Bob Dole issued a challenge Tuesday to late-night talk show hosts David Letterman and Jay Leno, who have made a lot of jokes about his age lately: try keeping up with him on the campaign trail.
"I'd like to have both of them follow me around," the Republican presidential candidate told ABC affiliate KERO in Bakersfield, Calif., when asked about the age jokes."I've been on both their programs, they're both very good, both very funny. If they would just get on board the plane, stay with us for a week, they wouldn't be able to do the night shows," he said.
Dole, 72, was on the second day of a three-day California campaign trip, and he demonstrated the mettle he would put up against the younger men. The day began with a ham-and-eggs breakfast at a San Jose firehouse and proceeded through five more campaign events in three cities before ending in Newport Beach at around 9:30 p.m.
On the way to his hotel at the end of the day, Dole had his motorcade make one last unscheduled stop, at the Fashion Island mall.
"Where's the pizza place," he asked a startled Brooks Brothers clerk as he swept through the men's clothing store, then he headed off to sign hundreds of autographs and pose for pictures with surprised shoppers.
He brought his traveling circus of aides and journalists into the California Pizza Kitchen, where he sat down at the counter for a chicken barbecue pizza and chatted up his neighbors, then went out to seek a few more crowds before calling it a night.