DOLE'S HOUR OF DOUR : THE REPUBLICAN PARTY NOMINEE'S SOUR NOTES PUT MUCH MORE PRESSURE ON HIS CATCH-UP CAMPAIGN.

Byline: Thomas Oliphant

GO figure. The whole idea was to take the edge off the nominee, to give him an appealingly human dimension and, in crass political terms, to give him a better shot among younger, moderate and, above all, female voters.

It was planned as one telegenic Sears commercial: Come see the softer side of Dole.

So what does he do on the climactic evening, in front of the biggest audience? He basically flubs it - at the very least a huge opportunity missed, quite possibly a serious setback.

Instead of this unifying figure with an inspiring personal story, whose campaign sold the symbols and deeds of inclusiveness for more than a week, the country gets a spokesman for angry white men over the age of 60 who mostly resent the generation behind them.

Instead of accelerating some faint but detectable signs of comeback momentum from the first phase of his convention, Bob Dole's Hour of Dour ran directly counter to what preceded it - platform compromises, Jack Kemp, Nancy Reagan, Colin Powell, pro-choice governors and his own wife.

Dole's autobiography was, as usual, superb, but his graceful, poetic beginning was ruined by an undisciplined laundry list of gripes and partisanship. By the end, his declaration that he is the most optimistic man in America was belied by a glowering, dyspeptic countenance.

In part, Dole muffed his opportunity because he gave inadequate leadership to the hordes of would-be literati who tinkered with the text.

The impact of novelist-analyst Mark Helprin was obvious in Dole's eloquent, personal story; but so too was the impact of the campaign committee that butchered the rest of his acceptance speech by painting topically by the numbers from its voter research data. Helprin's hasty pre-speech exit from town was appropriate editorial comment.

It was also appropriately political, for the main speech was remarkable for touching precisely the buttons least likely to affect moderate, loosely affiliated voters.

Consider: Dole declared the country's past superior to its present, he attacked Hillary Clinton's vision of community and Chelsea Clinton's enrollment in private school, he damned criminals and terrorists with virtually no evidence of fresh responses to either, he refought both the Vietnam War and Star Wars, he went off the partisan charts with an assault on teachers' unions, and he walked away from his history of internationalism with a jingoistic cheap shot at the World Trade Organization and his insult of the UN secretary general by means of his trademark, tasteless mockery of Boutros Boutros-Ghali's name.

Surprisingly, he even blunted the force of his now-famous tax cut. He pretended to be shocked at the alleged materialism of the Clinton campaign's 1992 maxim, ``It's the economy, stupid,'' and then, after proclaiming the superior virtues of honor over wealth, proceeded to sell his own plan in the most crass, selfish terms.

And finally, Dole topped off the tanks of his antiabortion supporters that had been filling with resentment all week. Neither he nor his running mate bothered to reaffirm the movement's case that is supposedly so central to each man's core.

At a minimum, Dole's sour notes put much more pressure on his catch-up campaign, which is now squeezed by time where it used to be squeezed by penury.

His first bigtime TV advertising began this weekend, a very early beginning made necessary by Ross Perot's expected coronation today and the beginning of President Clinton's one week hence.

His campaign, from a standing start, absolutely has to nail down its planned base this month in the Electoral College of 23 Southern, Plains and Mountain states; but it will have to expend precious resources to erase continuing doubts about Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, Texas, the Dakotas, Montana, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada.

People forget that after Labor Day, Dole has barely four weeks to pull abreast of the president before their first debate.

An acceptance speech needs to soar with purpose that almost transcends politics. Instead, the former senator who ignored his entire, 35-year legislative career, rambled through the rhetorical equivalent of an appropriations bill with too many riders attached.

The salt on this self-inflicted wound is the fact that Dole could have maintained his convention momentum simply by reading the speech Jack Kemp gave.

MEMO: Thomas Oliphant is a writer for The Boston Globe.

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Photo: (Color) That's the ticket: Bob Dole, left, with hisvice presidential running mate, Jack Kemp, at the Republican Convention.

Associated Press