BOB DOLE: FACING THE AGE ISSUE

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Still, it was hardly a simple decision. Though Dole is indeed young by the standards of other countries, "age works against you in the U.S.," says Larry Sabato, a professor of government at the University of Virginia. "It works for you in a country like Japan, which honors older citizens and appreciates their institutional memory. Here people think that candidates in their 70s are focusing more on the past than on the future." Dole himself looked into his future and fretted over the age question. "You want to be pretty certain you can do it,'' he said last week. "I don't think age is just a state of mind. Obviously, you do get older, and things don't work as well in some cases.''

Throughout American history, it's not so much a candidate's age as how he wears it that weighs on voters. William Henry Harrison was 67 when he ran for President in 1840, and judging from what passed for press reports at the time, no one seemed to care. Democrats tried to frighten voters after Eisenhower fell ill in 1955. "They ran ads saying that if you elected Eisenhower, you were going to get Nixon because [Ike] was going to die," says Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

Even Reagan, who was 69 in 1980, was able to deflect the issue with a combination of shrewdness, humor and take-it-or-leave-it confidence. "Conservative Republicans never sat around and said about Reagan, 'Don't you think he's too old? It's a hard job,'" recalls a party insider. "They knew who Reagan was. They trusted Reagan to be Reagan and stay Reagan, and they thought, 'If he has a heart attack, he'll still be Reagan.'''

As it contemplates the race against Dole, the Clinton camp is not expecting much bounce from the generation gap. "These things don't mean much," says a veteran Clinton adviser. "Only a month ago, everyone was saying that Dole was a genius for his attack on Hollywood. Now he's sagging? I don't buy it." Dole's advisers have nonetheless been ruminating about how to address the issue of his age and health; three months ago, they decided it should be addressed early and candidly, both to pre-empt his critics and to ensure that any future health alarms don't prompt suspicions of a cover-up. Says Marlin Fitzwater, White House press secretary at the time George Bush collapsed at a state dinner in Tokyo: "You want to deal with those problems well before you throw up on the Japanese Prime Minister."

A nine-page document, released last Friday on the eve of the candidate's birthday, is the most complete medical information released about a presidential candidate in memory, including chemistry, urinalysis and blood charts, an ekg chart and a four-page summary. "The patient is in excellent health with all medical conditions stable or controlled," was the verdict of Dr. John Eisold, the attending congressional physician. Dole's campaign carefully leaked the materials early to selected news organizations, including Time, and provided opportunities to photograph the candidate on his treadmill.