1996 election is Dole’s fourth shot at presidenc

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    By ALICIA KNIGH

    Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole left the Senate Tuesday to pursue his long-time goal of becoming the next president.

    The 1996 election could be the fourth time Bob Dole’s name is part of the presidential ticket.

    The first time he appeared on the ballot was in 1976, when Dole was chosen as Gerald Ford’s running mate.

    The news reached him August 19 of that year at 6 a.m. when Bob Clark, an ABC correspondent, called Dole to congratulate him. Clark had been told by a reliable source Dole was Ford’s choice as a running mate.

    Dole replied that he had not yet heard from the president or his staff. Four hours later, the telephone in Dole’s room rang again. This time it was President Ford asking Dole to be his vice president.

    Dole immediately began campaigning for the election, but in early October things began to go sour because Dole was asked a question that still haunts him today.

    A reporter asked Dole if he became vice president, what would he do? Dole tried to avoid the question and said, considering the poll standings, he was too busy trying to get to be vice president to have time to think about what he would actually do with the office.

    Then came the debates on Oct. 15. Dole would face Carter’s running mate, Walter Mondale. Early in the debate he brought up his veteran status in World War II and spoke of “the war that we inherited from another Democratic administration in southeast Asia.”

    He then called all the wars from World War I through Vietnam `Democrat Wars.’

    “I figured up the other day, if we added up all the killed and wounded in Democrat wars in this century, it would be about 1.6 million Americans, enough to fill the city of Detroit,” Dole said.

    Dole was quickly attacked for the statement. Columnist George Will stated in one of his columns that Dole needed a history lesson about the origins of wars.

    Dole returned to the presidential campaign trail in 1980 and attempted to show the country he was a more compassionate candidate.

    “In government we have institutionalized compassion, forgetting that compassion is a human virtue that comes from the heart, and that institutions lack these attributes, and so they fail in doing the compassionate thing,” Dole said.

    But Dole was overshadowed by a star — Ronald Reagan.

    In the 1980 Iowa primary Dole came in last with only 1,576 of the 106,000 votes. Dole refused to give up and campaigned harder in New Hampshire. In the New Hampshire primary Dole received only 0.4 percent of the vote.

    Eight years later Dole hoped that it would finally be his time. On November 9, 1987 Dole announced to the people of Russell, Kan., that he would once again be running for the presidency.

    “I can make a difference. I have made a difference. I will make a difference. I offer a record, not a resume,” Dole said.

    The election went well until Dole and Bush squared off in the New Hampshire primary. There Bush made his ‘No New Taxes’ pledge. Dole refused to make the same pledge and began losing to Bush.

    In April of 1995 Dole formally announced to a crowd in Topeka, Kan., that he was once again going to run for president.

    “My friends, I have the experience. I’ve been tested and tested and tested in many ways. I am not afraid to lead and I know the way,” Dole said.

    With current polls showing Dole as many as 22 points behind Clinton, this last battle is proving to be another difficult race

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