The Veep Bites Back

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."

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.