BOB DOLE: FACING THE AGE ISSUE

• Share

(6 of 7)

In speeches, Dole takes the age issue in stride. "I'll put Strom Thurmond on the ticket for age balance," he jokes (Senator Thurmond is 92 years old). But Dole's real advantage comes just from showing how hard he can work. When a voter asked Dole in Keene, New Hampshire, earlier this year whether he was simply too old to be President, Dole's reply was almost a dare: "Stick with me for a day and see for yourself."

Dole's daily life has been one long stamina-demonstration project. He begins his schedule around 7:45 a.m., though aides admit he isn't a morning person. He dresses himself with a buttonhook -- painstaking exercise for a man without the use of one arm, struggling through the top button of his shirt and the knot on his tie by himself. He exercises regularly on the treadmill his wife Elizabeth bought him a few years ago and then spent months coaxing him to use. (Horrified at the recent photo ops, she vowed to buy him some decent jogging shorts for his birthday.) Now he's as religious about his workout as his wife, spending 30 minutes on the machine three or four times a week. Because pulling backward is one motion his disabled right arm can make, Dole bought a rowing machine last year to improve his upper-body strength.

Once at work, Dole often holds three or four meetings simultaneously in his large suite of offices. The Senator slips in and out of the sessions like a negotiator at a five-way labor dispute, urging the parties forward, keeping negotiations going, all the while shuttling back and forth to the Senate floor.

But he has begun to make some accommodations to age. He has become compulsive about working the phones while sunning on his Senate veranda -- the tan he works hard on, says a Senator, is his "secret weapon." Dole admits to putting "a little stuff'' on his hair to keep out the gray, although he insists he does not color his eyebrows. And he sometimes slips off to his new hideaway near his office for a nap on a couch that Dole nabbed when Senator Howard Metzenbaum retired last year at 77.

Otherwise his pace is relentless. Since announcing his candidacy in April, Dole has flown 39,000 miles. None of those who work closely with him believe the Senator is flagging. Concedes Ron Klain, staff director of the Democratic Policy Committee and spokesperson for minority leader Tom Daschle: "I don't see any speed off his fast ball at all."

In Washington he typically works into the night, hits a reception or two and tries to finish by 9. Then it's home to his apartment at the Watergate, where he and Elizabeth might catch an old movie and eat dinner on TV trays. Before bed he checks in with his advisers by phone and tries to be in bed by 10:30. The Doles socialize sparingly, usually just with a few close friends for an occasional dinner. Weekends are punctuated more by work than play; the couple go for walks, go to church and enjoy a ritual Sunday brunch.

Dole doesn't smoke and rarely drinks. He eats carefully while in town and follows Nixon's admonition never to eat before a speech. On the road he indulges in Kentucky Fried Chicken, and his advancemen have been known to peel off from his motorcades in search of local Dairy Queens on his behalf. "Gotta eat a little something," he'll say. "Gotta keep the energy up."