your four children and eleven grandchildren and they're all coming out and i can't get through a lot of the

characters oh yes but it doesn't really uncharted parts of kansas a song called call

me the long waiting lines on a bill for itself pretty small that's it and that wisconsin's you gotten a couple lives and they expected the president to be here about a thousand less than half the cost the ratings this week has been

tough what is this

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the pittsburgh i've known for some serious discussion here about these two speeches but if it bubbles speech old you know would you think that was an unusual acceptance of speech and it was almost an acceptance speech at the end of the hour with a promise of state of the union address grafted parts in the middle much more programmatic that the from the back i thought were the strongest eloquence critically the part the autobiographical part of the reference to the gracious compensations of age taking the age issue here and on and i think rather effectively i do not need the

presidency to make or refresh my soul same eloquence there in the ant were he cast the two parties are those of trustee of love republicans as a populist party forces the democrat says his party the leads but i thought economics section in particular could have benefited by swapping speeches frankly jack kemp's part about the economy and what it means and end and the justification for what they're trying to do on economics the better served in bob dole's beach saving some of the more programmatic state i wouldn't give it to jack and you think that attracted probably other pointing at them or virtual an inspirational part i think you think that you think you want or nominee to to make a big case to make the hotel offer the big picture justification not to have to say as a little bit at one point that we have a host of other proposals are there is no right to which i have written that has high enough to allow me to get the biggest

terrorist allow me forget where i came from where stan howe wasted my feet on the ground just the man that received got postponed new really very touching very moving at the outset and paul points on any differently in the middle east are talking about is it was put together by a committee any to repeal president and social security tax increase trade civil service reform i don't and paul's great line a host of other proposals that will create more opportunity now that isn't the ultimate much more i don't know what it is okay let's open this up and get some other thing is beginning with waves at the mayor and columnist author of the book the great speeches portland me your ears but satire what it'll pay grade or assessment that you put on the speech due to a news

conference when it's not a song that teaches you and that i think the theme that he said at the end that was the thing is a powerful drugs now there's a subtlety there he talks about the same thing the trust of government in the people and that fits his economic philosophy but as he talked about that for us what he is saying oh what a listener in the viewer picks up his trust in them and that i think wisely exploits one of the great differences in the candidates' and one of that expense is it because of a jump over that that if i know this is difficult to say instantly like that but it were there isn't a memorable speech other things from the list that people will come after work for weeks days months years

to come and this was not a speech with a lot of what a horrible one line you could see he put in a few kennedy asked the lines turnaround to balance things that we cannot guarantee the outcome but we shall guarantee the opportunity those are speechwriters law what he came across with i think and you got to remember it's the impression you come away with and not the portability of certain lines or even the slogan comes i think if he came across with a certain celebrity and seriousness of purpose be a style was plain spoken and you use the phrase plain speaking voice because that's what he has to hit verses fire there were a couple of

years well certainly libby building well yesterday like somebody there senator and now that one of the important things in a make sense to have they have some violence i get fdr had the economic royalists and he had a lead new villains real or his philosophy it takes a village you know it takes a family story came to grips with that and that certainly bhutto's book is kelly is a clothesline a trigger for applause line in this convention i didn't like me a reference set to lead its that's a little bit of class warfare i think you to get off ah the teachers union he disagrees with in an ill never get their vote and he

confronted alike that particularly his frankness on the age issue are we talked about and talked about the gracious compensations of a myth a nice with a very well trained trade agenda because it's multiple so what is on the line graduate analysts say ok the mission when barrow i recognize that and i can travel are the spring or others and have this discussion bill kristol doris kearns goodwin michael beschloss of things just ain't what you think i think it was very strange to me and a couple of people about it i think that what we saw preceding the speech was remarkable video which is the public relations think there was a natural easy modest poignant person speaking the speech itself i agree with both bark and paul that day it was an unusual speech it was like a state of the union speech and it didn't have to

be just listening to have been listening to it carefully didn't really have the largest the bill says bill safire says it's about trust but that that was an articulated throughout the speech and also it seemed to me to go almost like when he was talking about things if they're being fought now he talked about a decades of assault upon american values on and so forth and i was thinking well i'm a swimmer know twenty eight twenty of the last twenty eight years americans would never buy by republican presidents and he talked about crime in one of his tool and violent crimes and tell their life will be hell and so forth but he lacked any kind of war with sue terrorists the ends of the earth people would like to believe that but you don't get a real specificity of how it will be dealt with the real problems of of the country like i guess from the beginning and it's a long election year which is now just beginning really finely there has been this question about the vision for the future but he's in the twenty percent but i don't get a real sense of where he wants to take the country all of them yes but the taxes but believing what reagan

is going to decrease the defense spending he's going to have a missile like star wars as a little bit over the border a great debate about how to pay for it is that the world which were entering that with a cold war is over it i found that i just have to close the circle the first part was absolutely powerful oddly enough the video about himself has recently has taught the off the cuff the speech itself was a laundry list well you know john the last couple of days have been signed in the new age all these convention speeches are going to be slick short and tv friendly not tonight this was a very long speech nearly an hour which particularly in contrast the last couple of days i think perhaps seemed even longer than an hour and there was a lot of disappointment in rubble there were some interesting points of appeal but this didn't seem like something that was perhaps cobbled together by committee i think one thing maybe a virtue and all this and that is that both explicitly and implicitly tonight bob dole was nominating himself as the

non bill clinton the candidate who was not slick the candidate who is not calculated we saw some of these lines that candidates don't run from the true greatness is how honest you are and the willingness to stand fast and hard places and i think one of the things he was trying to achieve and oddly enough the lack of artifice my help this is the show that this is not just like an actor that you have on the other side and that also tends to under gird the other element the appeal which is i'm not bill clinton and the true right of center candidate i'm the one who really stands were most worried is yours yours burned villages what was your the new law the irony to me was it seemed that the most powerful part was where his personal life story joined his public leadership we talked about his father and the fact that he would never betray those in need because it would mean betraying his father and it was a whole section there for a longer time that sounded very un republican in fact i suspect if you look back at acceptance speeches that with the emphasis on the needy in this speech was

far greater than you find in republican acceptance speeches in the past the other interesting thing that struck me is a plain speaking man as everyone says but much of it was abstract and literary whenever roosevelt's boat concrete examples stories homely examples this had a literary quality interestingly that doesn't get the man in a certain sense a long parts of it and the other problem i think was that there were different sections of the speech some program added some literary some philosophical some personal any deliver them all with the same voice mean that's the difficulty people have different kinds of sections even the committees were different sections europe weiss has to rise to the occasion and be different when you're talking in different ways i think he delivered it well in terms of his embarrassment about wearing that it wouldn't be a good speech you're not embarrassing at the beginning where that nervousness and so it went for the crowd because i think he absorbed energy from the crowd and it and did some of the nervousness i was feeling for him so i think it certainly was a well delivered speech but it didn't rise to the occasion in terms of having any predation of emotion depending on what he was talking about what do we got the speech about an hour before bob dole the lever

i thought it was an interesting speech to reach large chunks of italy's it wasn't i don't think maybe that interesting speech voted to watch on television unfortunately on nbc to go back and forth and the biographical part autobiographical part to the problematic part of what a lot of detail the back end to two for one of the other pablo ortiz question of dispute raises it's really pretty pretty interesting speech and i thought provoking speech what were the most acceptance speeches is at the very end of the speech bob dole stresses that he's the most bizarre is the most optimistic man in america he says you're going in the early part of the speech partly he says that wants to be a bridge to a time for equally faith and confidence of those who say it was never so that america has not been better i say you're wrong and i know it is very unusual in american politics for a politician to say that america's better days are behind us i mean is really conservative and a funny way ronald reagan was the great insert of the waterway and it really never would've said that things were better back then like i just don't know i think at the top and i

personally into the texas would feel about certain areas of our life but i think it's tough it is a tough one for president on trial you will work in backwardness the question that that that everybody polls going into the speech was that bill that bob dole had to introduce himself up to great segment of the american population and show the real vaudeville we do that and i do think though we're artistically jonah good bit of his of his autobiography and removing an interesting way i don't think he tied that in a sense i suppose it might have to was clean for leadership for these last four years of the century and maybe that's the question mark hangs over the stage for a robot polls well i think he showed himself a man of dignity and and to some extent a man of character i think the problem is when you're looking at your leader is personal biography matters only is it tells you where he's going to take the country and what he's going to do with those four years if we give it to him and i'm not sure that that connection was ever made was almost like a disconnect between the state of

union speech and the policy programs which didn't fit together in some ways michael i think there were a few false notes very few false notes and particularly in cotton in contrast to many earlier acceptance speeches in history but the question really has been all these long year whether bob dole is capable of delivering a focus speech that's going to put his best foot forward he sure didn't do it in his response to the state of the union by president clinton in january and i think this speech did not answer that question in the affirmative things i thought what bill kristol said i didn't script myself little know back to the future we talk about that that business about looking america's best days in a factory for their i was very sad and and that really is an interesting difficult thing for a politician your lead america head not look back and it does reinforce the sense of his age and the fact that he does speak for a different third generation it held a war it does set the stage for a real debate about his program government how it's going to work how the taxes and over

who's going to pay for it but that's the kind of bills where when and how would you answer the question about whether or not that was the real bob dole whether he'd get a good job dispelling himself to people who didn't know well i seem to be the only one that here tonight you think sir it was a good speech that was the real bob dole and i did not object to the meat and potatoes and i know we're all we're trying to forty one minute speeches and i think it had a lot to say there were five of these we talked about honorable compromises no sin some of us heard barry goldwater's opposite line about the extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no sin i also have a bill now when he said that that be said that line i wrote answer to buchanan that that he would say was a bit because the cannon has been saying you know don't

compromise and did you read it that one well buchanan came out of people were traditions of aa i think also work ah he the way he handled his his war injury he didn't talk about this is what happened to me feel sorry for me he came at it with concern about his father who traveled the same for the hospital and introduce it that way mcconnell modest way and i thought that was quite effective and finally to andy kohut of the pew research center annie refresh your memory how long does it take for the impact of event like this of this magnitude with all the attention on the felony and meaningful way there probably are negatively libya well i think it's gonna take a little while for people to first of all here watched those film clips on the eleven o'clock news because that's where most people will be getting us seeing this speech not your television a minority of the electorate will watch it

directly a large minority that still a minority and i think it'll take a while for people to watch think about what he said and here hear what resident what what resonates in what what what the clips are i think that the real issue here is whether it has made any progress we with people on the his what his biggest problems which is that the human dimension their debt thirty five year old high school graduate you now thinks he doesn't understand them or care care about their needs to do did this speech do anything to assuage those fears and doubts and to look it's very difficult to judge that as his success in that regard because being here is not being there which is to say the people's homes and tomorrow morning morning arun shows where they're going to begin to reflect on this what does so what is your experience say about that but you say most people will not seen the speech i so they will see the

clemson also read their newspapers morning we'll listen to the issues and then he goes on all these other folks here i think is that it's an important what people say about a third in informing an opinion down the one of the up the the ultimate opinion absolutely amenable create a climate of opinion at least for a while which will allow at least give polls bowl a chance to those positives in this speech into the things that you tried to achieve in this speech an opportunity to succeed or if it the reviews are a bad day it will work that that climate of opinion toward him you look fine mr mark in all this was the salon in a lot of the acceptance of the convention is now this event in san diego and it goes he goes on to other events and when you think of successful

convention a successful experience for bob dole on the republican party nineteen ninety six paul i think it was successful biologic mean there were couple of course they were going after one was to redefine the republican party to a group of voters who have been told they were shiite muslims and extremists and fanatics and to say and to redefine that agenda say look this is what our urgent it really is and to put a broader and more diverse face of the party and i think that helped to help themselves a lot in doing that i'm bob dole maybe the best thing about the speech was that it was a bob dole speech in many respects it was a place you would answer my question now that was the bubbly may not like it or not that that's a real bump though and there was no there were some gracious turns of phrase but there was not a lot of artifice to it and if you're talking about some may be the lead the theme here trust which is the thing that obviously is they're going to use and in contrast to george bush who said you can't trust bill clinton i'm bob dole's turn that

phrase and now says we trust the people so they're casting the trust issue in a very different way if thats the issue than the speech did hit on some of those points we talked about i will betray nothing i can speak without calculations by congress with the truth he was not be visionary speech give people want the vision they didn't get that one a small c conservative the conservative met indeed in a word that's what they got and we will see if that works it has been so mark jams in addition its been a laundry list it had too many different aspects of vaudeville show the magnanimity of bob dole as he spoke about he's my opponent not my enemy speaking the president said spoke about bob dole i thought that would repeal sapphires a very moving cars buzz he spoke about his father i've heard that story before forming but it is moving at times he was actually moved we seen as solely about traveling from kansas to michigan to see a son he thought was going to die and he had to stand all the way i will not i will not betray these people but then he turns around and says

it takes a village i'd doesn't take a village it takes a family and that's a false note that is not the premise of the book of the title although of a fable from africa so but it's a it's a great little bit of a cheap shot at laugh in in the audience and then the looters boutros ghali i mean i just find that they can focus on his name and not terribly presidential at its best i think michael's point no crystals about the past into the past and haynes picked up on i wrote down as he said i've seen the past it worked i knew which which really is a different a different sound that provoked by elliot budd michael beschloss mayor put it in and what is the true genius of this speech if i'm wrong about it which obviously eighty three percent chance of that is <unk> several years ago seven up the soft drink when a campaign called the uncool well baby bob dole with the uncanny and the honestly the unclear that it is especially on slick there was that was not it was not packaged it was not that i

carefully calcutta calibrated that what they don't charge of ingenious so our thanks to have the two of you and to all members of our team for being for helping us through not only tonight than those of you been with us all week and also on earth thank you our audience we happen to believe that these nominating conventions of the two major political parties are major events of politics and history that is why we have been here these last four nights and clearly you agree or you wouldn't be here in my word right now we'll be back with our partners nbc news to cover the democratic version of this or that on august twenty six from chicago meanwhile will be here with the newshour tomorrow night in every other weeknight between now and then from san diego on jim lehrer thank you and funding for this program has been provided by the corporation for public broadcasting and viewers like you as

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