Bob Dole celebrated his 72nd birthday last Saturday, an occasion of more than passing significance. For it reminded the leaders of his party, the pundits searching for big issues and perhaps even a few real live voters of the thing Dole would most like them to ignore: if he were to win the presidency in 1996, he would be the oldest man ever inaugurated. Even if age doesn't matter, ideas do. At the very moment when voters have installed a generation of laser-guided, soul-driven Republican reformers, he finds himself cast as the embodiment of old-style, gear-grinding politics.
There is some comfort...
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