Kemp had a good heart, but he was not too good with common sense. He wanted the GOP to get in bed with Farrakhan. That would’ve been a fiasco.
Sen. Dole needed a younger, dynamic VP running mate. I think about it now and I’m not sure who would’ve truly fit the bill. Even at the time, I wasn’t sure who was the best person to choose. Had Gov. Pete Wilson been better as a pro-life candidate, he might’ve been a good pick. Except for Engler, Tommy Thompson and ex-Gov. Campbell, most of our Governors were not even 2 years into their terms, so that might’ve been too early to push them (a la Reagan in 1968). Maybe Phil Gramm for the “sex appeal.” ;-D
Phil Gramm was my candidate in 1996; he was both the most conservative candidate and the candidate that had raised the most money by December 1995. It was Gramm’s nomination to lose, and he promptly lost it, buying into a rogue Louisiana caucus cooked up by his supporters and boycotted by the other major candidates but of which Pat Buchanan was able to take advantage; Buchanan beat Gramm handily at the LA caucus, and then Gramm failed to finish in the top 3 in euther IA or NH, and he dropped out before the Super Tuesday contests that he had planned on being his coronation. In hindsight, given that Perot ran again and this time took votes almost exclusively from the GOP, it didn’t really matter whom we put up against Clinton. Had Perot not run, though, it would have been a very close race, with the winner being whoever carried .... wait for it ... Pennsylvania. In 2016, the Keystone State was more than just a nickname for PA, and it may well be that way again in 2020.