Nature Of The Dole Campaign example essay topic

A Change for Dole 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 theAmerican 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 elections 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 leve into 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.

TheAmerican people respond well to repetition. 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 truly 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 theRe publican 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 inthe 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 " veblen 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..