Bob Dole dead at the age of 98
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| A decent and funny man who was skewered by the media during a failed Presidential run |
I didn't vote for Bob Dole. I voted for a second Bill Clinton term. I didn't particularly care for Dole as a candidate, but I learned to like him... a lot... in the months following his defeat. Turns out he was not the cold and angry man the media made him out to be. Perhaps just a guy who was probably trying to be too serious during a Presidential run.
But once his run was over, it was like the weights were off and he could run full speed and be himself. He was funny, quick witted, and well researched about the issues of the day. If that was the Bob Dole who ran for President he might have gotten my vote. Who knows how many more votes he might have gotten.
19 comments:
Once upon a time Ch had a soul and even voted for Bill Clinton.
If You dislike the host so much, you don't have to keep posting here.
Born in 1923, Dole was a star athlete in high school and played varsity basketball at the University of Kansas. He had been studying for a degree in medicine before enlisting in the Army during World War II. On April 14, 1945, Dole’s unit in the 10th Mountain Division was part of an offensive against German soldiers in Italy when he was hit by exploding shrapnel that shattered his right shoulder and left him unable to feel either of his arms. He spent more than three years recovering in hospitals, but the injuries left him permanently disabled. For the rest of his life, Dole could not tie his own shoes, cut his food with a knife, or lift up his young daughter. In public, he carried a pen in his right hand at all times, both to prevent his fingers from splaying and as a signal for people to shake his left hand instead.
He was only four years older than my mother Marjorie.
And 9 years younger than my father Ivan
The greatest generation saved the world from facism and again Communism in the cold war.
I didn't know who to vote for until I saw the debate and Bill Clinton was more qualified.
Bill Clinton brought us the largest number of jobs in history and again almost zero deficit.
I'm not going to judge your soul Scott.
The reverend James better qualified to say that.
Anybody that doesn’t think there aren’t heartfelt condolences is very stupid.
I'm not going to judge your soul Scott.
The reverend James better qualified to say that.
the POS "pastor"
ROFLMFAO !!!
If You dislike the host so much, you don't have to keep posting here.
_______
Oh, I enjoy disagreeing. I enjoy the give and take, the back and forth, the two of us have.
But I do think that Ch's ability to support Trump so unquestioningly raises questions about his earlier commitment to more reasonable forms of government.
Oh, I enjoy disagreeing.
I disagree.
I voted for Clinton because back in the day a Democrat could be pro business, pro-freedom, and who could use moderation, tact, and cooperation in his support for social issues he believed in.
I voted for a lot of Democrats till they jumped the shark!
The goodness of Bob Dole a great guy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/05/goodness-of-bob-dole-george-will/
Probably the last Republican I respected....All lily livered morons in power right now have nothing to this last great man!!!!
I'm about 15 years older than you Scott.
I made the same decisions and voted for Reagan.
But as a lower middle class person, who made good wages as a union carpenter. Reagan attracted the air control union, and then the Republican party passed right to work for less legislation to reduce the disparity between the top one percent started because of top down the.. And unions have lost control ever since.
Since then the disparity between the middle class and the top one percent, I have voted Democratic since.
My parents got married in 37 and the CCC got them enough money to move to Yankton South Dakota. My dad Ivan worked on the construction of one of the dams on the Missouri river and built power plants, that are still operating!
My mother didn't have to work. She was a stay at home mother.
Ever since then the Republican party was in power, the disparity between the two classes has become larger...
Look it up. The Democratic Presidents left office with the economy in better shape since Eisenhower..
Regulated capitalism is the most sustainable in history.
The 40 week overtime pay etc.
I agree with this situation 100%
Capitalism is one of the great inventions of the human race — an unparalleled source of prosperity, opportunity and innovation. We won’t solve the problems that we face without it. To solve inequality, we need good jobs — and lots of them..
The rest of this is political views on capitalism. .
To solve climate change, we need (among other things) to transform the world’s energy, transportation, and agricultural systems. Only the relentless pressure of the free market can drive this kind of transformative innovation at scale.
In this context, the pandemic is both a massive challenge and an opportunity. A challenge because more than a half a million people have died, the global economy has been massively disrupted, and tens of millions of people have lost their jobs. A challenge because the combination of deep economic disadvantage — at the beginning of May nearly 61% percent of Hispanic and 44% of Black households had experienced a job or wage loss due to the corona virus, for example, compared with 38% percent of whites — and the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breona Taylor and countless others have brought anger and calls for justice to our streets. The world will almost certainly be poorer, more divided, and more fearful in 2021 than it was in 2019.
It’s an opportunity because it has also shown us so vividly what is wrong. Inequality is no longer simply an abstract idea. It’s a reality that many “essential” workers must show up even when they’re sick because they have no savings and no paid leave. That racism is not something that was solved by the civil rights movement. As the skies clear and early research suggests that the reduction in fossil fuel pollution is saving lives, the costs of continuing to rely on dirty energy have become much more tangible. Watching states bid against each other for vital medical equipment while the federal government fumbles its response to the virus has made the reality of our broken politics very clear.
The pandemic has reminded us that we stand and fall as a society and that the welfare of the poorest among us is integral to everyone’s welfare. It has shown us that planning for the future is essential and that, when the chips are down, a capable, responsive government is a necessity, not a dirty word. We’ve learned that when we must do something, we can: Fundamental change no longer seems impossibly out of the reach.
We can do better. We already have the resources and the knowledge we need to build a more equitable, sustainable capitalism. But to get there, business will have to change how it understands its role in the world (and in the U.S. in particular) — and how it thinks about government.
A New Path Forward
While free markets are an unparalleled source of prosperity and freedom, the free market can only take us where we need to go
Kputz will still call me a socialist...
https://hbr.org/2020/07/reimagining-capitalism-in-the-shadow-of-the-pandemic
I have been saying this since the last election cycle. Paint T..... as the symbol of the GOP
Axios
Vulnerable House Democrats are convinced they need to talk less about the man who helped them get elected: President Trump.
Why it matters: Democrats are privately concerned nationalizing the 2022 mid-terms with emotionally-charged issues — from Critical Race Theory to Donald Trump's role in the Jan. 6 insurrection — will hamstring their ability to sell the local benefits of President Biden's Build Back Better agenda.
The push by centrist lawmakers, especially from the suburbs, to keep the conversation away from Trump is frequently derailed by the party's loudest voices — and their insistence to talk about him at every turn.“People don't want to hear about Donald Trump,” Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.), told Axios. "They're going to vote because they want to see people get sh-t done.”"All politics is local," Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux (D-Ga.) tweeted last week. "Whether it's advocating for the equitable redevelopment of Gwinnett Place Mall, or securing funding for our local trailway system, every day I am working in Congress for our community.""All politics are local," Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) echoed during an interview with Axios. "I don't believe you run national campaigns for Congress."
Driving the news: Democrats took a drubbing in the Virginia gubernatorial election early last month.
When swing-district lawmakers returned to Washington after their Thanksgiving recess, they felt convinced about the wisdom of not running for re-election on national issues, one told Axios, requesting anonymity to speak freely.While many of them surfed an anti-Trump blue wave to office, they believe strongly that continuing to run on kitchen-table issues is their only hope of re-election with Trump now out of office.
The big picture: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is walking a fine line between stoking anti-Trump animus — to help raise money and motivate activists — and giving their vulnerable "frontline" members space to talk about issues that matter to suburban voters.
"The leading role is getting big things done,” Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), chair of the DCCC, told Axios.Any discussion of Trump and the Jan. 6 insurrection should come after focusing on Biden's agenda. It's a “one-two punch,” Maloney said.“We're delivering results at scale, for the size of the problems,” he said, citing enactment of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. “That's key, but the Republicans being reckless and irresponsible and motivated only by power is also going to be important.”
The bottom line: After Virginia, Democrats are on notice about the challenge confronting them next year.
Even the most elegant individual effort to localize a House race may not matter if there's a national anti-Democrat tsunami.“It’s going to be really really hard to distinguish yourself from your national brand,” said Sean McElwee, executive director of Data for Progress, a progressive think tank. “It’s functionally impossible for House members to do.”Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg said Democrats need to capitalize on their successes and paint Republicans as extremists."The process of defining the Republicans as unfit will not be about Trump," he told Axios, but instead about how each Republican has adopted "unacceptable positions."
The deep divisions in the Republican party may help the Democrats...
The right-wing rebels may be a minority in the GOP, but they demonstrate the problems House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would face in corralling the party if they take control in 13 months. The two met privately Thursday.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D.my home state, said Republicans have to get control of the party or risk encouraging some in their ranks to create wedges that play into Democrats' hands politically.
Democrats need to capitalize on their successes and paint Republicans as extremists."The process of defining the Republicans as unfit will not be about Trump," he told Axios, but instead about how each Republican has adopted "unacceptable positions."
Opinion by Bob Dole
December 06 at 12:16 PM PST
Bob Dole, who died on Sunday, represented Kansas in the U.S. Senate from 1969 to 1996, including as Senate majority leader, and was the 1996 Republican nominee for president. This column was drafted early in 2021 to be published around the time of his death.
Shortly after I was elected Senate majority leader in November 1984, a friend stopped by the Capitol to offer his congratulations. We toured my office, reviewing pictures of past majority leaders and admiring two portraits of personal heroes: Abraham Lincoln and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Something about the place, steeped in such distinguished history, touched a common nerve in us. We fell silent for a time, when a smile crossed my friend’s face. With wonder, he said, “Imagine a kid from Russell, Kansas, having an office like this.”
My home at birth was a three-room house. I grew up during the Dust Bowl, when so many of us helplessly watched our livelihoods blow away with the wind. I have always felt humbled to live in a nation that would allow my unlikely story to unfold.
Many nights during my time as majority leader, I would step out on my office balcony overlooking the National Mall and be reminded of what made my journey possible. Facing me were monuments to our nation’s first commander in chief, the author of our Declaration of Independence, and the president who held our union together. In the distance were the countless graves of those who gave their lives so that we could live free.
That inspiring view came back to me as I watched the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol. I imagined the view of those monuments and headstones obscured by clouds of tear gas. I thought about the symbol of our democracy consumed by anger, hatred and violence.
There has been a lot of talk about what it will take to heal our country. We have heard many of our leaders profess “bipartisanship.” But we must remember that bipartisanship is the minimum we should expect from ourselves.
America has never achieved greatness when Republicans and Democrats simply manage to work together or tolerate each other. We have overcome our biggest challenges only when we focused on our shared values and experiences. These common ties form much stronger bonds than political parties.
I cannot pretend that I have not been a loyal champion for my party, but I always served my country best when I did so first and foremost as an American. I fought for veterans benefits not as a Republican but as someone who witnessed the heroism of our service members firsthand.
Many nights during my time as majority leader, I would step out on my office balcony overlooking the National Mall and be reminded of what made my journey possible. Facing me were monuments to our nation’s first commander in chief, the author of our Declaration of Independence, and the president who held our union together. In the distance were the countless graves of those who gave their lives so that we could live free.
That inspiring view came back to me as I watched the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol. I imagined the view of those monuments and headstones obscured by clouds of tear gas. I thought about the symbol of our democracy consumed by anger, hatred and violence.
I know you I won't change your mind Scott.
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