European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 08, 1995, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday september 8, 1995 commentary the stars and stripes Page 17 crowded gop Field seems mostly mired in the past Quick. Are you Able to name All the Republican candidates for president if you can to you re a sane Normal feet on the ground american. But whether we like it or not the 1996 presidential race is starting in Earnest this month and Earnest with a vengeance is exactly what the candidates Are As . \ with the Long delayed Entrance of California  Wilson into the race the number of Republican roadrunners is now up to nine. It is slightly reminiscent of 1988, when the Field of democratic candidates was nicknamed the seven dwarfs. The 1996 gop pack resembles less the nine uses than the bad news bears. For the record the gop presidential wannabes Are Kansas sen Bob Dole Texas sen. Phil Gramm conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan Wilson Indi Ana sen. Richard Lugar talk show Host Alan Keyes Pennsylvania sen Arlen spec Ter former Tennessee gov. Lamar Alexander and califor Nia rep. Bob Dornan to add to the confusion a Lotof people still would like to see retired Gen. Colin Powell House speaker Newt Gingrich and pub Lisher Steve Forbes get into the gop race. Independents Ros Perot and Lowell Weicker also Are toying with the idea. So what Are All these politicians saying so far about take the i Ann Mcfeathers s want nowhere they country. / /  so far the issues seem to be  of  on the past than a vision of the nation s murky economic future. Typical is the latest entrant Wilson who like som of the other candidates wants the country to think about severe measures to Stop illegal immigration curb affirmative action Experiment with new ways to get Tough with criminals and change the welfare system. Liberal republicans worry that each of those issues is race tinged. Also Many of the candidates want to talk about ways to make abortion illegal again or far More difficult to obtain. ,. -.  v Specter is comfortable being the leading pro Choice candidate. Wilson is also pro Choice but is uncomfortable talking about it because the Odds of. Snar -.-., ing the gop nomination without being anti abortion Are not good.".-".  a -. All the candidates want to reduce the role and size of government a led by Gramm who talks about this Al most All the time and says he s the heir to the Reagan legacy. But the size of government and certainly the National deficit lastly increased during president Rea Gan s Era. -. A.  -. Buchanan wants to talk about How to make the a lion More isolationist and How to restrict Trade. That drives Gramm up the Wall he says Buchanan could fit what he knows about the Economy into thimble. The Grain Fri Buchanan tension already is irritating the other candidates because it violates the gop Rule. Speak no ill of a fellow Republican. Lugar wants to talk about changing the tax code this is Jot going Tobey my and making it More fair something certain to resonate with voters. But few Are paying much attention so far because Lugar is far Down in the polls. Lugar also has some Clear eyed views of foreign policy but at this Point nobody expects the 1996 race to be a referendum on foreign affairs. Even marriage has . The candidates mar ried to their first wives note that Dole Wilson and Gramm All divorced and remarried like to talk about family values.". / _ Dole leads the pack in condemning Hollywood an the music Industry for foul lyrics sex and violence even though in the past he s taken Money from that Industry. Alexander likes to talk seriously about tax Sand education but he too is having trouble making people listen. So he wears a plaid shirt plays the piano and walks . Just about everybody s  be seen As the most mean spirited when it comes to welfare and to be the one most eager to Cut benefits when children have children. " .-./. What the Republican candidates have most in com Mon however is eagerness to see president Clinton Defeated ". V. Clinton is probably ahead of the pack in ability tomake the rafters ring with rhetoric but he has a credibility deficit that make s voters squirm. As he moves toward the Middle of the Road the closer the election gets he Hopes to make republicans seem disjointed and More extreme and mired in the past than most voters. Distributed by Scripps Howard nows Sor  s d random change in the Veather forecaster Mark Twain stood before a new England society  in 1876 and claimed to its members that he once counted 136 different kinds of weather inside in a 24 hour period. / Twain of course was fond of exaggeration but height not have been far from . Hans Neuberger has been studying weather for More than half a Century. Now As an octogenarian he has thrown his hands up into the wind and Given up trying to understand weather  is random he now says and there s no Tell ing what will happen. I first spoke with Neuberger a dozen years ago when became intrigued with his pronouncements that cyclical weather could be traced through paintings. He cited the period from 1550 to 1850 when he says Europe was going through a Little ice age. Using paintings of that period he was Able to show that the human subjects of the paintings were heavily clothed and that the outdoor backgrounds were dark an brooding both portrayals of a cold climate. Neuberger s credentials As a world climatologist Are impeccable. He taught at Penn state University for 34 years As Wellas at the University of South Florida. He also has worked with the United nations and contributed to scientific  1970, he published his study on paintings and Cli mate after studying More than 12,000 paintings in 41 Art museums in the United states and eight european countries. In his study he cited that 53 percent of the paintings showed Low Clouds and that there were practically no Cirrus Clouds. In 1982, Neuberger told me that a chill again was re turning to our planet but instead of researched scientific evidence he cited the observation that it was too cold in the Winter for him to swim in the Lake near his House outside Tampa where in the period 1970-75, it was not. Shortly thereafter however we began hearing of global warming. Having evidenced this brutally hot summer both in the United states and in Europe i Dou bled Back on Neuberger to ask what had happened to his con temporary Little ice age. I Don t know any More he confesses. The weather goes up and Down. It s not dependent on anything. I for Merly thought there were specific periods of  weather and warmer weather. I Don t believe that i True any More. There Are no periods. Weather is ran  what of that study of All those paintings did t Howard Kleinberg the artists correctly portray the weather of the time he still insists they did but maybe they Only painted on cold Days. He adds also that we cannot Trust contemporary paintings to portray contemporary weal her. Arliss in the past painted what they saw , hut lie painters of today paint what they  the old professor will not be shaken when con fronted with theories of a greenhouse effect caused by trapped solar radiation the Hole in the Ozone layer roof Al Nino off the peruvian coast being the Manipula Tor of weather throughout much of the Western Hemi sphere. He agrees that he has considered the Ozone position cause of weather stimulation but he says he has come to accept what  random occurrence As the Generator of planetary weather. I did t bother to ask him about the elevated Inci dents of tropical storms this summer and the fact unit Hurricane psychic William Gray of Colorado state University correctly predicted the increase. That s because i am becoming increasingly suspicious that Gray unlike another of Twain s pronounce ments May actually be doing something about the weather. How else could he overcome Neuberger s random occurrences c Cox nov a service