Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-10975360-20140613150705/@comment-32656-20140620152954

Dole was not only the Senate Majority Leader in 1996, but he was also still the 1996 candidate otl. The view of him as "too old" is based in Clinton's advertising in that year - very little basis in fact. Just not true.

Buchanan and Forbes did very well in the otl 1996 primaries - don't discount them so fast. In fact, they were the ones that did best in the early ones, and had the Republican "establishment" took longer to back Dole, one of them (realistically, Buchanan) may well have won. As it was, they got more than 30% of the votes between them.

The Repubs, even in the mid-1990s, were far more "right" than you think.

Yeah, W and Jeb out of the running.

Highly unfair to Lugar. Man's not actually "Bland." Would be a very good StateSec, though.

Quayle and Alexander, correct.

Again: Republican electorate too conservative for Powell to win the nomination. Him being the most likely to win the general election matters little. Need only look at the last cycle, and Huntsman getting screwed, for proof of that.

Was also to some degree considered to be Dole's "turn" at being the candidate. Don't be so quick to discount that.

Wilson, no way. Would not help all that much anywhere, and Reagan too recent.

Gingrich would not do it - loss of power, in his mind. Remember reading that he said something like that at the time.

Kemp, possible, though unlikely. Be a good VP choice though.

McCain, by some accounts, seemed to have no interest in running in 1996. He was on the final VP selection list otl, though. Carroll A. Campbell and Connie Mack were also considered (Mack was considered in 2000 as well) They would all be good choices for that.

Alexander would be an excellent VP pick too.

In your overall context for 1996, look for guys that did not run otl if you don't want Dole. But Powell isn't going to work. He would not win the nomination, and even if by some miracle he did, someone further "right" - probably Buchanan - would run a third-party bid, torpedoing the Repubs.

Donald Rumsfeld formed an exploration committee otl, and apparently, Cheney put serious thought into it too.

Alan Keyes would be an option as well.

Have a look at the list of "declined to run" for 1996, as well as the 2000 primaries, and that would be where you probably find the person.

Names for cabinet... Here is where you would find Powell, either for Defense or State. More likely Defense. McCain an option there too. Whitman, more likely the EPA. Kemp I see, if not VP, staying in some form. Could see Keyes in the mix for State. Maybe Gramm for treasury.