Foster's Daily Democrat RAN 2/9/96 By PETE WELBURN Foster's Daily Democrat Staff DOVER, N.H. - Former Sen. Warren Rudman, R-NH, describes Bob Dole as a man who possesses all the qualities you'd want in a president of the United States. Dole is stable, tough, sensible, trustworthy and experienced, Rudman said. More important, Dole holds the ability to handle the world or domestic crises that will occur between Jan. 20, 1997 and the end of year 2000, Rudman explained. "I also think that his vision for this country is a very good vision," Rudman said. "Bob Dole has made very clear he believes in a smaller government, more control over programs by the states, lower taxes when we get the deficit under control." Rudman, who was busy campaigning for Dole in the Granite State, answered questions for about one hour Thursday afternoon during an editorial board interview at Foster's Daily Democrat. Rudman has known Dole for 25 years. Recent opinion polls show Dole is running neck-and-neck with Steve Forbes, a multimillionaire publisher who is financing his own campaign. Forbes advocates scrapping the current federal tax code and implementing a 17 percent flat tax. But there are several problems with the Forbes flat-tax proposal, Rudman said. It would increase the federal deficit, fail to tax investment income, eliminate tax-exempt municipal bonds, and end the ability of businesses to write off Social Security and health-care insurance contributions, Rudman said. Rudman also took issue with Forbes' decision to spend millions of dollars of his own fortune on television commercials to wage his campaign. Since Forbes is spending his own cash and not accepting federal matching funds, he is not required to comply with campaign spending limits like the other candidates, Rudman said. This gives Forbes a tremendous advantage. "Dole, Gramm, Lugar, Alexander can't respond," Rudman said. "They can't because they've got caps on them." One solution to this problem would be to allow all of the presidential candidates to spend more money if one candidate refused to abide by the campaign spending limits, Rudman said. At the same time, the success of Forbes' television campaign threatens the traditional one-on-one campaigning typical of the New Hampshire primary, Rudman said. Rudman drew the distinction between the traditional campaigner and a candidate like Forbes who wages his battle on the airwaves. In the old days, candidates reached voters by hitting the campaign trail to meet and speak with people, Rudman said. In 30 days, a candidate making 10 appearances each day before 150 voters at each stop could reach 45,000 voters, Rudman said. "One 30-second commercial on Channel 4 in prime time will reach 180,000 people in New Hampshire just like that," Rudman said, making the point that a candidate meeting voters one-on-one in New Hampshire cannot compete with a candidate like Forbes who runs $5 million to $7 million worth of TV ads. Rudman is also disturbed by the success of Forbes' blizzard of negative campaign TV ads that bash Forbes' Republican primary opponents. These TV ads have allowed Forbes to give Bob Dole the fight of his life. "I was hoping the people of New Hampshire wouldn't buy into that kind of thing because now they're just manipulating us," Rudman said of the men who produce Forbes' TV ads. "They're manipulating us like puppets with their negative advertising. I always thought the people of New Hampshire were smarter than that and I still think they are." Rudman said he hopes voters will reject Forbes and his misleading, negative TV ads. Rudman describes Forbes as "somebody who has no qualifications whatsoever to be president of the United States." "If anybody in this area wants to think of Steve Forbes sitting in the White House when something bad happens in America to have confidence in this man to make the right decision for my kids then he doesn't understand America very well," Rudman said.