Bob Dole 1993 - 1995 The Last Man Standing
Randal Wallace Presents : Bob Dole The Last Man Standing
In 1992, in the midst of a recession, the Republican Party would be swept out of power losing not only the White House, but the House and Senate as well. On the Federal level of Government, one man stood alone, as the leader of his party. That man was also the last of the World War 2 generation to be left on the national stage. He was Senate Minority leader Robert J. Dole of Kansas.
Over the next three seasons we will tell his story and the story of the rise of the modern Republican Party. It will be the final story of National leadership for the generation of people who built the American Century. For all the attention a new generation of Republican leaders would garner, it was in fact, Bob Dole, so often in the shadow of the giants of his age, from Nixon to Reagan to Bush, and who would largely be forgotten in the coming era of Gingrich , Clinton, and the second George W. Bush, who actually led the Republican Party out of the political wilderness and back to power in both houses of Congress, even as his own efforts to win the Presidency would fall short.
In our first of three seasons, we will look at both Bob Dole and President Bill Clinton, from 1993 to 1995, as they go head to head in a political duel, that will lead to the resurrection of the Republican Party in America.
We invite you to come along with us on a wild ride through the high points and low moments of modern American History, in an effort to show the citizens of today that we are an amazing and resilient nation.
Our Podcasts are separated by individual Documentary style titles. --
Season 1 : Bridging the Political Gap episodes 1 -11 --- Season 2 : Lessons in Leadership : --- The GIANTS of the Senate and Joe Biden episodes 14 - 16 ---- World War 2 Episodes 17 - 20 --- General MacArthur You're Fired Episodes 21 - 23 ---- A Celebration of the life of George Shultz episodes 26 - 28 ---- November 1963 : The end of the Age of Innocence episode 29 --- Season 3 ----The Johnson Treatment episodes 32 - 39 ---- Upheaval 1968 episodes 40 - 50 ---- Season 4: Richard Nixon 1968 -1971 The Man Who Saved the Union episodes 51 -67 ----- Season 5 Richard Nixon 1972 The Foundation of Peace episodes 71 - 96 -----1973 Ten Days in January 97 - 100 -- Season 6 Richard Nixon 1973 : Enemies at the Gate 101 - 125 ---- Season 7 Richard Nixon 1974 Through the Fire 126 - 147 ---- Season 8 Richard Nixon 1974 - 1994 The Fall and the Re-Rise of Richard Nixon. 148 - 174 plus bonus materials --- Season 9 Gerald Ford Beyond Watergate 175 -190 -- Season 10 John Jenrette. & Jimmy Carter too 191 - 224 -- Season 11 George H.W. Bush : The Leadership Lessons 225 - 250 --- Season 12: Mayor Hirsch 253 - 259, George H.W. Bush : The Sweep of History 260 - 285, Season 13 George H.W. Bush The Gulf War, The Coup, Clarence Thomas & the Cold War's End 286 - 318, Season 14 George H. W. Bush 1992 The Changing of the Guard 319 - 363 Season 15 Bob Dole 1993 - 1995 The Last Man Standing 364 - 402, Special Season 16 The Great American Authors 403 -
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Bob Dole 1993 - 1995 The Last Man Standing
Episode 389 BOB DOLE 1993 - 1995 The Last Man Standing (Part 26) The Contract with America
The Contract with America would change everything in Washington D.C. For four decades the United States House of Representatives had been controlled by one party. The Republicans had settled into a life of being a permanent minority. That total control of the Federal Government had led to decades of entrenchment for democrats everywhere you looked in the running of the government. They were in all the bureaucracy, the courts, and in control of everything within the congress.
It was a dominance that had brought down a President in 1974, and thwarted the agenda of three more Republican Presidents. It was time for a change and the unpopularity of the Clinton agenda would finally bring about an opportunity for that change. What Republicans needed was a field general. It got one in House Minority Assistant Leader, Newt Gingrich.
He would develop the Contract with America, help sell it to the country, and to his fellow Congressman, he would help educate not only a class of Congressional candidates but also a generation of campaign operatives that they brought in, and took to school educating them on how to run a campaign. They polled the issues, they polled the voters, and they laid the groundwork for a foundation to nationalize the election. It gave every candidate a set agenda to run on.
I would argue, and do in this episode, that it was a one-two punch that led to the success of the Republican Party in the elections of 1994. First off, you had Bill Clinton lurch to the left, which was unpopular with the vast majority of the electorate, but you also had Bob Dole there to stand the ground at a moment when every other Republican in the Federal Government was demoralized after the loss in 1992. It was Dole that held the ground against Clinton's left wing leap. Dole stopped the Gays in the Military, didn't have a single defection on the budget, and defeated the Healthcare boondoggle. It was a mighty impressive performance for a man leading the minority party in Congress.
It was Bob Dole's leadership during those two years that laid the foundation for the campaign that, without question, Newt Gingrich, was able to lead to victory in 1994. A one-two punch that nearly knocked out the Clinton Administration. It was the high tide of the Republican comeback from the debacle of 1992.
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