Dole Stresses Experience As Key To Election

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AllPolitics, March 18) -- An upbeat Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kan.) ended his tour through Tuesday primary states Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois by stressing the beltway-based budget battle. "We want a real balanced budget, Mr. President," the Senate Majority Leader said Sunday. "If we could just balance the budget."

Finally, A Message"I think when you choose the president of the United States you're going to choose somebody with experience. That's what the election of 1996 is all about," Dole told Lisle , Ill. supporters.

He portrayed conservative firebrand Pat Buchanan as a distant afterthought. "This race is between Bob Dole and Bill Clinton, make no mistake about it," Dole charged.

After spending the weekend trying to drum up enthusiasm among blue-collar voters, Buchanan himself conceded Dole is likely to win overwhelmingly in Tuesday's contests, which could put him within 100 delegates of the total 996 needed to clinch the GOP nomination. "I know that, for heaven's sake. I'm a realist," he said.

But don't expect a Dole-Buchanan rapproachment any time soon. "I've told my sister, my campaign manager, there are to be no feelers put out and none accepted," Buchanan told a radio interviewer this morning.

Moreover, Buchanan continued to keep the spectre of a third-party challenge alive. Dismissing Dole as "the bland leading the bland," the fiery pundit warned: "In the event of a Clinton-Dole race, that is an incredible vacuum in national politics."

Dole's strategy may be simply to ignore Buchanan and keep the focus on Clinton. "I would hope that after three years of broken promises you would elect someone who would keep their word," Dole told his Lisle audience. "And that's Bob Dole, right here," he said.

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