Why did Bob Dole give up his majority leader spot to run for president?

[Cynthia]

I am not very familiar with this history as I wasn't even born then. It has been troubling to me for months why Bob Dole gave up his Senate seat and majority leader status to pursue a presidential bid he's not assured to win? He could've retained Senator.

[The_Doctor]

He did it to get more media attention to try to close the poll deficit against Bill Clinton. It didn't work out. And we got Trent Lott in the process as Majority Leader.

[Vosem]

For dramatic effect? Because he was tired of the Senate and wanted to go up or out?

[Oppo]

It's hard being a congressional lead along with running for POTUS. I remember that he was unable to attend a debate as a result of the budget negotiations.

[Mr. Morden]

Running the Senate while running for president divided his attention too much and also implicated him in everything the GOP majority in Congress was doing, so he decided to step down as Majority Leader.  I believe it was in discussing that move with his aides that he decided to just go all the way and try the Hail Mary of resigning from the Senate altogether.  Here is how SNL tackled the event btw:

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/cold-opening-nightline/n10863?snl=1

[RINO Tom]

Because, as 2016 showed, anything can happen if you're one of the two major choices, and politicians themselves tend to REALLY believe that, haha.  I'm sure Bob Dole actually thought he could become the President, and he was ASSURED of being at the very worst the second most likely human being to become the President in January 1997...

[dead0man]

yeah, the easy/obvious answer is probably the correct one...he thought he had a decent chance at winning

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Why did Republicans think running Bob Dole was a good idea?

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Why did Republicans think running Bob Dole was a good idea?

1996 was a really weak GOP field. Who would they nominate instead? Steve Forbes? He was a total nobody and weaker than Dole.

[136or142]

I have the 1996 Newsweek Special Election edition as well as Bob Woodward's book "The Choice" that both cover this. I'll post them tomorrow.

"The Choice" was really about the choice, kind of an odd election book.  It was written something like two months before election day.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

To celebrate the 80th anniversary (well, 1 day late) of Charles Hughes giving his opponent a new Supreme Court justice.

[136or142]

From Bob Woodward's book "The Choice" Page 428

"Months earlier (before discussion on Vice Presidential selection) a seed had been planted, something that had nagged at Dole since the Republican primaries when he was beaten up as this creature from Washington, "Beltway Bob."  Buchanan, Forbes and Alexander regularly had aimed their most pointed attacks at his longtime service in the Senate.  Dole knew that people didn't like Washington, and his opponents had effectively wrapped the entire political culture of the capital around his neck.  As he started winning the primaries, he dismissed the problem.  But, over the Easter break he had eight days of rest in Florida, a record for him.  The negative interpretations of his total identity with the Senate gnawed at him.  He was pretty sure that 90% of the people didn't know what the title majority leader meant. To them, it just meant another politician making deals, raising their taxes, spending more money.  That was what Washington conjured up out there. That's what he conjured up out there.

In Florida, Dole had time to walk and sit in the sun, look around, think.  He thought about his late parents.  He thought about the frustration of the average people. He thought about his mail, the nasty letters, many of which had a common theme, 'You're like everybody else. You're like all the rest of 'em."  He had to be different, but he wasn't.  He had to break through the Washington noise and his own expectations, many of them of his own making.

Dole decided he would quit the Senate completely, not just give up the Majority Leader's Office, but resign his Senate seat.... He found he was sleeping well and having no second thoughts.




Page 432, Dole's statement:
"My time to leave this office has come and I will seek the Presidency with nothing to fall back on but the judgement of the people, and nowhere to go but the White House or home."... "And I will then stand before you without an office or authority, a private citizen a Kansan, an American, just a man. But, I will be the same man I was when I walked into the room.  I trust in the hard way, for little has come for me except in the hard way, which is good because we have a hard task ahead of us.  This is where I touch the ground, and it is in touching the ground in moments of difficulty where I find my strength.  I have been there before, I have done it the hard way, and I will do it the hard way once again. I have absolute confidence in the victory that to some may seem unnattainable."

I think that's a pretty classy statement from a person who did not deserve so much hardship in his life.

[dead0man]

Why did Republicans think running Bob Dole was a good idea?

with hindsight couldn't you ask that about every losing non-incumbent candidate going back a long ways?  at least the last 8 or so.  Possible exceptions being McCain and Gore.

I think that's a pretty classy statement from a person who did not deserve so much hardship in his life.

agreed

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Why did Republicans think running Bob Dole was a good idea?

with hindsight couldn't you ask that about every losing non-incumbent candidate going back a long ways?  at least the last 8 or so.  Possible exceptions being McCain and Gore.

Something about nominating a sitting congressional leader with less charisma than a tuna can strikes me as a peculiarly disastrous choice, especially off a historic midterm victory for your party and presumably with high expectations for the next election.  When Powell said he was out it's like the Republicans just gave up, because none of the Republicans who ran that year would have beaten Clinton and they settled on the lousiest choice (well, lousiest after Buchanan).

[Lechasseur]

Why did Republicans think running Bob Dole was a good idea?

with hindsight couldn't you ask that about every losing non-incumbent candidate going back a long ways?  at least the last 8 or so.  Possible exceptions being McCain and Gore.

Something about nominating a sitting congressional leader with less charisma than a tuna can strikes me as a peculiarly disastrous choice, especially off a historic midterm victory for your party and presumably with high expectations for the next election.  When Powell said he was out it's like the Republicans just gave up, because none of the Republicans who ran that year would have beaten Clinton and they settled on the lousiest choice.

This