'Real' Dan Quayle Steps Up In N.H. Visit

By Lois R. Shea, Globe Staff, February 12, 1999

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Former vice president Dan Quayle reintroduced himself yesterday to voters in this first-in-the-nation primary state, hoping they will come to know the "real" Dan Quayle, not the caricature lampooned by late-night talk show hosts.

Touting himself as "the best prepared and most qualified to be president," Quayle announced the formation of his exploratory committee. He formally will announce his run for the White House in April.

"I'm going to take my candidacy to the people. I'm going to be all over this great state, in living rooms and coffee shops," he said.

New Hampshire's traditional brand of politics, he said, will work in his favor. "Voters are going to come, they're going to listen to me, and they're going to walk away with the opinion that I am prepared to be their president," Quayle said.

Quayle spoke to the Manchester Rotary Club, did a radio talk show, and toured Manchester's newly-refurbished City Hall.

"I am convinced that there are three major challenges that face America today," Quayle said later at a news conference. "First, there is an assault on middle class values. Secondly, there is a middle class tax squeeze and a loss of freedom. Third, there is a challenge of leadership in the areas of foreign policy and national defense."

Some New Hampshire voters said they liked what they saw and wondered why Quayle still struggles against the image he acquired as vice president.

"How can the media make somebody so smart, so intelligent and so honest look so ridiculous?" Ann Domingue of Goffstown asked after listening to Quayle's speech at the Rotary Club.

In the radio interview, Quayle said: "Bill Clinton and Al Gore have simply trashed values. . . . They have trashed the White House, and it's not theirs to trash."

He chided Gore for being "nothing but a cheerleader" for President Clinton.

"There is a difference between being loyal and having blind loyalty," Quayle said. "If George Bush had committed perjury and obstruction of justice like Bill Clinton has, and if George Bush would not have resigned, as vice president I would have resigned."

Quayle has secured the support of John Sununu, a former New Hampshire governor and former White House chief of staff, who will act as a national cochairman of his campaign, along with Ovid Lamontagne, a conservative who lost a gubernatorial bid to Jeanne Shaheen in 1996.

Sununu said Quayle "has the experience, he is the smartest of the candidates running for president, [and] he is the most capable in terms of taking an issue and producing a result."

Quayle, 52 and graying at the temples, seemed to many here to have added polish since he came into prominence as Bush's young and eager running mate.

"He comes across as a seasoned public servant, a statesman of sorts," said Michael Mudryan, a Manchester real estate agent. "He's really come a long way."