THE PROSPECTS of Mr Bob Dole becoming the next President of the US will be greatly helped - or damaged - by his eagerly awaited acceptance speech here tonight. Conscious of how much is riding on his performance tonight, Mr Dole has been working on his speech and practising with the teleprompter at the house of a millionaire friend at La Jolla several miles up the coast.
He will use this unrivalled media opportunity before the eyes of the country to launch the campaign of himself and his running mate, Mr Jack Kemp, in a way calculated to do maximum damage to President Clinton's hopes of retaining the White House in November's election.
The official nomination of the Dole team will release $60 million in badly needed federal funding for its campaign. For the past three months, Mr Dole was operating under the handicap of having spent all his permitted funding during a bruising primary campaign.
The build up to tonight's triumphant finale began with last night's nomination of Mr Dole and Mr Kemp by the acclamation of the 1990 Republican party delegates. Mr Dole was nominated by Vietnam war hero, Senator James McCain of Arizona, who was for a time mentioned as his likely running mate.
The candidate's wife and daughter, Elizabeth and Robin Dole, also addressed the convention which has been the most tightly controlled event in the party's history. Carefully packaged for TV presentation, no dissenting voices were allowed on controversial topics such as abortion.
A plan by some anti abortion delegates to walk out of the hall during the keynote speech on Tuesday night by Congresswoman Susan Molinari, because of her pro choice stance, was averted by Mr Pat Buchanan. He advised his supporters not to disrupt the convention.
Mr Dole has been staying away form the convention as is the tradition but he has been getting some useful media attention by addressing factory workers and visiting a hospital for handicapped persons. Yesterday, he attended a ceremony for war veterans celebrating VJ Day.
Mr Dole's address made a brief reference to his own role in the second World War when he was badly wounded and left with a useless right arm. Some observers saw Mr Dole's attendance at this function as inviting comparisons with President Clinton's avoidance of the draft during the Vietnam War.
The attacks on resident Clinton have gradually increased as the convention worked itself up for tonight's climax. One of the hardest hitting speeches was by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas.
She told delighted delegates that, "It's time to wake up to President Clinton and his high taxing, free spending, promise breaking, social security taxing, healthcare socialising, drug coddling, power grabbing, business busting, lawsuit loving, UN following, FBI abusing, IRS increasing, $200 haircutting, gas taxing, over regulating, bureaucracy trusting, class baiting, privacy violating, values crushing, truth dodging, Medicare forsaking, property rights taking, job destroying friends.
But those expecting a firebrand speech from Speaker Newt Gingrich were disappointed. Instead of attacking President Clinton, Mr Gingrich introduced an Olympic gold medal winner from his home state of Georgia and expanded on Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" address.
. Two new polls, by ABC and MSNBC television, have showed Mr Dole dramatically narrowing the gap with President Clinton. The ABC poll of 1,037 voters on Monday and Tuesday showed Mr Dole narrowing the gap to 10 percentage points from 18 points the weekend before the convention.