R.I.P Bob Dole, passing from our earthly realm at 98

Bob Dole, 1923-2021, one of the last of the WWII warriors.

He had a good sense of humor to the last. When Norm Macdonald died, Dole got the comment exactly right when he tweeted “Bob Dole will miss Norm Macdonald.”

(Norm’s hook in his Dole impersonation was that he always referred to himself in the third person.)


6 thoughts on “R.I.P Bob Dole, passing from our earthly realm at 98

  1. Bullshit. Dole was the first Republican candidate and Leader of the GOP with an opportunity to repudiate Newt Gingrich and his scorched earth methods. He actively chose not to.

    Y’all wanting to retcon history can just sit the hell down, go back and re-familiarize yourselves with what actually happened, not what what you wanted it to be. He fucked up. Badly. If he had a fucking spine, it’s probable that the GOP wouldn’t be the garbage fire that it is today.

  2. In 1988, as a college student, I went door to door getting signatures on a petition to help get Bob Dole on the NY GOP Primary ballot. I got to meet him later at a Rensselaer County Lincoln Day Dinner where Dole was the guest of honor. It was a fundraiser but I and some other SUNY Albany College Republicans got free tickets. I must have been warned at least a dozen times to remember to shake his left hand. I remembered, but it might not have mattered. As a politician, he was obviously well practiced at shaking hands. If someone offered a right hand to shake, he didn’t hesitate he just turned his left hand over and shook their right. I have a sister who is not a Republican. But she loved Dole. She met him on a trip to Washington D.C. as a high school student. He not only agreed to be interviewed for a school project, he had her ride the congressional train with her. She wasn’t even from Kansas.

    Washington & Lee University holds a mock convention for whichever party is out of the White House. I was at the law school in 1996 when they held a GOP convention. The Convention selected Bob Dole as their nominee for President and Colin Powell as their nominee for Vice-President. Dole addressed the convention by video. I forget his exact words, but I recall him saying something about how Powell would make a great running mate. I am pretty sure that if Powell had been willing, he would have not only been on the ticket he would have become Vice-President. But in the world that was Dole lost. Bill Clinton managed to beat 2 honest to God war heroes. George H. W. Bush was shot down over the Pacific and Dole was severely wounded trying to pull a wounded fellow soldier into a foxhole. He wasn’t expected to live. Then he wasn’t expected to have any use of his arms or his legs. But he was determined and managed to reclaim the use of his legs and some use of his left arm while also excelling in college and later law school. Bob Dole was a good, kind, decent man with a wicked sense of humor. His wife Elizabeth had quite a career in government as well. He testified on her behalf at one of her Senate confirmation hearings. He told the committee “My only regret is that I have but one wife to give for my country.” Maybe he is at Gil Hodges party with my mother and grandmother while he waits for his wife to join him.

  3. That clip is hilarious. Never saw that one before.

    I wonder what The Rock thinks about that…

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