Dole was kicking and screaming up to the convention. He didn't finally give in until at the convention. By the end of the primary's he had the nomination cinched, as the convention of today is nothing more than a show for the faithful. So someone who did not embrace the prolife pland did make it to be nominated.
Kemp was a better candidate but Dole held all the strings in the GOP and got all the funding. He made sure we got another four years of Clinton with his campaigning as I sat the election out rather than vote for some big spending
GOP moron. Even if I had known how bad Clinton was in 96 I'm not sure I could have voted for Dole just on principle.
Let me assure you, it was people just like are posting on this thread who got us to that point.