The Real Dole
When Bob Dole was running for President, he was an uptight speaker and fond of speaking in the third person (Bob Dole will lower your taxes. Bob Dole cares for the American people.). To put it mildly, Dole's style did not help his campaign. Since losing to President Clinton, Dole has been much more relaxed and seems to be a witty guy after all. I found the latest example of this in the New York Post (hat tip to Taegan Goddard).
THE searing wit of Bob Dole sent Bill Clinton running. When the duo learned that their "60 Minutes" debate series was in jeopardy of being canceled, Dole proposed they tackle the subject on-air. Clinton was at first intrigued by the idea, but backed out when he received Dole's first salvo in the proposed exchange. "Look, this is a crisis," Dole would have said, according to a script obtained by PAGE SIX. "I know, before when you had a crisis, you just bombed Saddam Hussein or let Newt Gingrich get near a reporter. But they're both retired. What are we going to do?" Dole continued: "How about this: Use the next 45 seconds to do something totally new. Admit you made even one mistake in office. If you have time left over, just plug Hillary's book."
If Dole had been this quick in his presidential debates with Clinton, we might be in the second term of President Dole. Now that would make for an interesting alternative history novel.
Send this Post
