Bill Clinton vs. Bob Dole
Incumbent democratic president Bill Clinton won the 1996 election over Ross Perot (the
reform party nominee) and Bob Dole the senate majority leader. Since 1944 when president
Franklin D. Roosevelt was in office, no president representing the democratic party had won two
consecutive presidential elections. Bob Dole was defeated by 8.2 million votes. Ross Perot only
managed to take 8.2 percent of the popular vote in the 1996 elections. Initially many did not
expect Bill Clinton to win the election. In 1994 Clinton had lost both the Senate and the House of
Representatives. Bill Clinton ran a campaign that highlighted Bob Doles age of and painted him
as an old and frail man. “Dole Chose to focus on Clinton as being part of the spoiled baby
boomer generation” (WIKI *FIX*). He believed by him being older would give him an advantage
over the younger Clinton. This strategy Dole used was appealing to the older citizens it was not
very appealing to the younger voters. Bob Dole’s age was a big concern, he went to great
measures to prove he was still young enough to be in office. He published pictures of himself
running on the treadmill. Bob Dole chose Jake Kemp as his running partner and preached a
fifteen percent reduction in taxes. Bill Clinton chose Al gore as his running mate. Throughout the
campaign Mr. Clinton lead in the polls, most of the time by large margins. We will look into the
candidates strategies, choices made by voters, the election in general, and the outcome of the
1996 presidential election.
Campaign Strategy
“Building A Bridge To The 21st Century” (Bill Clinton) was the campaign slogan that Bill
Clinton decided to center his campaign around. Richard Morris, a consultant for Mr. Clinton
advised Mr. Clinton to funnel millions of dollars into advertising early on in the campaign. The
democratic committee contributed a large portion of money towards president Clinton’s
advertising strategy. Bob Dole spent a lot of time early on focusing on challengers and during
this time president Clinton was focusing in on the general election. President Clinton targeted
Bob Dole’s age and the fact that he was a conservative. Many felt as if Mr. Dole could not relate
to the current times in America as he often mentioned sports teams that many were not old
enough to remember like the Brooklyn Dodgers (currently the Los Angelos Dodgers).
Bob Dole painted Bill Clinton out to be a spoiled baby throughout the election. In 1996
Bob Dole was 73 years old while president Clinton was just 50 years old. Bob Dole like Clinton
targeted president Clinton’s age and also wanted to lower the taxes by fifteen percent. The plan
for a tax cut sounded terrific to most but the White House was not in favor of the plans. By
cutting taxes fifteen percent a deficit would occur. From 1992 to 1996 president Clinton had cut
the deficit in half. Bob Dole felt America needed a great leader and often mentioned how his
generation had won WWII. “What I intend to propose is a sound, pro-growth tax policy, coupled
with economic changes,” Mr. Dole said as he and Mr. Forbes, the champion of the so-called flat
tax, emerged from Mr. Dole’s Capitol office after a half-hour discussion (Seelye, 1996). Mr. Dole
did not disclose his plans in it’s entirety but did share that it would include a single-rate income
