Who knows really? Actually, who knows really what Dole has been up to the past 10 years?

Well, he has been busy working his little fingers to the bone. Currently, he works in the Washington, D.C., office of Alston & Bird, a long-term legal partner that acts as a consultant group for multi-billion dollar corporations, as Special Counsel where he "focuses his practice on international and domestic legislative, policy and regulatory affairs as well as on healthcare policy and related matters" (bobdole.org). Dole has also been doing a fair amount of speaking around the country, not to mention writing. In 2005, he published a memoir documenting his service in World War II called "One Soldier's Story: A Memoir."

Dole has also received a series of personal honors over the past decade. For his work with American farmers, the disabled and preserving social security, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 from former President Bill Clinton, which is the highest award the government can bestow on any one civilian. It is awarded to "those individuals who have made meritorious contributions to the security or national interest of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors" (bobdole.org). The University of Kansas named its disability research facility after him (Bob Dole Human Development Center) due to his vast work in aiding Americans with disabilities. In 2001, along with former President Clinton, Dole began the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund, a scholarship fund designed to assist students whose families had been directly effected by terrorism. In 2003, President George W. Bush appointed Dole as the Honorary Co-Chair of the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation.

Clearly, just missing the presidency isn't a career killer and Dole has proven that with old age comes wisdom, not senility. Not to mention that this 83-year-old has enough energy and gumption to rise to the challenge of another presidency.

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