BOB DOLE had a dream convention. Now all he has to do is win the election.
President Clinton must know she now has a fight on his hands, in spite of the double digit lead in the polls. But the media spotlight will shift to the Democratic convention in Chicago the week after next when the euphoria of San Diego will have faded for the Republicans.
Conventions are meant to give the candidate and the party a "lift" for the hard campaigning ahead, but American pundits say they have never seen such a superbly organised political event as San Diego. In fact it was so well orchestrated that the TV networks are threatening to cut down coverage of future conventions if they are going to be like this one.
One of the most respected commentators, Ted Koppel of Nightline, even left San Diego halfway through, complaining that there is no news". The other networks grumbled that their huge investment in coverage had only resulted in falling ratings as viewers were bored by its slick packaging.
Where were the drama and rows of yesteryear? There has not been a fight for the nomination at a convention since Eisenhower defeated Taft back in 1952 because the primaries now decide the winner in advance, but that had not stopped the backstage in fighting and manoeuvring which the media love to highlight.
San Diego represented an apogee or a nadir, depending on your point of view, of what a convention should be. The organisers were determined that there would not be the slightest crack in the facade of party unity as it faced into the last lap in the race for the White House.
The result was that the party infighting over abortion, Dole's gaffes with the African Amen can community and the gun lobby and his dithering over smoking as a health hazard were all buried out of sight as delegates were wined and dined on the sunny beaches the luxury yachts and the plush hotels.
The critics were quick to spot what was going on a "huge con job" according to one Democrat. Most of the media agreed, while accepting they were the unwilling accomplice in the affair.
While the conservatives and the Christian Coalition succeeded in getting their tough language on abortion, immigration and treatment for minorities into the convent ion platform or policy document, many speakers sang another tune of tolerance, concern for AIDS and opportunities for blacks and Hispanics under a future President Dole.
Only 3 per cent of the delegates black, while 36 per cent were women and 40 per cent had incomes of over $100,000. But the selection of convention speakers largely over represented the blacks and women in the audience, while the complaints about tax increases under President Clinton gave the impression that life for millionaires was pretty rough.
Dole and his vice presidential running mate, Jack Kemp, blandly said that they had not had time to read the platform when tackled about its tough language. The Republican bulldog, Speaker Newt Gingrich, was muzzled and spent most of his time at fund raising functions.
The most famous black man in America, retired general Colin Powell, was the only speaker who took issue publicly with the party stance on abortion, when he stated his pro choice position. He also disagreed with the party's objection to affirmative action programmes designed to help minorities overcome their disadvantages.
Even Jack Kemp, who had been known for his support for affirmative action and his objections to a Californian law stripping the children of illegal immigrants of the right to public education, quickly changed tack when he got the call to the Dole ticket.
The fiery Pat Buchanan, who had sulked since Dole had wiped him out in the primaries, ended up on the platform on the final night. He justified his action by saying that most of his aims had now been included as party policy, even if nobody was reading it.
While the spin doctors and the PR experts papered over the ideological cracks, Dole himself remained their biggest problem. His wife, Elizabeth, nicknamed the "steel magnolia" when she was a Cabinet member, did a magnificent solo act of humanising Dole when she talked to an adoring convention audience about his early life and struggle to overcome war wounds.
But if Dole, often a poor public speaker, fluffed his acceptance speech with the eyes of the country on him, any hope of over taking Clinton by November would be dashed.
In the end, if the convention was slickness personified, Dole's speech was curiously old fashioned and often moving. In other words, it was Dole himself, whether the PR people liked ii or not.
The age factor is a real problem Dole at 73 but instead of glossing over it he made it a virtue. It would make him "a bridge to an America that only the unknowing call myth", he declared boldly.
"Let me be the bridge to a time of tranquillity, faith and confidence in action. To those who say it was never so that America has not been better, I say, you're wrong, and I know because I was there. I have seen it. I remember Dole in other words, could lead the country away from the nightmare of violent crime, drugs and racial hatreds which, he implied, was allowed to flourish under a Clinton administration of low standards and high taxation.
The party of Lincoln would not tolerate any racist attitudes, he said sternly pointing to the exits. "Only right conduct distinguishes a great nation from one that cannot rise above itself."
Dole himself appeared to take on a messianic role, with his call to "follow me". He would lead Americans to the land of their dreams.
But first there had to be tax cuts. The salute to the "freedom of the market" as "the chief guarantor of our rights" sat oddly with the moralising which surrounded it, but, as he would say himself. This is what America is all about".
He knows well that paint ing an ideal America will not beat Bill Clinton, but combined with cutting taxes it just might. The prospect of a 15 per cent cut for every taxpayer in America and a 50 per cent cut in capital gains tax for shareholders is being dangled before the electorate.
And the budget will be balanced by 2002. Dole promises. Even some of his own supporters, like Senator Alfonso d'Amato, say this cannot be done without attacking social security entitlements and Medicare.
But Dole glosses over this awkward fact while exaggerating the effects of the Clinton tax increase in 1993 which controlled the trillion dollar national debt and brought down interest rates.
It remains to be seen if the voters will fall for the bait of the 15 per cent cut. First reactions show that people distrust this approach.
The shadow of that Republican idol and hero, Ronald Reagan, lies over the party as he himself struggles with the ravages of Alzheimer's disease. Nancy Reagan came to the convention to evoke his memory and reduced the strongest to tears.
The often scowling Dole is now trying to evoke the "morning in America" theme which lifted up the country in the Reagan years.
November will tell whether, as he said himself it will be his time for White House or for going back home.