For the Record; 201; Charley McDowell

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is provided by jefferson national back in support of local public television programming in central virginia and by grants from the compton foundation billionaires paley foundation and the prairie foundation most americans than most politicians have said that there was no special case if they have questions about this a conversation on policy as politics and the presidency hosted by ken thompson of the miller center at the university of virginia chairman bechtel has covered washington for the richmond times dispatch for over thirty years and reported on every national political convention since nineteen fifty two for many years a regular guest on the pbs series washington week in review is the nineteen ninety six winner of the national press club for the state a lifetime achievements as a journalist charlie

welcome to for the record you've recently returned from the two major political party conventions now that you've had a few weeks to reflect on the conventions what is your morales lasting impression first of the republican convention well my general impression is of two and out of the long winded and amazing since nineteen fifty two conventions it into this but uh oh the conventions are just as we used up run down their function is gollum the lab first started covering conventions and fifty two there were a place with a different elements of the party came together and made it open deals with fan compromises work things out found candidates actually they're gone for a century and a half by the time i went to my first one and fifty two the convention was beginning to be more ceremonial than we were before

because television was summarizing everything for the public for the delegates and television was showing the candidates and they would show eisenhower and the republicans preferred that he really general place on television the nice bob taft who was an insider wheeler dealer in the republican party since i went to my first conventions in nineteen fifty two i've seen one second bout that was the democrats inflicted to at least in some and every other convention has been one on a verse about most of on the saturday before we got there and then this these two not just us before we got there but turned into some solo recitals that didn't even have the platforms that they were controversy or have any speakers that might they have a harsh tone the voice the mission serve any other purpose well i've talked to civilians

who thought i was going to farm it turned out that what they really thought my head they said we need to get together and get the militia we need to get a sense in virginia of welcoming our group is like we need to me that france is good to meet the people from california and to have a coming together it done this so i'm like a very thrilling television show and the conventions reveal anything about strikes and weaknesses of the party's candidates the makeup of each of the parties and the republican convention was in some ways in trying to create a monologue what the convention was trying to do was make up for gingrich isn't which was which is to put the short plays on until theyre going to extremely sounding to a strain being too extreme crime reform forty years when you didn't control congress in one season

of slicing stuff there were given to get calls assemble out of that one and all popular they cut mouth of this well they're for kids up an environmental programs do in that one word also the republican convention was spent trying to sound miles into the democratic convention was spent trying to sound not dangerously role at all i think they both gorbachev more labs where there are certain voices that gets silenced only republican convention well we think for instance of a very outspoken very lovely woman agree with that he's going along boys in the party that the candidate forbidden to in effect for going to go on he could go onto the green that's a rather things so you know the reverend pat robertson one there to speak on ralph reed of the christian coalition one there no more super conservative voices of the republican

party and the most influential voices in that party in their way one even on stage at the republican convention some people went on having agreed not to say these things and be sure to save those two things did the democrats have their version of this in terms of non politicians being a pick people appeared on well no maybe i'll slit them all bad you know i haven't christopher humans still is there were four and brave story of the how the real superman lives is terribly wounded life anne and jim and sarah brady and then controlling all it has to it was moving stuff from outsiders the ratings i think your opponents are reminding that were once christopher reeves role in democratic politics in the middle it was a sort of

educational attainment suppose we've got to find some way that we in the news business travel cover conventions would administer a focus television cameras at some settled a long time back in primary struggles in four states and television makes those primary strolls affective and it's over what does it mean that the audience was so small and that they have five now that major networks limited themselves to about five and a half hours yet many have got boring now bulk of our television than to some small degree newspaper coverage has gotten more and more trivial over camus's less but there's less and less here to be in suspense about it when there's a struggle between dwight d eisenhower enemy the old mr jeff somewhat jets

competitive this was an imperative or one of the winners were the only frankly fans up a whole kind of well not much fun to watch and clinton they feel like they've been through the thrills with families can't come out now been ok to form with a number of men that know i was much excited about having the candidates than did they get all excited and republican convention about general colin powell well they did in the sense that they saw something terribly real walk out on their stage not planned not automatic now to get it when the primaries but an african american general who spoke beautifully who stood up for general republican principles of and now lee stated some very basic democratic principles that they believe in true it was very powerful i think everyone agreed

and if we hadn't already had the nominee and the vice president picked and about this strange stranger on he might've swept the show whereas now it was about he was there to be to cooperate in his sort of metal conservatism with exceptions for from various liberal principles that he believes normally in times past where the american people thought they got a better sense of each of the candidates did they get a better sense of bob dole do think that they see the real marvel i don't i only sold on the series that with a real bubbly listen to talk about that i just had to be awfully can do that then watch on for awful long time i covered the senate pretty intensively for a time of his time oh i am very accustomed to bubble or remarkably competent senate leader bob dole a man who is amazingly popular with his democratic opponents bob

dole who is not terribly partisan he just tries to put together conservative combinations that and he gets democrats to vote with a mini in medical of roles he has some liberal friends don't know it model is a professional fake humorous growth from oslo half sentences and put down for his old buddies know all wet my life before you've done it recently lose them on television to the american people i couldn't make out what in the world is this oh they've has to miss a difference yesterday senator bob dole is not just a wounded he have to be a wounded he wrote or four bodies of badly wounded man with the bearing of a wounded man and he's seventy three years old was the oldest person who's ever been in land who would be elected is busy world eight years old as the country is younger and younger and

younger we have family produced in this advanced have our oldest presidential candidate but he comes through as old and all the time and i think people look and say well he's seeing sort of grumpy and she's old that overwhelms nearly everything else people think about him even though it may be some of the costs i think what about clinton did we get a better picture of clinton as as we view them at the convention or is a real bill clinton somebody that we need a study of the study of bill clinton and bill clinton will write novels books about how to difficulty is to aig exactly and there's no question that at a bill clinton's first year in the presidency was so full of back in and fill in and getting involved and trivia i'm coming back and having to account for episodes of issues the latest episodes of his life

and i think until they see have people been able to get an idea of this person and what it is is a man it turns out that we saw there who has returned offer the president way to something he used advocate as a young politician let's get the democrats' toward the middle us good amount of the liberal etiology out of the labor union aggressiveness lesbian of very moderate party that stays as close as possible to the republicans that tell you when and then if you if you peel the labor unions in the vote evers up there that's fine but to stay close he family had whistled to political life source of wealth that it sees the mayhem republican testimony will deliver that in a number of republicans said there's something very articulate they have grave doubts these republicans about his principles about his character a lot of things are legitimate the whereabouts of what this man is a really good candidate and

the polls all show that he's in you've attended every convention since nineteen fifty two were a lot of questions one might ask would one is what what is the most memorable convention or two or three that you look back on and why are they so memorable that most labels first one now that's so that's robert a detailed scholarly didn't the fed man that was to receive the republican nomination versus right d eisenhower middle western journalists now in a television personality the first one ever loosed on american television so i sat in the kitchen of a room attached to where the hearings were being held on credentials the contested delegations from a number of states there were two ago and the allegations the ones that were the old timers and there were protests and the new ones from democrats

aging and what would be for us now and what would happen was after the debates the members of the committee would be hours answering the phone from home and the phone calls from home where we like that general he's good yeah were just i was concerned i don't care like a general and eisenhower took it from tenth because of the reaction of people who watched television and television with and i think the attitudes is that was uncertain about sixty and john f kennedy had established that the personage not just of personality but the person the what the person gives off the person's mood and voice quality in whatever is attractive qualities are has a big edge in the television age they go in they went to that they've wiped out conventions will cause they assert these people assert themselves so early

can against all politicians just guess around and acted like old time politicians of that they will have to the force for primaries we had made a second ballot i think as in this series nineteen fifty two is no sign that every another second ballot and bandages to go thirty about fifteen ballots thirty six ballots in the center of the city's one hundred and six right as and each ballot was a move your will get those men will put those with this one the top parties got built and so a lot of those conventions or not doing that now that sort of who do you trust someone said that the results of this election could really be based on how upset people were on either ager character and that that was going to be the determination is now those are real issues they acknowledge into it this is agent character ends the southern

people overlook most americans that most politicians are of such poor character that wants no special case if they have questions about his character that's that they were most upset were rule of age they know about and then will say oh there are issues where the hole in a whole range of issues brought forward by the gingrich revolution no republican controlled congress for forty years and when they got control gingrich and others very conservative people moved aggressively to pass a lot of stuff in the end that we shut down the government it was so revolutionary so fast the polls show that the american people even conservatives said oh that's too much this is all too much too fast maybe over a longer period this is really done too much now will eisner buildings that run out those driver on tax cut and for years that sort but in this case the polls polls the polls are showing

their lobby will say and all things being equal it is a tax cut but we met so many so much stuff that we need money for that that may be too much and here comes clinton simply say and i'm crystal will toe the more practical left of bob dole not much is what the clinton campaign says and right now he has one of the largest leads of modern times in the polls is people take those people today big newspaper state will expect is a tremendously and incidentally among women is an awesome lead women are well can add to tell whether gender difference in america today of it white males have not voted democratic says bangalore in nineteen sixty four not once all is not what's the

day of the most man more people vote for their rights where men have more and more common and eight very very trusted polls shows in the last two weeks the women in america white women are says black people african americans are very much for clinton will even them out to look at gender differences with sixty one percent of women are frequent and the dole number is about thirty four in other words it's a massive it's built on not just the abortion issue it's built on women care about poor kids including welfare and how you help well as good jobs well i have those kids and how you know all of domestic things better schools less than that they commit sixty one percent of women women are letting the senators from california these days women are beginning to move in all kinds of ways in politics

which is to stay away from who may read it so starkly husbands and just vote republican for tax cut that's how they call so we'll see how that comes out when it's something came out on whitewater it could though it has to be it has to be very rough and it has to be rather than any evidence we've seen so far but it could be or at least an outrageous statement that that clinton wheeldon deal than the clintons took favors that allow them to benefit massively so far the prosecutors the chosen prosecutors have been able to bring that followed it doesn't seem to be back the economy is something that we've said a stupid would always have an effect on elections yeah what is the stock market collapsed if it's collapsed those strongly it would be damaging to clam up i'm told that what

we are saying is a moderately good economy been fairly staid and benefit tremendously from the fact that in the last couple years it really has seemed to stabilize and he has indeed reduce the deficit annual deficit conservatives alike to imagine some liberals alike and to waste his time on the deaths in a way that then sell some of them look at whether he has claimed he was dylan's unreasonable things and we're in a reasonable position and i think the average americans says when in doubt don't rock the book i'm puzzled about the american people and politics and the election may seem indifferent really enthusiastic or are they about either candidate and yet they level of education of people was up libya gives us comes to the programs of the note

when one of the american people really think about politics limiting people i am argo i don't know a great deal about the details of the issues are how many people need welfare how many people don't know how many people the american people don't know how much richer and how much poorer this country has gotten in in the last thirty years there are directors caught up in the personalities but we can see what happens when people do care people who care about the issue of abortion oh either side cared deeply and as pat robertson says about his christian coalition we go to the meeting we care we are estimating voting for which candidate the christian coalition is more power in the republican party in any other element more than big business more than in an undemocratic sad it is the women who believe that they have the choice of abortion that is not a religious issue to be decided by a religious

decree had suddenly they controlled their own bodies democratic women are registering festers and men women are taken a larger part in democratic politics and managing gets to sound that that portions of the public understand that translated into politics but mostly those ads like of politicians is slightly sleazy slightly this ad i think they were wrong to those i think most politicians just his day says a the rest of us they are compelled to spend their time ray somali pleasing people who have money pleasingly indians pleasing the manufacturers to assemble millions to put on the television show as the net that you have to have to wait and that's why so many really good ones like bill reilly are throwing their hands up and said i'm nodding don't do that anymore it flew translator america we would say that with a republican voter democratic vote we've saved about joining any movement to affect campaign

reform reduced the special interests from all sides party influence our politics can control our politicians michaels and west are given three thousand twelve cents of our taxes or whatever it takes to pay for the campaigns through and we can set some rules of that ought to run as long and we'll have some pre television and let's get all that one of the other things we talk about all the time is trust and yet jefferson and the kentucky resolutions of seventeen ninety eight wrote free government has founded and jealousy and questions apart then let no more be heard of confidence a man a bind in down from the mischief by the chains of the constitution what is jefferson trying to say it was so what is this say about trust you will not interpret that i do well says so not like it was the

babble and then the last three or four people like i would with a viable does this mean what i think it means is les deux and forcibly the constitution we got an hour was too low more than enforce it was inspired that analyst b inspired by that somehow we put together a congress that wants to make the welfare problem solvable and that was to work on it oh we have well we have a country in which one fifth of the people make an average of over around a hundred and ten thousand dollars a year one fifth and one fifth making seven thousand three hundred or so every june the fifth just above them makes twelve thirteen thousand an we have a very rich

top and terribly core bottom of the scale and we are wrecked the rich ability to investors leave in financial matters but we really can't just think were improving and for the past thirty thirty five years we've increased the number of pouring contain increases we can deal with some of those things and i'm sure that's what jefferson is trying to get another lesson do more than enforcers be inspired by answering a ham and do something and we're so proud of affected to you than your to be recognized to have the fourth estate award and worship are proud that we have had this opportunity to talk with you thank you very much to write i am i am i am i

am it's nice production funding for four the record is provided by jefferson national bank in support of local public television programming in center gigi johnson foundation of billionaire stanley foundation the point we have family produced in

this events ten presidential candidate comes those old and loeb in the end i think people of these things are seasonal that overwhelms nearly everything else people think about it even though it maybe some of the thoughts most americans though most politicians of cervical cancer that there was no special case if they have questions about this guy the

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