DOLE MOVES TO SEIZE THE SPOTLIGHT : SPEECH AT PLANT INVITES VOTERS TO LOOK AT GOP.

Byline: Thomas Hardy Chicago Tribune 

Bob Dole, hoping voters will begin to focus on the presidential election with the opening of the Republican convention, on Monday urged Americans to ``take a look at us.''

An ebullient Dole, who will accept his party's nomination Thursday night, spent his second day in the convention city promoting the tax-cut plan that forms the centerpiece of his challenge to President Clinton.

After delivering his pitch to employees of a suburban high-tech firm, the Kansan turned to his real audience, Americans tuning in to media accounts of the convention, and asserted that the GOP is ``the party of the future.''

``If you're not a Republican, if you're an independent or a Democrat, take a look at us,'' Dole said. ``We're reaching out. We want to bring more and more people into the Republican Party for the right reasons: because we have the ideas, because we have the agenda and because we know precisely where we're headed.''

Dole's remarks came on the day that Republican delegates adopted a conservative platform, one that includes a tougher anti-abortion stance than Dole had advocated.

The Dole camp has staked his campaign on the staging of a successful convention. Getting voters to take a second look at Dole, 73, the former Senate majority leader, is the crucial first step in the campaign's come-from-behind strategy.

Dole trailed President Clinton by as much as 20 percentage points in opinion polls going into the convention, and his senior strategists hope that a ``bounce'' from the eventful week can cut the Democrat's lead by half or more.

``It's looking good. It's looking better. I like that, yeah,'' Dole said of one overnight poll that showed the presidential race tightening. ``We're going to have a good convention and I feel good about it.''

When informed that his primary opponent and bitter rival, conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan, had finally endorsed him, Dole said: ``We'd like to leave here united. It appears that we will. I gladly accept the endorsement.''

A relaxed Dole, casually clad in a plaid khaki jacket, taupe slacks and tan penny loafers in lieu of his starchy Washington power suits, appeared to relish the excited attention he received everywhere he traveled.

Often criticized during the first eight months of the election year as a candidate without a message, Dole honed his tax-cut mantra Monday morning at Solar Technologies, a $1 billion-a-year manufacturer of turbine engines.

``It makes a lot of sense to me, and it ought to make a lot of sense to the American people,'' Dole said of his proposed 15 percent across-the-board tax cut and his promise to balance the budget by 2002.