The Concord Monitor  
ran Fri 09-Feb-1996
by CRAIG TIMBERG
Concord Monitor Staff
   PORTSMOUTH -- The word of the moment was ``future.'' Bob Dole knew
   that as he cut the ribbon at Celltech Biologics, a new high-tech
   pharmaceutical plant, yesterday morning.
   
   ``It's all about the future. That's where we're headed in this
   country,'' Dole said, as if human chronology had other options.
   
   But in this, his final run for president, Dole's awkward words don't
   hang in the air for long, at least not when Gov. Steve Merrill is
   there to rescue them.
   
   ``When we cut the ribbon outside,'' Merrill told dozens of guests
   inside Celltech's new plan, ``Senator Dole said, `The reason I'm here
   as a United States senator and a presidential candidate is I'm looking
   to the future.''
   
   ``That's really why I signed on with Bob Dole,'' Merrill added.
   ``Because as much as Bob Dole is speaking to my generation, he is even
   more importantly speaking to my kids, 2 1/2 and six months.''
   
   Dole and Merrill, never more than a few feet apart during in-state
   campaign stops, have become the odd couple of the `96 primary.
   
   Dole can be awkward; Merrill is endlessly suave. Dole pounds the
   podium during speeches; Merrill is always genial. Dole
   free-associates, slipping from topic to topic, interrupting himself;
   Merrill never strays off message.
   
   But sometimes no amount of polishing works. At Celltech, the work
   ``future'' stuck to Dole's tongue like old gum.
   
   ``It's always about the future in America, always about the future in
   America,'' Dole said. ``Oh we look at the past, as we should from time
   to time, think about the past. But we have to look to the future.''
   
   ``And so,'' he added, ``I'm very excited to be here today, to be in
   this futuristic establishment, where nothing but good things will
   happen, make it easier for people, make it easier, make it less
   costly, less painful, save more lives.''
   
   ``And that,'' Dole concluded, ``is all about the future.''
   
   
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