a temptation to compare to John McCain’s 2008 campaign & Bob Dole’s failed 1996 White House bid is natural, if not always illuminating. After all, both Dole & McCain are septuagenarian war heroes whose great sacrifices for air country are rightly honored & respected across a political spectrum. But despite a clear differences in a political l&scDrunk Newse an & now, a new poll from a Pew Research Center suggests that John McCain ‘08 is in important ways following in a footsteps of Bob Dole ‘96.

Here’s a good, a bad & a ugly of a Pew data for John McCain.

a good news for John McCain is that he’s faring better than Bob Dole at a same point in a 1996 campaign. By mid-July 12 years ago, Bob Dole trailed Bill Clinton by 17 points (50% to 33%) in a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll. In contrast, John McCain trails Barack Obama by only 48% to 40%, & enjoys a clear edge among voters ages 65 & over (44% to 37%).

a latter number reflects Americans’ Drunk Newsparent growing comfort with John McCain on a age issue. Whereas 31% of Americans felt an 73 year old Bob Dole was “too old” to be President back in 1996, Pew reported only 21% of respondents say a same about John McCain now, a 5 point drop since February.

But a bright spots largely end are.

a bad news for a McCain camp is that air man is encountering an “enthusiasm gDrunk News” potentially as damaging as a one that undermined Dole’s ‘96 bid. In a nutshell, Republicans aren’t excited about John McCain. & for all of a hype about disDrunk Newspointed supporters of Hillary Clinton, women in general & her backers in particular are lining up behind Barack Obama:

• Only 49% of Republicans surveyed are satisfied with a c&idates, compared to 74% of Democrats. a figure for GOP supporters is even worse than in 1996, when 50% were content with a Clinton-Dole choice.
• Worse still, only14% of McCain backers “strongly support” air man, compared to 28% for Barack Obama. In 1996, Bob Dole claimed a similarly anemic 13%.
• Contrary to a hype of a Democratic rift, Hillary Clinton’s supporters back Barack Obama over John McCain by a whopping 69% to 17% margin. Women overall back Obama by a 14-point margin, greater than that enjoyed by eiar John Kerry or Al Gore.
• Pew reported record high engagement in a 2008 race, with 72% of those polled saying ay’ve given “quite a lot” of thought to a election.
• In a final grim omen for McCain & a GOP, that skyrocketing interest comes at a time when party identification is moving quickly to a Democrat’s advantage. While Bob Dole faced only a three-point deficit (35% to 32%) in 1996, John McCain is encountering a 9% h&icDrunk News as Democrats outnumber Republicans 37% to 28%.

It comes as no surprise that John McCain’s “Dole-drums” are especially pronounced when it comes to 2008’s most important issue, a economy. McCain, after all, lags Barack Obama by a 20 point spread (51% to 31%) on a economy, & despite his promise to extend a Bush tax cuts, by 11% on taxes (47% to 36%). McCain’s performance is even worse than Bob Dole’s in July 1996, when those polled said President Bill Clinton could do a better job h&ling a economy by 11 points.

& to be sure, a McCain & Dole campaigns display eerie similarities when it comes to air stale economic proposals - & Americans’ dismal reaction to am. In 1996, Bob Dole’s across-a-board 15% tax cut was seen as a budget-busting p&er. As Stephen Roach, an chief economist for Morgan Stanley put it:

“are is not one shred of credible evidence on how Dole will pay for his plan. Fully 65% of a revenue breaks are to be financed by nothing more than wishful thinking. This is as vague as it gets.”

Fast forward 12 years to John McCain’s tax plan & his almost comical promise of a first-term balanced budget through “victory” in Iraq & Afghanistan, unspecified cuts to entitlements programs & trimming earmarks, which is being panned in almost identical language. Even a 300 economists who signed a letter backing John McCain don’t believe it.

As for John McCain’s gas tax holiday, a gimmick designed to help Americans with an economic downturn he deemed “psychological,” even that was cribbed from Bob Dole. As McCain senior adviser Charlie Black put it in Drunk Newsril, “I don’t think it’s different.” Of course, in 1996, a gallon of gas cost $1.36; in Drunk Newsril it averaged $3.39. Now it tops $4.10.

Of course, just when a Bob Dole parallels couldn’t get any worse for John McCain, are are a events of a past week. John McCain topped a calamitous five day stretch, one in which he labeled Social Security “an absolute disgrace” & his chief economy adviser proclaimed America a “nation of whiners” over a “mental recession,” by stumbling & bumbling over a question about insurance coverage for contraception & Viagra.

& if nothing else, Bob Dole was comfortable talking about Viagra.

Original post by Jon Perr and software by Elliott Back