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Essay Name       : 1066.txt 
Uploader         : 
Email Address    : 
Language         : English
Subject          : Politics
Title            : A Change for Dole
Grade            : 97%
School System    : Beavercreek Local Schools
Country          : USA
Author Comments  : What Dole could've done to change the outcome of the Election
Teacher Comments : Very good, thorough
Date             : 11/14/96
Site found at    : IRC
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	Bob Dole made several errors when planning and executing his recent 

campaign for the presidency.  These errors eventually cost him the election, and 

allowed Bill Clinton to win a second term, despite Dole's adherent belief that the 

American people would not re-elect him.  Bob Dole's errors stemmed from his 

inability to take advice from his campaign managers, his unwillingness to stick 

with a consistent message throughout his campaign, and his inability to begin his 

war against the incumbent early in the election year.

	Bob Dole is an old-fashioned man of the generation on its way out of 

governmental control.  He is a man from an age before the intense rigors of 

running a national election, before the multitude of spin-doctors needed to 

conduct a successful campaign, before the television era swept through the 

country forcing a whole new plethora of requirements upon candidates seeking 

national office.  Because of this Bob Dole is a man who wanted to run his election 

as he believes is right, on his own terms, by his own decisions.  He continually 

refused to take the advise of wife, and his campaign advisors, allowing Clinton to 

discover his huge lead in the polls and allowing Clinton to hold on to that lead.  

Dole failed to talk about values early in his campaign, instead deciding that "he 

would talk about values, if that's what it took."  Yet by making this decision, Dole 

resigned himself to speaking about values only when every other attempt had 

failed, making it seem like a last-ditch effort to ressurect his failing campaign.  

"This time around would have to be different from 1988.  Dole would have to 

delegate responsibility and not try to run his own campaign on whim."  Dole was 

doomed if he tried to take too big of a hand in how his campaign was run, he 

failed in 1988 when he tried it then, and he failed again in 1996 when he did it 

again.  Dole's inpetness in the field of political campaigning on a national level is 

to be expected, that is not what he is paid to do, he is paid to create laws, and to 

govern, yet he took it upon himself to do a job that he was not suited for, and that 

cost him the election.


	Bob Dole had a problem with reaching the American people.  The 

American people respond well to repitition.  By repeating a certain viewpoint, it 

shows that it is a viewpoint that one believes heavily in, and that one believes is 

very important.  By switching focus from one issue to another, it gives the 

impression that one is grasping for some issue that will have some effect on the 

consituency, rather than telling the people what is important from a leader's 

perspective, it is asking them what is important while they are simultaneously 

wondering the same thing.  Bob Dole had this problem, for he switched the focus 

of his campaign multiple times throughout the campaign process.  At first, his 

campaign had no focus, he was just there as the Republican alternative to 

Clinton.  He responded little to Clinton's attacks, and showed no dashing vision 

for America, nor any specific qualities that made him better then his opponents.  

Then he invented his 15% tax-cut plan, appealing to supply-side economic 

supporters as well as to the public in general, in an attempt to attract the massive 

numbers that tax-cut candidates have enjoyed in previous elections.  When that 

showed only marginal results, focus was quickly moved to the fact that Clinton 

was truuly an Old Democrat, not the New, more conservative, Democrat he 

claimed to be.  This had some truth behind it, but coming late in the campaign 

appeared to be more of a desperation attempt by Dole, and was dismissed easily 

by thre Clinton campaign as such.  Obviously focus was switched again when the 

Old Democrat approach did not seem to work, this time to the character issue.  

This, following Bush's 1992 desperation attempt at the character issue, appeared 

as the same thing, and the consituency had grown tired of hearing this.  The lack 

of guidance towards the important issues, and the wishy-washy nature of the 

Dole campaign allowed the focused and finely-tuned Clinton campaign to easily 

attract many of the normal Republican voters to his camp, while protecting the 

standard Democratic vote for the Clinton campaign as well.


	Bob Dole started the election year with a lack-lustre apporach to his 

election.  He saw the oppurtunity to possibly win national office, decided that 

there were no other really good candidates for the position, and so he gave it the 

"old college try" one last time.  Unfortunately the "old college try" is not good 

enough to win the presidency, and Bob Dole's failure to begin his campaign early, 

and follow through with a consistently strong campaign doomed him to lose the 

election.  Before the primaries even begun, Bob Dole failed to present the rest of 

his party with an idea of the issues that Dole would be running on to become 

nominated, and then elected.  This caused certain elements of the party to seek 

candidates that were known for issues that the people felt needed to be taken 

care of, such as tax-cutters.  These tax-cutters sought out Steve Forbes as a 

possible Republican nominee.  While this ensured the tex-cut issue a place in the 

Republican party platform, it also virtually added $22 million to the Clinton 

campaign.  This amount of money was spent soley by Forbes in anti-Dole ads 

about Dole's tax-increase tendencies.  This money was spent in certain areas in 

high concentration in order for maximum effect on the number of delegates won 

by Forbes, however when Forbes failed to win the Republican nomination, these 

ads effected normally Republican areas, and turned many of them to be anti-

Dole.  This heavy infighting amongst the possible nominees cost Dole greatly in 

the general election, and much could have been avoided had Dole actually 

advertised his convictions and his plans for his presidential run.


	In general, Bob Dole could have done much to change the election 

outcome.  If he had given the Republican party his plans for his campaign, and 

prevented the harsh primary season, several states, such as Arizona, that 

normally vote Republican, would have given him their electoral votes instead of 

giving them to Clinton.  If he had provided a clear, consistent message from 

beginning to end, rather then scrambling for a new focus very often, Dole 

probably could have carried states in which he seemed to be closing the gap 

rapidly in the last few weeks of the election, such as California and Florida. If 

Dole had allowed his campaign advisors to take control of his campaign, Dole 

would have been in key areas speaking and campaigning, areas that might've 

been vital, but not obviously so, to his success, giving him the needed boost to 

push him over the edge on electoral votes.  Finally, Bob Dole also could've taken 

hints from Clinton's campaign.  Clinton ran on many Conservative issues to 

balance out his liberal nature, presenting a more moderate appearance, and 

appealing to many Conservatives, where he was weak.  Bob Dole also ran on 

Conservative issues, places where he needed to tie back together the Republican 

party and preserve his core consituency.  Bob Dole seemed to be defending his 

territory, while Clinton was not worried about losing his liberal vote, as Bob Dole 

was not threatening it at all.  Without at least some of this liberal vote, Dole would 

find it difficult, if not impossible to win the election.  In retrospect, many things 

Bob Dole should 've done, and could've done to win the election, or at least to 

make it come out closer, and perhaps allow the pick-up of more Senate and 

House seats, as well as definitively deny Bill Clinton the mandate from the people 

he was looking for with this election.
 
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