Once upon a time, late in a GOP primary season, after a long campaign, a seemingly adequate consensus candidate emerged to the front of the pack among many other candidates to capture the Republican nomination.
The candidate was a widely respected, long serving member of the U.S Senate. He was well liked on both sides of the aisle, and had many friends both Democrat and Republican. He was successful, and authored many peices of legislation while on Capitol Hill. He was also very well known across the nation with voters, partly because he had ran a presidential campaign before.
The candidate drew public concern because of his age, and was in fact, 72 years old. He was a war hero, and he capitalized on both his courage and the purple heart that he had been awarded. The candidate also drew alot of support from pro military, patriotic voters, who rightly believed that he embodied the American ideals of duty, honor, and country.
However, that candidate soon proved that he was less than effective. His campaign’s message simply did not resonate with the American people. The campaign began to take on a regressive tone as the candidate eluded to building a “bridge to the past”. The candidate’s old-fashioned, tough guy demeanor quickly became the butt of jokes for late-night talk shows.
That candidates name was Bob Dole, and, of course, he went on to lose the election in November of 1996 to some person named Clinton.
I assume that those reading were quick enough to point out the obvious similarities between the Bob Dole of 1996 and the John McCain of 2008. I would also venture to assume that those reading are intelligent enough to realize that if the GOP nominates John McCain for president this summer, then we will surely lose the general election. The truth is, that John McCain is not the best Republican suited for America in the 21st century. ( That would go to Mike Huckabee.) So here’s some straight talk, John McCain has just as much chance of being president-elect in 2008 as Bob Dole did back in 1996.
