A true patriot, and I wish Republicans followed his example instead of Trump's. No Chickenhawk.
He started to destroy his legacy by picking Jack Kemp as his running mate in 1996 and running on Kemp's agenda of deficit busting tax cuts mostly for the wealthy after having been a balanced budget Monetarist for his entire political life.
He's been downhill ever since.
What’s ironic is in a Jack Kemp biography he basically claimed during the 1988 primaries if Bob Dole was elected , then the Reagan revolution would he dead .
Bob dole after the gop defeat in 1982 also basically said : “This should put an end to Jack Kemp’s nonsense economic plans”. I think Dole just realized later on that Kemp was right so he adopted Kemp’s economic plans.
Clinton had moved well ahead of Bob Dole in the polls by the time that Dole chose Kemp to be his Vice Presidential nominee. It was basically a Hail Mary. Of course, it didn't work out for either of them. Dole would have lost anyway, but I don't think his heart was in the tax-cut nonsense, and Kemp got to promote his tax-cut nonsense, but by refusing to be Dole's attack dog against Clinton (the normal role for a Vice Presidential candidate) he earned the enmity of many Republicans, probably a majority.
I think picking Kemp as a running mate was a concession to Republican voters and donors who didn’t trust Dole on taxes because of the history mentioned in the posts you quoted. It was like if Joe Lieberman was the Democratic nominee and he picked Ocasio-Cortez as his running mate.
