Mac A Flashback To GOP'S 1996 Dole-Drums

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Charles Hurt

April 4, 2008 -- WASHINGTON - A great old war hero - arms mangled by battle and known as an acerbic straight shooter - is picked by Republicans to be their nominee to make darned certain that a Clinton doesn't get back into the White House.

John McCain?

No, Bob Dole in 1996.

And it didn't work out very well for Republicans.

Dole lost after a campaign vexed by senior moments such as when the nominee fell off a stage, or when he referred to the Los Angeles Dodgers as the Brooklyn Dodgers.

All along, President Bill Clinton showed extreme deference to Dole, heralded his "long service" to the country and talked about what a war hero he was.

That's exactly how Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama begin every reference to McCain these days.

"The guy's a war hero," Obama likes to say, heralding McCain's captivity. When he goes on to talk about the "fierce urgency of now," Obama leaves McCain coughing in the dust.

With McCain, who turns 72 later this year, all we get is the "fierce urgency of yesteryear."

Even before settling on their own nominee, Democrats have begun ridiculing the Republican challenger as a kooky old man.

A recent Democratic campaign video shows McCain during a press conference in Iraq veering wildly off-message, only to be publicly corrected by his friend and colleague, Sen. Joe Lieberman.

Only five years older than Lieberman, McCain looks rattled and confused by comparison.

To mark McCain's appearance on David Letterman this week, Democrats drew up a Top 10 list of reasons to vote for John McCain.

No. 7 was "Early bird specials at the White House cafeteria."

Every night throughout his show, Letterman zings McCain as a doddering old man who can't line the buttons up on his shirt and has an eye for young nurses over at the retirement home.

McCain's response so far has been to joke about being older than dirt and having more scars than Frankenstein. But in an age of Botox, ####### jobs and Facebook, this strategy doesn't work.

All the while, John McCain is just one more Brooklyn Dodgers blooper away from joining Bob Dole as a widely revered - but firmly retired - elder statesman.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04042008/news/...rums_104939.htm