Last Call: Dole's Coming Veep
Gold, Victor
"Last Call: Dole's Coming Veep" by Victor Gold Dole's Coming Veep Republican presidential candidates, more than their Democratic counterparts, have a habit of surprising people with their choice of running...
...someone with strong conservative credentials, but whose grassroots, folksy flair gives him political appeal across the board-especially in the South and among younger voters...
...But they said the same thing about youknow-who in 198o and '84 (and we all know how much good that did them...
...That other Tennessean, Al Gore, gets a hole in his ozone layer just thinking about it...
...But there was nothing "stupid" about it...
...YET FAR FROM STUPID, DOLE'S SURPRISE choice will not only be shrewd but brilliant, one calculated to give him exactly what the Republican presidential candidate needs in a running mate: a vice-presidential candidate who, though politically savvy (and adept at handling the Washington press) is perceived as a political outsider...
...and finally someone who would be the Democratic vice-presidential candidate's worst nightmare as an opponent in a nationallytelevised debate...
...senator, William Knowland...
...and Quayle, for all his lack of national recognition, was a conservative favorite with strong credentials as a member of the Senate Armed Services committee...
...We're talking Dole-Thompson, of course...
...M 86 August 1996 • The American Spectator...
...The assumption in 1964 was that once he'd been nominated, Barry Goldwater would move to the middle by naming a "moderate" like Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton as vice-presidential nominee...
...someone with rising-star presence, one of the best extemporaneous speakers on today's political scene, televised or in person...
...But so was Nixon in 1952...
...Agnew provided geographical and political balance as the popular governor of a border state, who at one time had been a Rockefeller supporter...
...L A S T C A L L by Victor Gold Dole's Coming Veep Republican presidential candidates, more than their Democratic counterparts, have a habit of surprising people with their choice of running mates...
...At Miami Beach in 1968, Richard Nixon played it cute, calling a meeting of GOP potentates to "advise" him on his vice-presidential choice -though he'd already made up his mind on Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew...
...Eisenhower-Nixon wasn't what people (especially Earl Warren) had in mind...
...Finally, George Bush picked Dan Quayle at the GOP convention in New Orleans in 1988-a choice that caught everyone, including campaign manager James Baker, off guard...
...Even more important, Dole knows, respects, and likes the Tennessean...
...Otherwise, the Washington pundits, caught short again, will spend the first month of the campaign reassuring themselves and their readers that the choice was "stupid, stupid...
...Miller, from upstate New York, gave Goldwater geographical balance and a running mate experienced in Washington ways...
...But don't think Dole isn't aware of Fred Thompson's unique appeal as a new face and fresh voice in the Republican party...
...Yes, the Democrats are sure to say he's just a movie-actor who talks from cue cards...
...THOUGH SURPRISING, THE CHOICE OF EACH of these vice presidential candidates -Nixon, Miller, Agnew, and Quayle -made political sense in one way or another: Nixon gave Eisenhower a running mate the conservative wing of the party could live with...
...That it did, as Agnew learned the hard way...
...Yes, he's only a Senate freshman...
...Why then the controversy, the firestorms that followed their selection...
...No, not Tommy from Wisconsin, but Fred from Tennessee...
...A little suspense to liven up a dull convention, he later told friends...
...Dole-Thompson...
...Yes, his name hasn't been mentioned by Bob Dole's aides, on or off the record...
...When a rumor made the rounds in Chicago that Dwight Eisenhower would name a Californian as his running mate in 1952, everybody thought the choice would be Governor Earl Warren or the state's senior U.S...
...I recall no less a political authority than the late Theodore White, after hearing the news about Agnew at Miami Beach, shaking his head and telling all within hearing range, "Stupid, stupid...
...The only thing stupid was the presidential candidate's failure to recognize that media pundits -people paid for their aura of expertisedon't like being caught out on a limb with their predictions down...
...In 1980, Ronald Reagan was tempted to pull a surprise at Detroit by naming Gerald Ford as his running mate, but luck was with him: Ford backed off...
...Do that-make them appear no smarter than your neighborhood-bar oracle -and they'll protect their reputations by insisting they weren't wrong, the candidate's vicepresidential choice was...
...Which is why it's important that Bob Dole, before he springs his vice-presidential surprise (and a surprise it will be), drop a hint or two that the man (and it will be a man) is on his VP list...
...The idea of a dual presidency would have to await the Clintons in 1992...
...Goldwater stunned the convention-and the pundits-by picking Congressman William Miller, then chairman of the Republican National Committee...
Vol. 29 • August 1996 • No. 8
