Word: dole
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THERE ARE GOOD REASONS THAT no matter how fiercely his campaign advisers beg him, Dole has so much trouble telling the story of what happened to him and how he survived it. "I don't know if it's generational," he said once of the reluctance to traffic in tragedy for political advantage. Dole, like George Bush and millions of other World War II veterans, left too many friends behind in unmarked graves to consider themselves heroes; they consider themselves lucky...
That doesn't mean he knows exactly what he would do in the White House if he got there. Getting to Dole's core involves some archaeology. Surely some object will ultimately be unearthed, but only after digging through layer after layer of contradictory public positions--he is for affirmative action, then against it; he favored comprehensive health-care reform, then he dismissed the idea that there was a health-care crisis. He has fought alongside ideologues enough to learn not to trust them; in 1985, when he believed Reagan was serious about cutting the deficit, he actually took...
...today neither Clinton nor Dole is widely believed to believe in anything enough to go down to defeat fighting for it. That may seem unfair to say, but the exceptions are conspicuous, and anchored deeply in their personal histories. Clinton is at his best and most passionate talking about education, which gave him such a resume, and civil rights, having grown up in a segregated town where his grandfather owned a grocery store on the edge of the black neighborhood. Dole's maiden speech in the Senate was about the disabled. He will support any bill remotely related to Armenia...
...race does come down to character and trust, the Clinton White House knows it will be playing defense. One can imagine the White House talking points: Yes, Bob Dole is a fine man, a war hero brave and true; but look at all the bad things he's done: shilling for corporate America, pandering to his party's lunatics. Then ever so delicately, they'll admit the truth about their guy; sure Clinton wobbles, he has inhaled too many burgers, he was sure no war hero. But he's a work in progress, he's done good things, protected your...
...Clinton's 10-point margin begins to shrink in the months to come, it will suggest that voters began studying the men more than listening to them, and weighing where they have come from and who they are. This, for once, is where the race might be Dole's to lose...