US election: Bob Dole urges Mitt Romney to confront Republican party right wing

The London Daily Telegraph ^ | August 23, 2012 | Jon Swaine, The Daily Telegraph

[2ndDivisionVet]

Bob Dole, the last Republican to challenge a Democratic president, has urged Mitt Romney to confront their party's Right wing and likened the Romney-Ryan ticket to his own ultimately unsuccessful partnership with Jack Kemp in 1996.

Mr Dole, a former Kansas Senator defeated by Bill Clinton 16 years ago, said the party should follow his example of "mainstream" Republicanism and become more appealing to ethnic minorities and young people to secure its future.

"We have got to be open," he said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph. "We cannot be a single-issue party or single-philosophy party". He added: "There's a big split in our party. There's this undercurrent of rigid conservatism where you don't dare not toe the line".

The intervention from the Republican elder statesman comes after Todd Akin, an ultraconservative Missouri congressman, hijacked Mr Romney's preparations for the party's convention in Florida next week with his controversial remarks on abortion and "legitimate rape".

Mr Dole, now 89, disclosed that he had advised Mr Romney on running for president during a meeting at his Washington office in November. He said the former Massachusetts governor showed "flexibility" and a willingness to forge the type of bipartisan deals rejected by current Republican leaders in Congress.

He conceded that the presidential hopeful, who has an estimated $250 million (£160 million) fortune, had struggled to charm American voters still suffering from economic woe...

[2ndDivisionVet]

I worked at the Polk County GOP HQ (Iowa) as a twenty-something in the 1980’s after I left the Army. I palled around with Robert Novak for a day, talked with Senator Dole and then Vice President Bush, worked on General Haig’s short-lived presidential campaign and met Brokaw and Rather. All that is not unusual in Des Moines. Iowa voters expect to be able to talk with candidates and ask them questions one-on-one, as do New Hampshire residents. Everyone else usually either sees them on TV or at a huge rally.

[throwabrick]

Moderate! Such an offensive term politically!
Spineless
Wishy washy
Gutless
No moral compass
Rhino
No balls
Go along to get along
lukewarm

[throwabrick]

Moderate! Such an offensive term politically!
Spineless
Wishy washy
Gutless
No moral compass
Rhino
No balls
Go along to get along
lukewarm

[Liberty Valance]

Bob Dole is still alive?

Bernard ... why haven't we booked Bob on the program?

uh, sorry 'bout that boss ... he won't take our calls ...

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

In other news, Bob Dole is a old stupid loser.

[Salamander]

Proof that Viagra causes blood insufficiency brain damage ping.

[throwabrick]

Does anyone else take offense at the term “ultraconservative” for someone who holds traditional, principalled values?
As if there is something wrong with a person who holds those views!?

That’s what gets liberals like Bubba the fornicator Clintoon and Oblahblah the Kenyan to claim that they are “Centrists”???

That’s lunacy!

[throwabrick]

Does anyone else take offense at the term “ultraconservative” for someone who holds traditional, principalled values?
As if there is something wrong with a person who holds those views!?

That’s what gets liberals like Bubba the fornicator Clintoon and Oblahblah the Kenyan to claim that they are “Centrists”???

That’s lunacy!

[muawiyah]

McCain, Pappy Bush, Bob Dole, ~ ? The GOP~e pass around their stories of losing strategies and ideas ~ all the way back to Alf Landon.

[muawiyah]

Bob Dole came up in an age when they incorrectly portrayed the American political spectrum as a normal curve with a small left wing, a small right wing, and a large moderate center.

Goldwater was the first to deduce it actually consisted of two coalition parties vying for victory in single member districts. Accordingly, the coalition partners could be any sort of values group ~ so ideology didn't count as much as imagined.

Plus there was NO MIDDLE.

He's a tad elderly to deal with the new views, so he'll toddle off into his 90s looking for that large middle ~ that isn't there!

[piytar]

Mr Dole, a former Kansas Senator defeated by Bill Clinton 16 years ago, said the party should follow his example of "mainstream" Republicanism

Yeah, because that strategy worked out so well for you, Mr. Dole (the respect shown for his WWII service -- no further comment needed)...

[rawcatslyentist]

Awfull Dull speaks again.

[SUSSA]

The only difference between Dole and Clinton is Dole never raped anyone that we know of.

[stylin19a]

geeze...uncle bob escaped the attic again....

[Verginius Rufus]

At least Dole carried his own state in 1996, unlike the loser of the 2000 election.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Remember when Newt Gingrich Jack Kemp described Bob Dole as the tax collector for the welfare state?

That was long before Dole made a disastrous choice of Jack Kemp for VP, and Kemp made the disastrous choice of accepting.

Kemp would have been a fine president - he was just a lousy VP candidate. Kemp committed the cardinal political sin for a Republican - he failed to defend his party - and the middle class generally - against the “racism” smear just because Gore exempted Kemp personally from the attack.

Kemp didn’t want to be the attack dog of the ticket, so he should have declined to be the VP candidate. And Dole should have never nominated him.

In the convention, Dole responded to the “racism” smear by asking any racists in the convention to just leave. Like that was gonna convince anyone who bought the smear in the first place. If Dole had been serious about putting paid to the “racism” smear, he should have nominated Thomas Sowell for VP. That would have been interesting! One thing that wouldn’t have happened would have been for Al Gore to win the VP debate.

[jazusamo]

he should have nominated Thomas Sowell for VP. That would have been interesting! One thing that wouldn’t have happened would have been for Al Gore to win the VP debate.

Amen, couldn't agree more.

How I would love to have seen the two debate. I can picture Gore bloviating and Dr. Sowell sitting back and ripping him on every point, it would have beautiful. :-)

Thanks for the ping and that thought.

[TXnMA]

Bob Dole? Was that the guy who took money for making a video ad wherein he lusted after skimpily-dressed teenybopper, Brittney Spears, while she was doing a suggestive dance?

[Ron H.]

I thank him for his brave service in World War II and respectfully ask him to go back to the day room and have his nurse make him a nice hot cocoa and turn the channel to MSNBC.

Agreed. Bob Dole represents all that is wrong with the Republican Party of today and Mitt Romney is living proof of that statement. Before Romney it was Juan McCain. Nuff said.