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Forbes Phenomenon
May Affect Campaign
JAMES D. BESSER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
J
ust in case you weren't sure
whether 1996 would be one
of the weirdest election
years ever, consider the as-
tonishing campaign of magazine
heir Malcolm "Steve" Forbes.
Two months ago, the pundits
scoffed at this rich guy who has
never held public office and whose
platform seemed to consist almost
entirely of a "flat tax" proposal
that many economists say will
help the federal deficit soar to new
heights — and, along the way, cut
taxes for the richest of the rich.
Polls show Mr. Forbes, who is
actively courting Jewish support,
running a close second in Iowa to
front-runner Sen. Bob Dole; the
Dole campaign, suddenly alarmed
at the specter of Mr. Forbes' bot-
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tomless campaign war chest, has
started hacking away at the po-
litical newcomer.
Democrats say that the Forbes
surge reflects the weakness of the
GOP pack.
Mr. Dole, they say, is an unin-
spiring campaigner who has been
badly damaged by his well-doc-
umented flip flops. The Senate
Majority Leader, in fact, seems to
get more wooden as the campaign
progresses, which makes him a
more fitting rival for Vice Presi-
dent Al Gore, the king of the cel-
lulose candidates.
Other Republican contenders
— Sen. Phil Gramm, former Ten-
nessee Gov. Lamar Alexander,
Sen. Richard Lugar — seem
equally unable to match Presi-
dent Bill Clinton's exuberant cam-
paign style, or they are fringe
candidates unlikely to win wide-
spread support, like columnist
Pat Buchanan.
Republicans who support the
other contenders offer a different
explanation: Mr. Forbes' deep
pockets and his early advertising
have attracted momentary at-
tention from a public with a short
attention span. But in the end,
they say, Mr. Forbes' lack of ex-
perience in public life and his own
dull, pedantic style will turn his
current surge into an odd little
footnote to the 1996 campaign.
Or, they insist, Mr. Forbes is
rising in the polls only because of
the attention of a liberal media
that will do anything to sabotage
the Dole effort.
But all of these explanations
miss some critical points about
this year's presidential saga.
Americans are tired of all these
guys, Democratic and Republi-
can, and they're sick of the mean-
spirited, empty exchanges of
political
rhetoric that
have become
the prime and
not very satis-
fying nutrient
of our political
diet.
Mr. Forbes
represents nov-
elty — a new
face, with
enough money
to make sure
that we see it
every time we
turn on our
television sets.
And he repre-
sents commit-
ment to a
clearly defined
idea that seems
to suggest a vision for America's
future, not just an infinitely flex-
ibility desire to bash opponents.
The quality of that idea — the
flat tax — is a subject of furious
controversy among economists.
But Mr. Forbes' focus on a real is-
sue, and his dry, almost detached
way of presenting it, strike many
voters as a refreshing change
from the negativism that has
characterized the other GOP cam-
Paigns.
Mr. Forbes, too, is a real out-
sider, unlike Mr. Dole, who came
to the Senate the same year
Richard Nixon took the oath to
protect and defend the Constitu-
tion, or Pat Buchanan, a Nixon
and Reagan insider and a Wash-
ington native who still pretends
that he's only been in Washing-
ton for short visits.
Mr. Forbes has no past; he was
dropped among us like ET, with-
out the political taint that comes
with having to make the kind of
compromises that governing and
legislating requires.