Introduced as one of the 10 most admired women in America, Elizabeth Dole, Trinity '58, addressed a Republican rally for her husband and presidential candidate Bob Dole at the Sheraton in Research Triangle Park Thursday.
Abandoning her spot at the podium, Dole stepped off the stage and delivered her speech to the audience, walking and talking as she did during her speech at the Republican national convention.
Dole, a native of North Carolina, said her home state will be important to the Dole-Kemp ticket during the last few weeks of the campaign. "We need your help, shoulder to shoulder, over the next six weeks to make certain that Bob Dole and Jack Kemp are there to make... changes," she said.
She went on to emphasize the need to build a strong Republican party on all levels of government "from the court house to the White House." Praising the leadership of Republican Leo Daughtry, the North Carolina Senate majority leader, and Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) for their efforts in this direction, she urged the crowd to support other Republicans like gubernatorial candidate and North Carolina House of Representatives majority leader Robin Hayes.
"You have to have a firm foundation, just like building a house," Dole said. "I hope that you'll go out of here today energized to help candidates at the local level [and] the county level."
She continued with criticism of the current U.S. tax structure, saying that workers are not getting enough take-home pay. "There is a great deal of anxiety on the part of families around America about our economic future," she said, adding that there is a problem when 38 percent of a family's income goes to pay taxes. She placed most of the blame on what she said was "the highest tax increase in the history of the United States" passed during the Clinton presidency.
Dole also addressed the issue of balancing the budget, putting it into the context of the family. She said that eliminating the budget deficit will cut interest rates by 2 percent, thereby making it easier for families to finance home, student and farm loans.
In addition to balancing the budget, Dole said her husband plans to cut taxes by implementing a 15 percent tax cut and $500 per child tax credit. Although Dole said many people are skeptical about being able to cut taxes and balance the budget simultaneously, she said that 21 states had done just that. Dole added that there was a full page advertisement run in USA Today recently that listed the names of 100 economists-four of whom have won the Nobel Prize in economics-who said that her husband's plan is feasible. Paul Buchanan, one of these Nobel laureates, helped Bob Dole construct his economic plan.
"Now, down at the White House, they said, 'They can't do it. They can't cut taxes and balance the budget at the same time.' You know something, they're right-[the White House] can't do it," Dole said.
She compared her husband's record to that of Clinton's, citing legislation to cut taxes by $245 billion that her husband had supported but that the president vetoed. Bob Dole also helped to pass legislation to balance the budget, but it, too, was vetoed, she said.
Noting that Clinton has been preaching tax cuts throughout his campaign, Dole referred to a report from the bipartisan Joint Committee on Taxation that analyzed all of the tax cuts and tax increases proposed by Clinton this year and said the committee found a $63 billion overall tax increase.
On the topic of law enforcement, Dole criticized Clinton for being lax on crime. She said her husband would work with governors to make sure that there is no longer parole for violent criminals. Those who are in prison, she added, should be forced to work 40 hours per week to help pay for the cost of incarceration and to provide compensation for the victims of crime.
"Bob Dole is going to have an all out war on crime and drugs in this country," she said. "Something is terribly wrong... when a person who is sentenced for murder gets an average sentence of 12 and 1/2 years and gets out on the street again after an average of six years."
Dole also cited statistics concerning the greatly increased cocaine, marijuana and LSD use to show how Clinton has been weak on the drug front. Military intelligence could be used, she added, to prevent drugs from coming into the United States.
Highlighting the need for better education, Dole said that "right now, one in four American [high school] seniors is considered functionally illiterate." She added that her husband wants to provide opportunity scholarships so that every low and middle income family has the same opportunity that the president has to send his child to the school of his choice-public, private or parochial.
She also proposed corporate regulation reforms that she said would allow small businesses to grow and increase employment opportunities. She said that her husband supported legislation for such regulatory reform as U.S. Senate majority leader and added that he promises to cut the capital gains tax from 28 to 14 percent.
Two University students who attended the rally reacted positively to Dole's presentation. Trinity senior Jason Liebman said he liked Dole's message concerning the war against drugs and saw it as a continuation of Nancy Reagan's work as first lady in the 1980's.
"She really laid out a simple message and really got down all of the points in a clear manner," added Trinity senior Eric Porres.
Steve Wehmeyer, a Raleigh resident, said there is a dramatic difference between Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Dole. "We're talking substance versus fluff," he said. "Hillary comes out with the same rhetoric that we've heard from her husband. We're talking about people who have demonstrated time and time again that they cannot be trusted."
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