The man who may become the next President of the United States carries his right arm seemingly permanently bent at the elbow. Gravely wounded as a young lieutenant in World War II, Bob Dole might very well have spent the rest of his life as an invalid in Russell, Kansas, if it hadn't been for his ferocious determination to rebuild his ravaged body. Dole keeps his arm bent on purpose, holding it up for hours at a time lest it dangle uselessly at his side. It is further evidence of what the doctor who treated him called his "faith to endure" - a faith that has taken Dole to the threshold of the White House.This insightful portrait from Richard Ben Cramer's epic What It Takes penetrates Dole's legendary reserve to decipher the riddle of his character and the vicissitudes of his career. We learn how Dole has managed to survive thirty-five years in the House and the Senate, carrying the ball for four Republican Presidents (including one who treated him shabbily and another whose policies he often questioned) while injecting a note of conscience into the conservative creed. Read Less