A Brilliant Move, Even If It Wears the Scent of Desperation

I am the greatest political redundancy in America, I had begun to tell people. I am a lukewarm Bob Dole supporter.

And like me, a growing number of Republicans around the country had been gradually starting to tune out the presidential campaign. Although we’d never walk away from our party’s nominee, more and more of us were finding less and less enthusiasm for a candidate who didn’t seem to understand what it would to take to mount a successful campaign against Bill Clinton.

We liked Bob Dole. We respected him. We just couldn’t figure out why someone who had made politics a part of his life for so many years seemed unable or unwilling to get down in the trenches and fight for the greatest political prize of all. We didn’t understand why a campaign slipping further and further behind continued to run the kind of cautious, no-risk strategy suited more to a candidate 20 points ahead in the polls than 20 behind.

Then, Wednesday, Dole made the boldest and the most dramatic decision of his political career when he announced his intention to step down from the Senate and devote his full time and resources to his pursuit of the presidency.

For months, Republican Party faithful have been waiting in vain for some sign of inspiration from an unimaginative and risk-averse Dole organization. As the campaign continued to plod along, we were reduced to wondering not if Dole could come back and actually win but whether he was even willing to take the kind of gamble necessary to make a race of it.

When a candidate falls behind in the polls by the kind of margin that Dole has, the challenge before him changes. Before that candidate can even think about winning, he must find a way to reengage the attention of the electorate, if for no other reason than it’s impossible to change a voter’s mind if that voter isn’t listening.

Now Dole has found a way to force the voters to take another look at him. His announcement not only will generate enthusiasm for his candidacy among his supporters, but also will give him an entirely new identity in the eyes of most voters. By freeing himself not just of the Senate but of the politics of the past to which he has been clinging, Dole has given his campaign a second lease on life.

The decision is important for three reasons. From a practical standpoint, this will give him the time he needs to get out among the voters and make his case. Recent reports have mentioned improvements in his stump speech, but the constraints of his Senate schedule were keeping most people from hearing it.

Also, the decision to relocate back to his home state of Kansas sends a potent symbolic message to the voters that Dole is going to run his campaign against business-as-usual in Washington. In every speech he gives, Dole holds up a copy of the 10th Amendment to illustrate his desire to return power to the states. His own move reinforces that desire a thousand times more powerfully than all the speeches in the world ever will.

Finally and most important, is the fact that Dole was willing to make a decision such as this. Just as important as the substance of the decision was the message that Dole sent by making it. A candidate who had been under fire for his caution and his suspicion of change was suddenly telling his supporters that he was willing to test conventional wisdom if that’s what it took to win this election.

After months of being dismissed as a prisoner of another political era, unable to engage in the rough-and-tumble of modern politics, Dole has served notice that he’s willing to play by the new rules.

Make no mistake, Dole’s decision does not make him any less a career politician. But his willingness to give up a position that has meant so much to him for so many years tells the American people how important this race is to him. He has shown the voters that, although he has lived much of his life inside the Beltway, he also understands what lies beyond Washington’s borders.