Advice for Dole

Herb Stein
1:42 p.m.  Friday  8/2/96

I may have raised what Bartley calls the “epistemological” question in too provocative a manner. If so, I apologize. When an amateur, like me or any of our readers, encounters experts with divergent views he naturally wants to learn something more about how the experts arrived at their views. I thank DeMuth and Bartley for their candid explanations. In fact, there seems to be little divergence of view among the members of this panel. All seem to agree that the Dole campaign should move along two tracks, which might be called the philosophy track and the character track. The philosophy track emphasizes more freedom and less government. The main embodiment of the philosophy, for 1996, is tax policy. Here there is some disagreement, with DeMuth emphasizing neutrality of tax policy and Bartley emphasizing growth. The content of the character track is well-known. Such disagreement as there is relates to the method of bringing this issue to the attention of the public and, as I understand Matalin, some despair about being able to do that effectively. Gov. Keating, in his final submission, made what I think is a useful distinction between pre-convention tactics and post-convention strategy. I thank all the panelists for the patience with which they have shared their experience and insights. Perhaps we five shall meet again, after the election, and rehash what advice was taken and what not, and what worked and what didn’t. The “Committee of Correspondence” will not meet next week–the week of Aug. 5. We will resume on Aug. 12th with a discussion of the Republican Convention, which will then be in process.