Former President Bill Clinton will be in town Friday, presenting the first Dole lecture at the Dole Institute of Politics.

What he’ll say is anybody’s guess.

“We’ve asked, but his people aren’t releasing anything,” said Jonathan Earle, an assistant history professor at Kansas University who was helping coordinate Clinton’s visit. “A lot of that, I think, is because (Clinton) works on them right until the moment he goes on stage. That’s his reputation, anyway.”

Earle said he had been assured the lecture’s content would be “brand new” and pertinent to the Dole Institute.

“We’ve had a lot of calls from his people, asking about Senator Dole, the institute and what’s going on in Kansas,” Earle said.

Dole will introduce Clinton when he speaks at 2:15 p.m. Friday at Allen Fieldhouse.

Friendly rivals

Once fierce rivals — Dole ran against Clinton for the presidency in 1996 — the two have become good friends in recent years.

Clinton presented Dole with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1997.

Once political rivals, former Sen. Bob Dole, right, and President Clinton have become good friends since both left office. Clinton on Friday will deliver the first Dole Lecture at Kansas University -- home to the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics.

Since leaving office in 2001, Clinton has worked closely with Dole on several projects, including the World War II Memorial that will be dedicated May 29 in Washington, D.C. They also co-chaired a fund-raising campaign for the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund, raising $100 million for the family members of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Millions have seen the former president and former Senate majority leader spar on CBS’ “60 Minutes.”

Through a spokeswoman, Clinton provided the Journal-World with a statement on his friendship with Dole:

“Bob Dole has been my opponent and my friend, and I’m grateful to him for so many reasons. I enjoyed working with him as President and we continue to work together on various projects, the most rewarding of which has been the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund to help families affected by 9-11. He has lived an incredible life of service, and I am honored to deliver the Dole Institute Inaugural Lecture next week.”

Clinton and Dole didn’t always see eye to eye.

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“They’ve certainly had their share of fights over the years,” said Joe Unekis, a political science professor at Kansas State University. “The fact that they’ve become friends, I think, shows that, as Dole once said, ‘You can’t run all your life.’ In politics, there comes a time to accept each other’s differences and see each other as colleagues.”

For some, the Dole-Clinton friendship is a much-welcomed addition to today’s political landscape.

“This is an era of extreme political polarization, particularly in Congress,” said James Pfiffner, a professor of public policy at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., who studies presidencies. “So for the American public to see someone like Dole and Clinton making these cross-party gestures is very much a positive.”

It’s also a testament to the rapidly disappearing art of deal-making, said George Edwards III, distinguished professor of political science at the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University.

“Dole was a deal-maker,” Edwards said. “He was a strong conservative, but he knew how to get things done. He got people to come to the table.

“Clinton was a deal-maker, too,” he said. “But he had little success in reaching out because political circumstances changed when the Newt Gingrich-type Republicans gained a majority in 1994, bringing with them a take-no-prisoners, make-no-compromise approach.”

In many ways, Edwards said, Dole was the get-it-done politician that Clinton — with or without Monica Lewinsky — was kept from becoming.

But Clinton, unlike Dole, proved especially adept at connecting with the electorate, Edwards said.

“He was able to win the election against an incumbent president. That is not insignificant,” Edwards said of Clinton’s 1992 victory over George H.W. Bush. “Not only that, he won re-election, making him the only Democrat to win re-election since Franklin Roosevelt. Truman chose not to run. Kennedy didn’t for obvious reasons. Johnson dropped out, and Carter wasn’t re-elected.”

Cardboard signs

Clinton certainly connected with Drew Thomas, one of four KU students who spent 40 hours outside the Lied Center last week waiting for tickets to the Clinton lecture. Friday, KU officials announced they were moving Clinton’s speech to Allen Fieldhouse to accommodate the large crowd of people anxious to see the former president.

“I’m 21,” Thomas said. “The whole time I was growing up, Clinton was president. I can remember being in fifth grade and making these cardboard ‘Vote Clinton/Gore’ signs that I put on my bicycle and rode to school.

“My parents still say I cried the night George Bush — the first one — won,” said Thomas, who’s from Hays. “But I don’t remember that.”

A political science and international studies major, Thomas said history would be kind to Clinton.

“Look at Nixon,” Thomas said. “Since his death, his whole image has been reworked. It comes with time.”

Al Terry, 54, drove all the way from St. Paul, Minn., to score a ticket, waiting in line 19 hours.

“I’ve lived through the assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King and the whole Vietnam War thing,” he said. “In my opinion, Bill Clinton is the only president since JFK who helped the common man. Carter wanted to, but he didn’t have the team or the ability.”

Kate Shipley, a 19-year-old KU student, waited in line 11 hours.

“People always say to take advantage of the college experience, so here I am,” said Shipley, who’s from Olathe, a city not known for being kind to Democrats.

“Yeah, my dad’ll be mad if he finds out I’m here,” she said, laughing.