Couldn't find the meaning in the dictionary

(1) In his decade of so of public service he had watched the presidency up close and could make a case that he was, in the words of the nascent Bush campaign, " A President We Won't Have to Train"- a jab at Jimmy Carter, who was seen by Republicans as a presidential novice, and a nod to concerns about whether Ronald Reagan, nearing seventy and seemingly extream in his views, was up to the challenges of the Oval Office.

(2) The George H. W. Bush who was planning to offer himself to the country for 1980 was very much the Geroge H. W. Bush who had grown up and come of age in a political world shaped more by a commitment to service than by a contest of ideas.

Questions : (1) What does the word 'nod' mean? (2) Was it omitted the word 'alike' in the sentence (2)? , or if not ,what does the whole sentence mean?