Gore-Dole 2000! - Elizabeth Dole's ideology similar to Al Gore's - Brief Article

National Review, July 12, 1999 by Ramesh Ponnuru

A place for Mrs. D.

One day Elizabeth Dole is calling for more gun control, the next she's saying that a ban on abortion shouldn't even be discussed, the one after that she's being cooed over by Rosie O'Donnell. You half expect an endorsement from Barbra Streisand. This is not a promising strategy for winning the Republican presidential nomination. So the assumption that Mrs. Dole is really running to be George W. Bush's vice president has become a piece of cocktail-party wisdom among the Republican cognoscenti. But it might make more sense for her to be Al Gore's running mate.

No kidding. There's no doubt Mrs. Dole is running for president in earnest. It's easy to see why she thinks she has a shot: Her poll numbers are good, her qualifications are arguably as solid as those of the other candidates, and Gov. Bush is a mere mortal like the rest of us. But to say that she could win is not to say that it's likely.

Bush will be hard to beat. But Mrs. Dole is probably not improving her odds by running a few steps to his left. Her calculation seems to be that he isn't leaving much room to his right, and that even that space is crowded with candidates. But that's also where most of Bush's potential opponents among Republican activists and primary voters are, and she's a heavier hitter than most of the conservatives in the race. She should have tried her luck.

The main problem with the notion that Mrs. Dole is running to play second fiddle to Bush is that it's unlikely he would pick her. Every Republican presidential nominee since 1968 has tried to balance the ticket by reaching out to the part of the party that is suspicious of him; in Bush's case, that means he would gesture rightward. Nor would Mrs. Dole secure the electoral votes of a crucial state for the GOP.

She would bring some excitement to the ticket, both because she's a political celebrity and because she's a woman. That would tip the choice to her if the presidential nominee's campaign were flat-lining and looking for some oomph. Because Mrs. Dole's husband was in that situation in August 1996, he needed to pick a Republican rock star- really, only Colin Powell, Bill Bennett, or Jack Kemp would do. There's no reason to think that Gov. Bush will be in such a dire state in 2000.

So if Mrs. Dole is to run for national office in 2000, she just may have to do it on the Democratic ticket.

Running as a Democrat would return her to her roots-people forget that the first White House she worked for was Lyndon Johnson's. More important, the political tradition she represents-emphasizing efficient administration of government and the search for elite consensus-has a fine Republican pedigree but is now mainly found in the Democratic party. Her intense concern for safety is also typical of modern Democrats, as is the fact that she thinks it's sexist to speculate that she's running for veep (something people say about Republican dark horse John Kasich all the time).

These days, Democrats would be more likely than Republicans to respond favorably to Mrs. Dole's 1984 statement that the drinking age could be raised to 24. Most Republicans, even the most self-consciously compassionate ones, would not join her in regarding the main purpose of government as "to make a difference to the plight of people in need." At the same time, the rise of the New Democrats has erased the image of the Democratic party as culturally radical and hostile to business, making it more hospitable to the likes of Mrs. Dole.

Al Gore, the probable Democratic nominee, would have several reasons to pick her as his running mate. Republicans might not need Mrs. Dole's star power, but if the polls at the time that Gore makes his decision are anything like they are today, he very well might. That power would be magnified by the shock value of putting a prominent Republican on the ticket, and a female one at that.

Her mere presence on the slate would help Gore make his case against today's Republican party. That party, he could say, has rejected millions of moderate women such as Mrs. Dole: The far Right rejected her in the Republican primaries and then blackballed her as a vice- presidential nominee at the Republican convention (which will be over by the time Gore makes his pick). The Democratic party, Gore could continue, is ready to welcome the women Republicans have abandoned.

Mrs. Dole might even tempt a few of the evangelical conservatives, with whom she has a strong rapport, to vote for Gore. Democrat and Republican, moderate liberal and moderate conservative, man and woman: It's a consultant's dream ticket. Gore should think about ordering some "Gore-Dole 2000" buttons before the Democratic convention.

And here's one more thing the vice president should consider: Mrs. Dole would make him look warm and spontaneous by comparison.