Is Obama-McCain Race a Replay of Clinton-Dole in 1996?
Democrats note similarities, with young candidate promising change taking on experienced war veteran
The current presidential campaign between Barack Obama and John McCain increasingly resembles the 1996 contest between Democratic incumbent Bill Clinton and Republican challenger Bob Dole, Democratic strategists say.
In that race, Clinton came across as the young, vigorous candidate who talked about the future—he pledged to build a "bridge to the 21st Century"—and who promised to find new answers to America's problems, comparable to Obama's appeal today.
Dole, a veteran senator from Kansas, billed himself as a former war hero (from World War II) with a wealth of experience in Washington who promised wise, proven leadership—as McCain does now.
Given the choice, voters went solidly for Clinton. "Dole wasn't seen as having the right answers for the time," says Democratic pollster Mark Penn, who advised Clinton in 1996 and was a senior strategist for Hillary Clinton this year.
Penn sees a similar outcome on November 4.
Reader Comments
change?
Riley, what would he change?
Tax code? It is too large to carry in a wheelbarrow and too complex for anyone (including the IRS) to understand. No wonder we have lobbyists by the hundreds in Deecee and the state capitals.
Free speech? What about hate speech legislation? Would he enforce (how would he enforce) "Fairness Doctrine" standards? Would he favor bailing out newspaper companies with taxpayer money as we have been forced to do with the banks and financials?
Immigration policy? Look at the California bankruptcy (where Arnold wants us to bail him out).
Foreign policy? What do you mean by "popularity" with other countries? Would he clean out the nativists in the State Department? What specifically would he have us do be "popular" amongst the Euros, the Chinese, Chavez, and Ahmindinejadists? And who would measure the "popularity?"
Healthcare? Why are Canadians coming to the States for treatment that they do not get at home? Would we bail out healthcare companies and if so, how? Who would decide what healthcare you would get and I would get?
Education? Why are education majors at the bottom of the aptitude tests among collegians? Would he have the students learn Spanish and Chinese when many cannot speak or spell or write in English and that is their first language? Less expensive colleges? Whose pay gets reduced and who decides whose pay gets reduced?
What would he do to have the taxpayers get money back from some of the golden parachute collectors? And what would this do for right of contract?
Private property? What would he do to reverse Kelo (where the property seized under eminent domain has not been used?) Would he put in a schedule of "assumed income" wherein you would have to pay a tax on rent you do not have to pay if your home is paid for?
Who gets subsidized and who pays for it?
Who will protect the family farms from estate taxes?
Change? How about tossing all the bums out on November 4?
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