You are overplaying your hand to say he was “the top advisor” for Dole/Kemp. He was a senior economic advisor, because that was, and remains, his strong hand. From his Navy days forward he has been exceptionally good with numbers.
However, to my knowledge, He has never been in the oven on the life issue like he is now, and that is a lack of a particularly useful kind of political experience. Obviously, in his earlier runs, he never broke out of a relatively small fan base, so he never had to deal with being scrutinized on the full range of issues a President is expected to handle. Now he is getting that exposure, and if he is who I think he is, he will put together a good half-time adjustment and come out roaring in the second half. Time will tell, but I am cautiously optimistic.
He also served as the national co-chair for the Steve Forbes campaign in 2000. Forbes just endorsed Rick Perry; apparently Steve Forbes doesn’t agree with the Freepers here that Perry is done.