Hitting 73, Dole Spends The Day Campaigning

DEARBORN, Mich. (July 22) -- On his seventy-third birthday, Bob Dole revealed a badly kept secret: He is not a morning person.

"By noon, I'll feel about fifty-five," Dole told breakfast companions today at Sarah's Circle, a housing and recreational center for low-income seniors in Washington. (64K WAV sound)

Braced and prepped for a spate of birthday stories on the age question, the Dole campaign relied on health answers. In a contest with Bill Clinton, says spokesman Nelson Warfield, maturity and experience are underlined by age and that's a plus for us.

Supporters of Sarah's Circle for a decade, the Doles -- she celebrates her sixtieth next week -- turned the tables and brought the gifts, including his first Senate pension check.

"I want to give the first 30 days of my retirement pay to Sarah's Circle," Dole said as he made the donation. (128K WAV sound)

There was cake -- two of them by noon -- and while Dole didn't say what he wished for, that's no secret at all. "Next year, we'll have this party at the White House" Dole quipped.

The airborne celebration moved next to the Great Lakes where Dole praised the region's economic growth under Republican governors and sideswiped the Clinton administration's position on welfare reform.

"We had a welfare bill that passed in the Senate by a vote of 87 to 12. President Clinton praised it at the time, saying 'good legislation' and then he vetoed it," Dole explained. (128K WAV sound)

But mostly, it was a birthday day. Dole's final celebration will be at home in Russell, Kansas.

It was the "if you can't fight it, flaunt it" approach to the age issue, but even the best face on it can get wearing as the birthday boy himself said, "I'll be happy when the day is over and it's somebody else's birthday."

Hitting 73, Dole Spends The Day Campaigning

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