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- THE WEEK, Page 15NATIONThe Veep Bites Back
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- Quayle's tough acceptance speech aims for the Democratic jugular
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- The image that has stuck most stubbornly to Dan Quayle from
- the 1988 campaign is that of a deer caught in the headlights: a
- helpless thing frozen in the path of destruction. In Houston,
- however, Quayle labored -- with some success -- to transform
- himself into a snarling attack dog, on the model of such G.O.P.
- vice-presidential nominees as Bob Dole and Spiro Agnew. Before
- the largest prime-time TV audience he has addressed, Quayle
- abandoned his attempted oratorical gravitas and delivered a
- withering attack on what he has called the "liberal cultural
- elite," which he has targeted to help distract attention from
- the economy. Liberals "look down on our beliefs," Quayle
- growled. Bill Clinton "can't fight for the traditional family
- because his supporters in Hollywood and the media elite won't
- let him."
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- That pitch roused the crowd in Houston, but polls show
- most Republicans still consider Quayle unqualified. And a slew
- of other presidential aspirants are also positioning themselves
- to run in 1996. Among them: chief of staff James Baker,
- conservative pundit Pat Buchanan, Housing Secretary Jack Kemp,
- Massachusetts Governor William Weld and William Bennett, former
- commander of the war on drugs. And Texas Senator Phil Gramm,
- another 1996 hopeful, hurt himself with a keynote address that
- delegates judged too long and snoozy. Then again, that was the
- rap on the 1988 keynote speech of the Democrat who now leads
- George Bush in the polls.
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