Why do people think that Bob Dole was a "moderate" presidential candidate?

[Mechaman]

He made Dubya's campaign in 2000 look bleedingheart liberal by comparison.  Yet for some reason, idiots (I won't name who or on which side) tend to make the point that Dole lost because he was "too moderate" and not "conservative" enough.

Revelant:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dole#1996_presidential_campaign

Does a 15% across the board income tax cut (keep in mind that the top tax rates were 39.6%, if Dole's cuts were implemented it would've been the lowest rates on the top class since the 1920's) sound "moderate" to you?  Or a Human Life Amendment?

Please, somebody explain to me what I'm missing about Dole or his presidential campaign that made it so "moderate".

[old timey villain]

I guess in retrospect he seemed moderate in an "elder statesman" kind of way. In politics, there's this perception that the young politicians have the bold and radical ideas while the older ones are wiser and level headed. That isn't always the case of course.

Honestly though I don't think that's really a common political meme. His campaign is known for being boring more than anything. People also joked that he was a "square" since he was so old, and he fell off the stage that one time.

[Indy Texas]

Was this a 15 percent tax cut or a 15 percentage point tax cut?

I remember reading somewhere that after the Republicans swept Congress in the 1994 elections, Bob Dole and Barry Goldwater used to joke that they were now on the left wing of the Republican Party.

Dole was personally conservative but he was also a dealmaker of the old school. You don't become Senate majority leader if you can't do that.

The real divide in the Republican Party today isn't a moderate/conservative one. Moderates haven't had any significant pull in the party since the mid '90s. The divide is between those who are willing to compromise and those who aren't.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Wasn't Dole the guy who pushed for federal funding for viagra? He was also big into earmarks.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

He was the most moderate Republican nominee in the last 9 Presidential elections, and was the running mate the last time someone more moderate than himself was nominated. But that's not saying much.

[barfbag]

I heard someone mention Viagra and at Dole's age I'm sure he could use it. He was probably sick of paying for it. As a senator, Bob Dole was very moderate. In order to win a presidential election a candidate needs to establish a strong base and Dole was in such a bad position from the beginning that he spent almost his entire campaign rallying Republicans. Even more than McCain, Dole had to most of his campaign convincing people he really was a conservative.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

I interpret a 15% across the board tax cut to mean that it would be 85% of the current rate, in which case the top rate would still be higher than in the latter part of the Reagan years, and in most of the brackets similar or higher than what we ended up with in the Bush tax cuts.   On the Human Life Amendment, he constantly hedged.  His moderation was mainly about style. He was clearly more interested in compromise than many in the House, and was more interested in keeping his party together during the campaign than in waging an ideological battle.

[Phony Moderate]

Bear in mind that among his opponents in the primaries were Pat Buchanan, Alan Keyes, Steve Forbes, Bob Dornan, Phil Gramm....

Ideologically, Dole was probably to the left of Reagan and to the right of Bush Sr.

[barfbag]

I'm not sure if I addressed that his moderation was more in his style than his stances on the issues.

[bballrox4717]

Conservatism is just different than it was in 1996. Conservative voters don't feel as personally attacked as they do now.

[barfbag]

Conservatism is just different than it was in 1996. Conservative voters don't feel as personally attacked as they do now.

It's gotten worse and worse throughout the years with the media bias.

[Mr. Morden]

I interpret a 15% across the board tax cut to mean that it would be 85% of the current rate....

Yes, that's correct.  That's what was meant by the 15% tax cut.  IIRC, Dole proposed the 15% tax cut around the time of the convention, just after he picked Kemp as his running mate.  I think Kemp's jersey # was #15 when he played for the Bills, so there was this weird numerology thing, where Kemp showed up to a rally with his #15 jersey to promote the tax cut.

[barfbag]

I interpret a 15% across the board tax cut to mean that it would be 85% of the current rate....

Yes, that's correct.  That's what was meant by the 15% tax cut.  IIRC, Dole proposed the 15% tax cut around the time of the convention, just after he picked Kemp as his running mate.  I think Kemp's jersey # was #15 when he played for the Bills, so there was this weird numerology thing, where Kemp showed up to a rally with his #15 jersey to promote the tax cut.

Oh my the desperation.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

He, just like Reagan didn't want tax increases but he wanted to raise social security taxes and the cap was raised during the Reagan administration. The same debate between Buchanan and Dole played out in 1984 as well as 1996.

[Kevin]

It really doesn't matter how moderate or conservative Dole or any of the other Republican candidates were in 1996 as the GOP wasn't going to win it ether way. Since similar to Reagan in the mid 1980's Clinton was benefiting from the strong economy of the mid 1990's. And even though many voters had doubts about Clinton's ethical grounding the most major of his scandals wouldn't beset him until his 2nd term. All of which ensured that voters had little reason to kick Clinton out of office in 96 even if he had a strong challenger.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Um, Pat Buchanan and Co.?

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Does a 15% across the board income tax cut (keep in mind that the top tax rates were 39.6%, if Dole's cuts were implemented it would've been the lowest rates on the top class since the 1920's) sound "moderate" to you? 

The tax rates from 1993 - 2001 were 15%, 28%, 31%, 36%, and 39.6%.
A 15% tax cut would've reduced those to about 13%, 24%, 26.4%, 31%, and 34%.
The highest tax rate in the 1920s was 25%.

Dole's tax cut was fairly similar to Bush's tax cuts(10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, 35%), not very radical, but concerning to deficit hawks who had worked hard to reduced it from $290 billion in 1992(at the time, a record) to "only" $107 billion in '96.

As said before, Dole was conservative but willing to compromise. That's why he was considered a moderate.

[Mechaman]

Does a 15% across the board income tax cut (keep in mind that the top tax rates were 39.6%, if Dole's cuts were implemented it would've been the lowest rates on the top class since the 1920's) sound "moderate" to you? 

The tax rates from 1993 - 2001 were 15%, 28%, 31%, 36%, and 39.6%.
A 15% tax cut would've reduced those to about 13%, 24%, 26.4%, 31%, and 34%.
The highest tax rate in the 1920s was 25%.

Dole's tax cut was fairly similar to Bush's tax cuts(10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, 35%), not very radical, but concerning to deficit hawks who had worked hard to reduced it from $290 billion in 1992(at the time, a record) to "only" $107 billion in '96.

As said before, Dole was conservative but willing to compromise. That's why he was considered a moderate.

Sorry, reading comprehension fail.

But still, given his other platform views, not the definition of moderate heroism, don't you think?