WASHINGTON — The "Dump Dole" movement is underway.
It started last week when conservative columnist Cal Thomas shocked the political world by calling on Bob Dole to pull out of the race and throw next month's Republican convention open. "Such a course would be better than disaster," Thomas wrote, "and a growing number of conservatives around the country think disaster is the destination of the Dole candidacy."
He's right. No candidate has ever come from this far behind to win. Dole's ratings are going the wrong way--down six points since June. Tobacco may have claimed another victim.
Is there anything Dole can do to turn this around? Well, yes. He can get Colin L. Powell on the ticket. But that's not going to happen. Is there anything else Dole can do? No. No strategic maneuver, no campaign tactic, no brilliant choice of running mate, no eloquent acceptance speech, nothing. Dole gave it his best shot when he left the Senate. It was bold, it was widely applauded. And it didn't mean much. He's still 17 points behind.
Does that mean the election is over? No. A lot could happen to destroy public confidence in President Bill Clinton. A Whitewater indictment. A foreign-policy crisis. A stock-market crash. None of them is likely. But any one could happen. The point is, events like that are not under the control of the GOP campaign.
What has conservatives in a panic is not the prospect of Dole's losing. Many conservatives have already given up on him. Anti-abortion forces are planning to challenge even the weak tolerance language in the draft GOP platform. The National Rifle Assn. is threatening to withhold its endorsement because Dole no longer supports a repeal of the assault-weapons ban.
Conservatives are reacting with dismay to the line-up of "liberal" speakers on the first night of the convention: Powell, Gerald R. Ford, George Bush and Dole's choice for keynote speaker, pro-choice Rep. Susan Molinari (R-N.Y.). Not a movement conservative among them. Patrick J. Buchanan? Right now, there is no plan for him to speak at all.
What panics conservatives is that Dole's negative coattails may bring the whole party down. In Thomas' view, Republicans have to ask themselves, "whether it is worth losing everything that conservatives have worked for since Barry Goldwater just so Bob Dole can go down in flames, taking other Republicans with him."
