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POLITICS & COMMUNITY by laurie ouellette Don't miss Laurie Ouellette's other Adwatch columns on Campaign '96.

Poor Bob Dole. He just can't seem to get his finger on the pulse of America's youth--and that seems to include just about everyone under the age of forty-five. Not long ago, "The New York Times" poked fun at Dole for being utterly "out of touch" with the last few decades of pop music during a visit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Then, the Clinton campaign criticized the 73-year-old Senator for waxing nostalgic during the Republican National Convention. To add insult to injury, even some Republican media consultants criticized the Dole campaign video for using elderly spokespeople that drew attention to the candidate's age. Does age really make a difference? In an era of image politics, stereotypes of all kinds matter far more than they should. But age can be important because age--like other factors such as gender, race, religion, education and social origin--can have a formative influence on a candidate's values. When generational differences among candidates become intertwined with the clashing values of different historical eras, they merit particularly careful consideration. And that is the situation facing voters during Campaign '96. Consider Bob Dole's most recent campaign ad, where he seems to reach out more explicitly to young voters by focusing on his childhood and early adulthood rather than his mature life in Congress. Called "Portrait of a Man," the five-minute spot features much of the same footage as the convention video (including some of the same elderly spokespeople), but it emphasizes family snapshots of the young Dole as well as filmed imagery of a young boy riding his bicycle through the dusty roads of Kansas. While nearly devoid of substantive campaign talk, the spot does offer a new symbolic message. As Dole explains in the final scene: "I want to be a bridge from my generation to the younger generation." Actually, both the ad and the "bridge" metaphor say more about the clash of generations--especially the clash between Dole's generation and the Baby Boomers represented by President Clinton---than it does about the realities facing young people in the 1990s. First there's the emphasis on Dole's difficult and extremely disciplined childhood. Like many children of the Depression, the young Dole grew up poor, wore hand-me-downs, obeyed his mother, and got his mouth washed out with soap when he used a four-letter word. Dole doesn't come right out and say it, but every student of history knows that children of the Baby Boom were allegedly "spoiled" by affluence and Dr. Spock. During the turbulent 1960s, both liberals and conservatives tended to blame "permissive" childrearing for the student rebellions. Check one for generational differences. Then there's Dole's tougher-than-yours hard luck story. In contrast to the Baby Boomers, many of whom attended college thanks to Great Society programs, Dole got his diploma through the GI Bill. In "Portrait of a Man," this difference is emphasized by juxtaposing Dole's World War II injury forty-six years ago to his educational mobility. Pictures of a uniformed and then wounded Dole show how he served his country, while friends recall his sheer willpower and miraculous recovery on camera. Summing things up, Dole explains that he "had a serious problem, did not give up, overcame it, and was successful." Dole goes on to acknowledge the government's help in sending GIs like himself to college, resulting in an opportunity to further overcome his humble origins. Looking back, he ponders, "Who'd have thought I'd be talking about maybe being the next president--now that's a leap." Of course, the implied link is hard work, sacrifice, the ability to overcome stumbling blocks, and then rewards--not education as a universal right. While Clinton claims he will make college more affordable to all through middle-class tax breaks, Dole says he wants young people to have the same challenges and opportunities that he did. Check two for generational differences. Finally, of course, there's the gender gap. While Bill Clinton pays lip service to egalitarianism in theory if not in practice, Dole projects the "set in my ways" kind of stubbornness one usually attributes to grandfatherly types who seemed to have missed the feminist movement completely. In "Portrait," Dole chuckles slyly as he admits that his miraculous recovery from the war injury was slowed by one factor alone--the "attractiveness" of the nurses who fed him while he was helpless. Check three for generational differences. Of course, none of these differences is the result of age alone: all are both shaped by and reflect a whole range of competing values and expectations for America. Unfortunately, sound bite democracy tends to prevent a serious examination of campaign issues. Until then, we'll be forced to look ever carefully at the candidate's use of phrases like "bridge between generations," as well as the larger symbolic issues they represent. Laurie Ouellette writes about media and culture and teaches at the New School in New York City. Her work has appeared in Utne Reader, Afterimage, Women's Review of Books, Independent Film and Video Monthly, and various books and journals. © 1996 Laurie Ouellette. All Rights Reserved.