Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole arrived in Salt Lake City Monday afternoon promising tax breaks, dismemberment of the Internal Revenue Service, and the inauguration of a government that trusts the people.
He also blasted President Clinton for promising tax relief while pushing through the world's largest tax increase."Welcome to the Bill Clinton retirement party," he quipped to hundreds of enthusiastic supporters on hand for an airport greeting.
Dole was met by two jazz bands, which struck up patriotic tunes like the Marines Hymn. Dole - an Army veteran wounded in Italy during World War II - is in Salt Lake City to address the American Legion's national convention on Tuesday.
About 600 boosters cheered, waving blue-and-white Dole-Kemp posters and shaking tricolor pompons. They carried signs like "Catholics 4 Dole" and "Utah Loves Bobby." A semitrailer truck sported a huge sign reading, "Utah LOVES BOB."
Utah's GOP leaders shared the spotlight, from Gov. Mike Leavitt to both senators, from Reps. Jim Hansen and Enid Greene to the man who hopes to replace Greene, Merrill Cook.
The toughest warm-up speech was by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who traveled to Utah with Dole. A former prisoner of war, McCain blasted the Clinton administration for having "squandered" American prestige by a feckless photo-op foreign policy that looks at foreign relations as social work.
He charged that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been emboldened by the "weak signals and vacillations" of the Clinton administration.
Leavitt said he had been watching the deaf interpreter who translated for McCain, and that the word "vacillation" - and he showed how it was made, with one hand rocking on another - was the same as that for Bill Clinton.
Dole said the campaign pits two opposing ideas about America: that of a liberal vision putting government first, and the Dole-Kemp optimistic vision of a future that puts people first.
"They believe in government and we believe in you," he said.
"Jack Kemp and I believe it's time togive a break to every American who works and every American who pays taxes. You deserve a tax cut," Dole said to cheers from the crowd.
The 15-percent tax cut that Dole proposes would help the economy, he said. He blasted Clinton for giving Americans the world's biggest tax increase. In addition, the Republicans promise an additional tax credit of $500 per child.
"And I think you have children here in Utah," Dole said. With one child, that would be a $500 break; for two children, $1,000, he said. "If you have 10 you're probably too busy to worry much about it," he joked.
The youthful-looking Dole - who recently turned 73 - asked if any seniors were in the crowd. Among those he knew were present were fellow veterans of the 10th Mountain Division who also fought in Italy.
"We're going to repeal Bill Clinton's tax on your Social Security benefit," Dole told seniors. Also, the GOP would cut estate taxes. "I will not be satisfied . . . until we end the IRS as we know it today. End the IRS." Cheers erupted from the crowd.
"Dole-Kemp, Dole-Kemp, Dole-Kemp," the crowd chanted, like a train chugging.
Clinton will get a 15 percent tax cut, too, Dole said, "after he's retired as president."
Speaking of Clinton's "bridges" to the future, he said, "They're all toll bridges."
In the 1992 campaign, Clinton promised a great middle-class tax cut, he said. Everybody who got it should vote for Clinton - because there wasn't one. Instead, Clinton came up with what Dole once called the biggest tax cut in the history of the United States. But he said he was corrected by a Democrat, who pointed out it was actually the biggest in the history of the world.
Three Nobel-prizing-winning economists plus many other experts have endorsed his tax plan, Dole said. Increasing growth and lowering taxes simultaneously "is just a matter of presidential will," and he promised he has that will.
"Nowhere is leadership more necessary than it is in the war against drugs," Dole added. He said the Democrats don't talk much about drugs because under Clinton "every drug imaginable is up and up and up" in usage.
Liberals scoffed at Nancy Reagan and her "just say no" campaign against drugs. But, Dole exclaimed, "It worked! It worked!"
If elected president, Dole said he would beef up the war against drugs, including using the military, such as the National Guard, if necessary.
"It includes restoring moral leadership on the drug issue," he said of the battle.
Dole said he wants to send a clear message: "Drug abuse is wrong, and it will not be tolerated anywhere in America." He promised to appoint tough judges, and called on the Senate not to confirm more judges in the interim.
"Would you rather have me appointing judges or Bill Clinton?"
"You," the crowd roared. Then the chant resumed, "Bob Dole, Bob Dole, Bob Dole."
He notes that only in America can someone like Bob Dole - whose parents didn't get a chance to finish high school, who grew up living in a basement apartment - be able to run for the highest office.
As the rally ended, Dole invited his 10th Mountain Division comrades onto the stand with him, along with dignitaries and campaign workers. He posed for pictures with them, then went into the crowd and worked his way through the throngs, shaking hands, talking, sometimes disappearing, sometimes showing up smiling with a huge microphone hanging over his head on a boom.