This is really rich. It delights me to no end that this is being brought up now. Bob Dole apparently wrote a letter to Rush telling him to lay off McCain.
Mitt Romney this morning:
"Well, it's probably the last person I would have wanted write a letter for me. I think there a lot of folks who tend to think that maybe John McCain's race is a bit like Bob Dole's race. That it's the guy who's next in line, the inevitable choice."
Ahhh....nice. And of course, we've now got a controversy on our hands:
McCain has issued a statement saying that "governor Romney's attack on Bob Dole is disgraceful, and Governor Romney should apologize. Bob Dole is a war hero who has spent his life in service to this nation and nobody has worked harder to build the Republican Party. Bob Dole deserves the respect of every American and certainly every Republican."
McCain is playing this up as just a personal slam against Dole. And thats understandable, because I think Mitt is onto something. Its what I've been thinking myself for a while. This is not a comparison that McCain wants to take hold in people's minds.
A lot of people seem to get weak in the knees at the thought of going up against McCain. No matter what the poll numbers say, I believe this fear is over-rated. Respect for a man counts for a lot, but it does not mean he will get votes. Not when he has said he's fine with staying in Iraq for 100 years. Not when his economic policy simply echoes Bush. Not when the entire Republican brand is fast going down the toilet.
Just remember: A mere 2 years after the "Republican Revolution", in times much tougher for Democrats, Clinton was able to easily beat Bob Dole, another great American war hero. Bill won it on policy, on the future of the country ("Bridge to the 21st Century"), and with the sense that he was more in touch with people's everyday problems. I have no doubt that either Hillary or Obama could do this very thing once again.
Maybe its just me, but I smell déjà vu all over again.