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Remembering the Future, Part III -- The General Election
By Doug Patton
September 10, 2001

Dateline: January 2009

Nine decades after American women won the right to vote, two female politicians faced each other for the presidency -- Sen. Hillary Clinton versus Vice President Elizabeth Dole. Mrs. Clinton had chosen Gray Davis as her running mate.

As Mrs. Dole considered her VP choice, she misread the tenuous state of the Republican Party. Thus, the explosion when she announced the name of New York Gov. George Pataki.

She made the announcement on Thursday. On Friday, over 7,000 Republicans in her home state of North Carolina switched their registration to Independent. Several other states saw similar shifts.

By the opening gavel of the convention on Monday, the party was in shambles. Delegates from sixteen states walked out as Pataki accepted his nomination. Three governors and two congressmen announced that they were leaving the GOP. Mrs. Dole limped away from the convention with the nomination of her party, the running mate of her choice, and poll numbers showing the Dole-Pataki ticket trailing the Clinton-Davis ticket by 17 points.

The following Monday, Dr. James Dobson hosted a meeting in Colorado Springs. Those in attendance included major conservative figures from the fields of politics, journalism, talk radio, and Christian evangelism. From Charles Colson to Alan Keyes, Phyllis Schlafly to Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan, Charlton Heston and a dozen others, they all had cleared their schedules for what their old friend Jim Dobson had described as "a crucial meeting."

Everyone sat transfixed as Dobson outlined a detailed plan for a serious third party challenge.

"Elizabeth Dole has set the tone for the future of the Republican Party," Dobson told the group, "but it's not as though this happened overnight. This is just the last straw. Ronald Reagan used to say that he didn't leave the Democratic Party, it left him. Well, I say this with great sadness, but after much prayer, I've concluded that the Republican Party has left us and it's not coming back."

They all knew that a major political shift comes but once in a century. In an amazing display of unity, the assembled group agreed upon the two individuals to carry their banner: Dr. Bill Bennett and Sen. Ron Paul.

Bennett's credentials were impeccable, and he was ready for this challenge. A former Secretary of Education, he had become increasingly alienated by the Republican Party's education and immigration policies, as well as its timidity on the life issue. As a PhD and best-selling author, he had just the stature to lead the ticket.

Paul was a Texan whose love of the Constitution had earned him a national following. A pro-life physician who had been the Libertarian Party's presidential nominee in 1984, he had served in the House as a Republican and was elected to the Senate upon the retirement of Phil Gramm in 2002.

The vehicle chosen was Howard Phillips' Constitution Party, which, by 2008, was on the ballots in all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia.

A volatile electorate, combined with the massive mailing lists of those at the meeting, made fundraising surprisingly easy. Within two weeks, nearly $17 million poured in from across the country.

The message went forth from pulpits, radio shows, newspaper columns, magazine editorials and, of course, the Internet, adding momentum to the snowballing movement.

By October 1st, one week before the first presidential debate, a USA Today/Gallup poll showed Clinton-Davis at 38 percent and Dole-Pataki at 30 percent. But the headlines told the real story: "Bennett-Paul at 18 percent; Undecided at 14."

The day after the first debate, newspapers across the country screamed the results of the latest CNN/New York Times poll. The always-articulate Bill Bennett had scored a slam-dunk against his opponents. The poll showed a shift to the Constitution Party ticket from both major parties and from the undecided column, leaving the figures at 37 for Clinton, 27 for Dole and 24 for Bennett, with 12 percent still undecided.

The debate between the three vice presidential candidates occurred on Oct 28th, one week before the election. The contrast of Ron Paul standing between the two liberals, Gray Davis and George Pataki, was striking. Paul said the two party system had become a one-party system, and quoted former GOP Sen. Malcolm Wallop's statement that if the Democrats proposed burning down the capitol building, the Republicans would counter with an amendment phasing it in over three years.

The next day, Vice President Dole issued a statement saying that the policies of her administration would reflect her views and values, not those of her running mate. Pataki dutifully concurred with the statement, but it was too little too late.

On Election Day, the GOP lay in ruins, a new American political party had been born and no president had been elected. The popular vote was split 38 percent for Clinton, 33 percent for Bennett and 29 percent for Dole. Clinton's 203 electoral votes fell far short of the number needed to assume the presidency.

The first order of business for the 111th Congress was to elect Richard Gephardt of Missouri as Speaker. The second item was to elect Hillary Rodham Clinton President of the United States.

It was a bittersweet day for America.

Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a speechwriter and policy advisor to federal, state and local candidates and elected officials. His work can be viewed weekly on GOPUSA.

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