The Power of Words. Scott MacKay: Another celebrity comes to town. Ho hum

12.9.98
Scott MacKay: Another celebrity comes to town. Ho hum.

Related: Droll Dole stumps for state GOP

        I was worried Bob Dole's campaign visit in October to Rhode Island would turn out to be serious Dullsville, just another yawner campaign stop for Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Almond and the rest of the GOP ticket.
        These celebrity campaign trips to the state often turn into the worst kind of thing for those of us in the "news" business. There is always some young, bright-eyed campaign flack telling you what a great story and big news it is that (fill in the celebrity blank) is coming to the state campaign on behalf of (fill in the blank R.I. pol). On this fine autumn afternoon, it happened to be Dole for Almond. When faced with these things, my long-standing practice is to turn to the young flack and say in my best grizzled, seen-everything voice: "No, it isn't a big story. What would really be a man-bites-dog great story would be if Bob Dole came here and said vote for (Democratic gubernatorial candidate) Myrth York."
        Too often these days, the callow flack doesn't get the joke.
        This Dole visit, however, turned into one of those rare serendipitous campaign events. I lucked out because the Journal's Political Columnist Charlie Bakst could not do the column he wanted to do on Dole before the visit. (He couldn't link up with Dole on a telephone interview, as I recall.) Charlie was good enough to give me a copy of Dole's new book, which is really just a collection of the sort of irreverent one-liners that have been Dole's stock in trade for most of his career. Thus I had a whole bunch of material that could have been in Charlie's column and not worth repeating as "news" the next day.
        The other great thing that happened is that Dole, of course, retired from electoral politics. There is a certain candor reserved in our society for the very young or very old; these people can say just about anything they want without being locked in the nearest pillory. In Dole's case, he said a bunch of thoroughly sensible and totally un-Newt-Republican things, such as that the Washington politicians "should all take a deep breath" regarding the impeachment and Monica matter involving the man who beat him in 1996, President Clinton. And he refused to take "any cheap shots" at Clinton, despite a slew of sex-scandal questions from Rhode Island reporters.
        Writing these things is pretty much based on the material. If you have decent stuff and an irreverent one-liner king like Dole in the mood to talk, the reporting and writing is usually easy. If not, good luck. You'll have little better than a wire-service rehash, a classic blah, blah, woof, woof, woof tale. I know all about this stuff; I have (dolefully) written more than one of those myself.
        In the end, I pretty much just cobbled together a standard political piece, looking, as always to try to bring something more to the table than your average wire or TeeVee nonsense.
        The only sage advice I have for colleagues who will inevitably be assigned to these events is the trite Boy Scout motto of Be Prepared. It always helps to bug the experts in the news library and get the latest clips from the national papers, such as The New York Times or Washington Post. And if your subject happens to have just written a book, no matter how mundane or self-serving, it is a good idea to read some of it. If nothing else, such reading usually blunts any insomnia the night before a celebrity visit.

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