BOB DOLE : 1995 Clinton's Comeback

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In this episode we talk about the contents of the historic tapes of the Nixon Administration. We address the negative parts that are so familiar to the public. Nixon's remarks about Women, Gays, Jews, African Americans, his rages, and his intemperate remarks, all caught on a voice activated tape recorder that caught his every word every time he entered a room. 

We will also discuss the quality of some of the tapes, or the lack there of, as we learn that many of these tapes are either inaudible and to various other degrees hard to understand. But we also go through those moments when we see a giant at work, a man steadily working for the good of the country, and most importantly, working to get us out of a war he inherited from the two previous administrations, and to free us from that war in a way that we maintain our place in the world and actually enhance it.  This is the high point of the march of Communism in the world during the Cold War. It fell to two Presidents,  Lyndon Johnson and then Richard Nixon,  to stop it and hold our ground. 

The taping system is a window on the Administration of Richard Nixon in an unparalleled way. We will watch him masterfully maneuver the most complex set of problems ever faced by a United States President. In this special edition, we listen in,  to the worst,  and some of the best moments, and we hear from historians, and some of the people on the tapes, as they discuss the legacy of those tapes, and the legacy of a President who arguably saved our Union from disaster both abroad and here at home too. 

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To the stars through difficulties, the  motto of the state of Kansas and a theme for the life of Bob Dole. 

In this final episode in our week long tribute to Senator Bob Dole we look back on two historic days  in which the Senator laid in state in the rotunda of the Capitol of the United States of America. 

Here you will hear the President of the United States, Joseph R. Biden, speak about Dole's enormous impact on the nation and of their nearly 50 year friendship. You will hear from his chief lieutenant in the Senate Alan Simpson of Wyoming, from Bob Woodward a reporter that covered him for The Washington Post, from Tom Hanks the star of the movie " Private Ryan" and a man who helped raise millions of dollars with Dole to build the World War 2 Memorial and from Savannah Guthrie an NBC Correspondent who ended up a friend of the Dole family.  Finally,  we will also hear from his daughter , Robin Dole, about the father and man she knew. 

In this episode, our host, Randal Wallace will take you on a Facebook Live tour of the World War 2 Memorial on the morning of Bob Dole's Memorial service. A fitting tribute to the man who saw to it that the Memorial was built in the first place. 

Finally, we look back at what all Bob Dole represented to this nation and the lessons we can learn from his era in politics. The lessons so badly needed today from the by gone era Bob Dole was most closely associated with, the era of leadership provided by the World War 2 generation.   Dole discusses his hopes for the nation in a final opinion piece he wrote to be released at his death,  calling on the leaders of today to finally come together to protect the American ideals he nearly gave all to defend.   

In this final episode of our tribute to Bob Dole, we celebrate an entire generation of leadership that built the American Century and set the example for all the world on what can be accomplished by a generation of leadership determined to work together and create a better world , and with the death last week of Bob Dole,  we have clearly come to an end of an era in American History.

I hope we as a nation take this opportunity to listen and learn. 

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In part 5 of our tribute to Bob Dole we look back at the war injury that left him disabled. We hear from him and from his close friend and fellow Senator, Dan Inouye, about his hard scrabble fight back to health.  Dole spent 39 months in Army hospitals regaining his health after his act of heroism trying to save his radio man, Corporal Simms. 

We then hear Bob Dole talk about his efforts to build the World War 2 Memorial and how proud he was of the Memorial that now stands on the National Mall for generations to come and remember the high cost of freedom.  We will get to hear Bod Bole's address from the day the Memorial was opened to the public. 

Then we will take one last look back at the extraordinary life that his inspired so many Americans, including me, into working for the greater good of the greatest country on Earth, The United States of America. 

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Bob Dole lost the 1996 Presidential Election. 

On that night he came to the podium and said something I know for him had to be a little scary. 

"For the first time in my life when I get up tomorrow I won't have anything to do" - Bob Dole

Boy did that turn out not to be true. In three days he would be invited to come be a guest on the CBS show "Late Show with David Letterman" and before you know it Bob Dole had a brand new career. He was selling Pepsi Cola and Viagra, he was writing books on Presidential Wit and most importantly he was tasked by the man who defeated him for the Presidency with a most important task. 

Bob Dole was asked to lead an effort to get a Memorial built for the Greatest Generation. A generation in which he was a part and had become the living symbol of for the entire nation.  Bob Dole would lead the effort to build the World War 2 Memorial.

In this episode we are going to take you from the shattering loss of the 1996 election to being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor, and on to those fun years when Bob Dole made the nation laugh and from there we start to watch him build the Memorial to an entire generation of heroic Americans. 

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On June 11, 1996, Senate Majority Leader and the 1996 Republican Nominee for President got to do something few if any politicians ever get to do. He left office on his own terms. Bob Dole resigned so he could focus all his energy and effort on winning the 1996 election. 

He was behind in the polls but on Capitol Hill he was given a heroes send off. It was truly a day for the history books. Senators filled the chamber to listen to Bob Dole give his farewell address to the chamber. In it he talked about the relationships and accomplishments of his time in office. He talked about how those relationships had been the foundation for those accomplishments too. That they had tackled the tough things by working together to find workable solutions to the problems the nation faced. It was a speech full of lessons that our current crop of leaders could stand to listen too again. 

He then left the chamber and walked out into the world a private citizen but when he opened the door to head out into that world he had to have been stunned at what he saw. Hundreds of Capitol Hill employees, staffers, and other elected officials were outside waiting to send him off. They were cheering, an applauding a man whom they all held in enormous esteem. In all the years I have been an observer of politics I have never seen anything like that day in Washington D.C. 

In this episode we let you relive the day with Nightline's Ted Koppel by Dole's side as he lived through it.  We also take a listen to Bob Dole's most recent editorial for The USA Today with his message for the country  in 2021. Then we listen to the farewell address to the United States Senate that Bob Dole gave that June day.  It contains lessons in leadership that are more important today for our current generation of leaders than it was on that day when he gave it. 

I hope folks  pay attention. 

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It was the campaign of my lifetime. A chance to work for not one but three of my heroes in one year, Bob and Elizabeth Dole and Strom Thurmond.  1996 was a great year. 

Some people have been critical of the campaign Bob Dole ran in 1996, but I doubt anyone could have done any better. The economy was booming and Bill Clinton was the master of campaigning. But Bob  Dole gave him a run for his money and did something very impressive, in a year clearly trending toward a popular President, he kept him under 50%, and both houses of Congress stayed in Republican control. The work Bob Dole did in California, in districts of congressmen who were in trouble is what saved our majorities. As I remember CNN analyst William Schneider saying, "He helped save the Republican cause even if his own cause fared badly"

Bob Dole's character shined throughout the campaign and I learned so much just watching from the sideline on how to act and treat people, how even on the Presidential level, you could still be a thoughtful, considerate candidate and stay true to your principles as a human being. Most importantly, I saw the price of freedom, every time he used his left hand to shake hands or held a pen in his right. 

Bob Dole said over and over on the campaign trail "I am certainly not Dwight Eisenhower, but I have always been proud of the vote I cast for Eisenhower and you want to be proud of the vote you cast, 10 years, and 20 years and 30 years from now" well I still am proud of the vote I cast for Bob Dole, it is the proudest vote I ever cast. 

In this episode we shall hear his announcement, his visit to the Greenville Christmas parade, a profile from ABC News just before the Iowa Caucus, and his resignation from Congress. Plus speeches from the most prominent members of the august body in which he served, the United States Senate.  Thad Cochran,  Ted Stevens, Strom Thurmond, Tom Daschle and Robert Byrd all take to the floor to talk about this giant of the Senate they considered it a privileged to have served with. 

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Welcome to Bob Dole Week!!!

Everyday this week we will look back at the life and career of one of the 20th century's greatest Americans. 

In this episode we look back at his entire life with his Presidential Concession speech, and  two videos of his life from his 1988 Presidential campaign and from the Bi-Partisan Policy Center. Then we will step back in time to the moment he was the last man standing after the 1992 Presidential election cycle when the Democrats swept everything. 

Then we will watch Bob Dole lead the Republican Party back to control of both houses of Congress in 1994. 

Here is our first episode of a week of looking back at the man I most admire, Former Senator Bob Dole.   

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Starlight, the Secret Service Codename for First Lady Pat Nixon, was absolutely perfect as a way to describe Mrs. Nixon. She lit up every room that she entered. She was a First Lady who quietly went about accomplishing things in ways often unseen and under appreciated. Yet, despite her reluctance to be in the spotlight the American people still responded to her spirit and to her many contributions to our nation. She was voted one of the most admired women in the World for 22 straight years. That is a record few can match. 

In this episode, we put the First lady front and center and share several retrospectives on her life and contributions put together by the Nixon Foundation and an interview with President Richard Nixon himself on how much he appreciated this extraordinary partner. She rose from humble beginnings, orphaned as a teenager, she helped raise her younger siblings and went on to get her undergraduate, and then Master's degree before starting a career as a public school teacher, all in an era when few women were encouraged to do so. It really is a remarkable story, long before she even met Richard Nixon. But together, these two people from very humble beginnings would transform the World. 

Then we look at the initiative the President began when he took office, very much under the guidance of Mrs. Nixon, to bring women into government service. It is the initiative that brought several women to the forefront including Sandra Day O'Conner who would later go on to be the first woman on the United States Supreme Court under the Reagan Administration.  Listen as Barbara Franklin, the lady Richard Nixon tasked with leading the initiative, discusses the free hand and absolute support President Nixon gave her to do her job. It was yet another example of why Richard Nixon deserves to be considered one of our 5 greatest civil rights Presidents

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People don't seem to realize that Richard Nixon was actually one of our five great Civil Rights Presidents.  Brown vs the Board of Education was decided in 1954 but it was left up to Richard Nixon to make the decision to desegregate the public school systems a reality. He did it and he did it with no violence. He did it by sitting down with state and community leaders, treating them like he respected them, and having them have a hand in making it happen. It is a truly remarkable story and it was guided to reality by George Shultz, one of only two men to hold four different Cabinet positions under Richard Nixon and later Ronald Reagan. 

Again,  as the year wore on, Richard Nixon would comeback to try and find a solution to the war that was dividing our country. He would return with a new set of initiatives to try and bring the recalcitrant North Vietnamese back to the table to try and find peace. 

Then as 1970 drew to a close, Richard Nixon would have the most unusual of summit meetings. Now the White House is no stranger to Presidents, Prime Ministers, General Secretaries, and various other foreign heads of State, it has even played host to Kings and Queens in its proud over 200 year history.  But on December 20, 1970, the White House got some royal treatment like no other in its history. That was the day a very special King rolled up , unannounced, with a handwritten letter , an an antique revolver in hand as a gift for the President. And, as with all things Elvis, they let the King of Rock and Roll in the building. 

Lord A Mighty, 
feel my temperature rising, 
Higher , higher
It's burning through to my soul

Girl, girl , girl , girl
You gonna set me on fire
My brain is flaming
I don't know which way to go....

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Apollo 13, one of the most remembered moments in the history of NASA. By April of 1970 going to the moon had become almost "ho hum". The television networks did not even bother to show the inflight special broadcast from the spaceflight.  Then when the Astronauts were preparing their ship for the long voyage to the moon, BAM!! An explosion, followed by the calm immortal words of mission Captain Jim Lovell back to the Mission Control Center...

"Houston, We have a problem." 

If you have seen the movie you know it was high drama as the spacecraft ended up crippled and good old American ingenuity had to kick in in order to bring the three Astronauts home. This is that story, as recorded live in real time.  Over and over again, our three astronauts Jim Lovell,  Fred Haise and Jim Swigert and all of their expert associates on the ground at Mission Control have to overcome life threatening obstacle after obstacle until they finally land in the Pacific back home here on Earth. 

For over the next hour listen in at NASA's finest hour as the World comes together once again to pray that our men make it home, on a wing, a prayer, and a roll of Duc tape. 

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