McCain: The New Bob Dole?

09 October 2008 |permalink | email article

Not well known is that in 1996 John McCain was Bob Dole’ right-hand man in the Kansas Republican senator’s battle to unseat President Bill Clinton.

At the time it was Dole’s to lose because Clinton was caught up in the Whitewater scandal but lose he did.

McCain was witness to the successful effort by Democrats to change the image of the former Senate majority leader, once known for his consensus building, into an old, humorless Washington insider unable to deliver real change.

Now McCain is returning to some of Dole’s old arguments, like offering leadership by one who risked his life for love of country and considers service to America to be his honor. That’s his line of attack on Barack Obama whom he flays as all talk but no action, someone unwilling to challenge his party and perhaps not American enough.

Obama has called McCain a “creature of Washington,” who is too entrenched to offer real change – a line Clinton often used against Dole 12 years ago.

In a Newsweek interview in June McCain was not eager to draw comparisons with the Dole campaign, saying he was out of money after the primary and that hurt his ability to connect with voters. “We are not going to let that happen…that was 1996 and this is 2008.”

But as a former Dole strategist told the magazine, “now you’ve got an environment that is very anti-Republican and a Democratic Party that is desperate to win.”

Some similarities between Dole and McCain are obvious: McCain is 25 years older than Obama; Dole was 73 in 1996, 23 years older than Clinton. Both are decorated war heroes with permanent injuries that affect their movements.

Both also have suffered from unpopular company – Bush’s very low popularity and the state of the economy hurts McCain (Bush’s third term), and Clinton hanging Newt Gingrich around Dole’s neck in 1996.

Is it now too late for McCain to learn from Dole’s many mistakes? The railbirds say yes. 

What They Said

David Letterman joked that the debate got off to an awkward start when McCain said to Obama, “May I call you Joe?”

“Across this country this is the agenda I have set before my fellow prisoners.” McCain in a campaign gaffe when he was supposed to say “fellow citizens.” Is he losing it? 

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