See How They Run: A Good Woman Is Hard to Find

Nominating a woman for the Vice Presidency would, in the abstract, be very appealing to the Dole campaign. But the particular Republican women who are available all have significant drawbacks in terms of inexperience or views out of sync with the party base. Certainly none of them qualifies as a 10. In the worst case, picking a woman because of her sex would win few votes, while possibly creating a Betsy McGaughey Ross problem for Bob Dole. Mrs. Ross was untested but was chosen as New York’s lieutenant governor because—well, let’s let State GOP Chairman Bill Powers explain: “We wanted a skirt; that’s all she ever was to me.” Now she’s a loose cannon, a media spectacle, and a migraine for Gov. George Pataki.

New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman is the worst case. True, she’s quite popular among suburbanites in her state; and she would bring to the ticket a political adroitness that it so far lacks. But her selection would be taken by social conservatives as a declaration of war. Mrs. Whitman doesn’t just favor abortion rights; she goes out of her way to offend pro-lifers, declaring the anniversary of Roe v. Wade the state’s “Day of Choice” and supporting President Clinton’s veto of the ban on partialbirth abortions.

About the Author

Ramesh Ponnuru

Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review, a columnist for the Washington Post, and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

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Nominating a woman for the Vice Presidency would, in the abstract, be very appealing to the Dole campaign. But the particular Republican women who are available all have significant drawbacks in terms of inexperience or views out of sync with the party base. Certainly none of them qualifies as a 10. In the worst case, picking a woman because of her sex would win few votes, while possibly creating a Betsy McGaughey Ross problem for Bob Dole. Mrs. Ross was untested but was chosen as New York’s lieutenant governor because—well, let’s let State GOP Chairman Bill Powers explain: “We wanted a skirt; that’s all she ever was to me.” Now she’s a loose cannon, a media spectacle, and a migraine for Gov. George Pataki.

New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman is the worst case. True, she’s quite popular among suburbanites in her state; and she would bring to the ticket a political adroitness that it so far lacks. But her selection would be taken by social conservatives as a declaration of war. Mrs. Whitman doesn’t just favor abortion rights; she goes out of her way to offend pro-lifers, declaring the anniversary of Roe v. Wade the state’s “Day of Choice” and supporting President Clinton’s veto of the ban on partialbirth abortions.