Dole Yes, Buchanan No

Maybe former White House chief of staff John H. Sununu characterized the primary season best: "Campaigns, particularly primaries, are where friends talk about each other's warts."

In the past month of ceaseless advertising, vitriolic debates and endless hand shaking, we've learned more about the warts of the eight Republican presidential candidates than we ever wanted to know.

What we haven't learned is how the candidates differ on issues of importance. But today is the New Hampshire primary, and fed up as we are with watching 100 Forbes ads per hour of prime time, we have decided to take a stand--sort of.

We first thought of endorsing no one at all. Let all of them flounder on their rhetoric. But we decided that was irresponsible. We don't want to be accused of perpetuating the apathy with which our generation is perennially slapped.

So, although this is a "best of the worst" decision, we're casting our vote for Sen. Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.). He has a good chance to win; he has a 35-year track record in Washington; and he's not too frightening.

Although he has recycled his World-War II hero stories more times than President Clinton denied inhaling, he did show courage in the war, enough to earn him two bronze stars. His record is not that of a filthy-rich business executive or a talk show host, but of someone who has spent many years in Washington, first in the House and then the Senate, where he has been the majority or minority leader since 1984. He is a solid candidate whose time seems to have come.

In addition, we would like to make sure that former commentator Patrick J. Buchanan does not win the nomination, since he edged perilously close to Dole in the Iowa caucus last week. His isolationist, protectionist views are anathema and would result in a United States even more fearful of foreigners than it already is. He has promised to be "the most pro-life president in the history of the United States," a prospect reeking of Big Brother. And how much can you trust someone whose campaign aide took part in white supremacist rallies?

Bob Dole may be a little old, but he can take former president Ronald Reagan as a thriving mentor. He has the support of two-thirds of the Republican governors in the United States. He is the best of the Republican crop as it has been presented to us. We just wish that we had been given a little better and that the candidates had put on some make-up to cover their warts.