Aiming to Avoid the Dole-drums

John McCain has long known what it's like for a teleprompter-challenged Republican senator to go up against a charismatic, made-for-TV Democrat. In 1996, McCain was Bob Dole's right-hand man. He served as one of the Kansas senator's closest traveling companions and top surrogates in the battle to unseat Bill Clinton. It was a race that began as Dole's to lose—Clinton was caught up in the Whitewater scandal. But lose he did. McCain watched as the Democrats successfully transformed the image of the former Senate majority leader, once known for his consensus-building and dry wit, into an old, humorless Washington insider who couldn't deliver real change.

Now McCain finds himself returning to some old arguments. "Others may offer you sound bites and showmanship," McCain said at the GOP convention in '96. "But Bob Dole offers you leadership—leadership evident in the stature of a man who risked his life for love of country and considers service to America his honor." Recently, McCain has stepped up his efforts to depict Barack Obama as a candidate who is all talk, no action. Obama, McCain has said, offers "an eloquent but empty call for change." Two weeks ago in New Orleans, McCain declared: "He hasn't been willing to make the tough calls to challenge his party. I have." In response, Obama has called McCain a "creature of Washington" who is too entrenched to offer real change—a line Clinton frequently used against Dole 12 years ago.

McCain is not eager to draw comparisons with the Dole campaign. When asked about it recently, he cited only the massive fund-raising disparity that Dole suffered against Clinton. "The only thing I can say is … unfortunately Bob Dole was out of money after winning the primary, and that hurt him in his ability to define himself with the American people, and we are not going to let that happen," McCain told NEWSWEEK. "[But] that was 1996, and we are now in 2008, so the world is very different."

McCain is right, but not always in ways he might like. In 1996, although Clinton appeared weakened by Whitewater and the GOP takeover of Congress, the economy was rebounding, and the world was largely at peace. Al Qaeda was not yet a household name. "Politically, the setups are dramatically different," says Bill Lacy, a former Dole strategist who most recently managed Fred Thompson's ill-fated campaign. "Now you've got an environment that is very anti-Republican and a Democratic Party that is desperate to win."

Some similarities between McCain and Dole are obvious: McCain is 71, 25 years older than Obama; Dole was 73 in 1996, 23 years older than Clinton. Both are decorated war heroes who came home with permanent physical injuries that affected their movement. McCain, who was tortured during his five years as a POW in Vietnam, can't raise his arms above his shoulders; Dole's right arm was paralyzed after he was hit by German gunfire while fighting in World War II, leaving him unable to shake hands in the usual fashion.

Both McCain and Dole have also suffered from unpopular company—President Bush's low esteem hurts McCain, and Newt Gingrich was a drag on Dole in 1996. "The Clintonistas wrapped Gingrich around Dole's neck in the same way that the entire Democratic establishment is singing the tune these days of McCain running for George W. Bush's third term," says GOP strategist Scott Reed, who managed Dole's '96 campaign.

But some of their shared qualities are lesser known, including a record of challenging their own party when necessary. In late 1995, McCain and Dole both supported Clinton's bid to send troops to Bosnia—a position that put them at odds with many other Republicans. For Dole, it was a particularly trying moment: his advisers didn't want him to side with Clinton—or even McCain, who at that point was backing another candidate in the GOP primary. McCain recalls that his respect for Dole only deepened as a result. "The example of Bob Dole reminded me of the duty that gives our nation its strength and honor," McCain wrote in his memoir "Worth the Fighting For."