Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole said Saturday he could smell victory ahead of next week's Super Tuesday Republican presidential primaries, but he stopped short of predicting a seven-state sweep.
"I smell victory in the air," Dole told several hundred supporters at a rally at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. Later, asked if he expected to win all seven states, Dole said: "Oh, I don't know about that - can dream about it."On Tuesday, seven states will choose a total of 362 delegates to the Republican National Convention, the biggest day of the presidential primary season.
Dole hopes to extend his string of state primary victories, which ran to 10 after his victory Thursday in New York's primary. That win raised his delegate total to 382 of the 996 needed to capture the nomination, far ahead of millionaire publisher Steve Forbes and commentator Pat Buchanan, who had 73 and 64 delegates, respectively.
Dole spent Saturday campaigning in Oklahoma and Mississippi, which together provide 71 delegates. The biggest prizes on Tuesday are Texas, with 123 delegates, and Florida, with 98. Other states include Tennessee, with 38 delegates, Oregon with 23, and Louisiana with nine.
Dole was so sure of victory in Texas that he stayed away from a televised debate on Friday in Dallas with Buchanan, Forbes and longshot Alan Keyes. But neither he nor political experts thought his absence would hurt him. Dole was to campaign in the state on Sunday.
"Dole will win; he will win decisively and the juggernaut is on," said Rice University political scientist Bob Stein.
The latest Texas polls show Dole supported by 57 percent of the state's Republican voters, 39 points ahead of Buchanan. A victory of 50 percent or better in each of the state's congressional districts is needed to win all the delegates.
"I think it looks strong in Florida, and even stronger in Texas, and even stronger in Oklahoma," Dole said.
Buchanan stormed through rural Texas Saturday, pledging to continue the battle all the way to the convention.
Sporting a white Stetson at a rally in the small central Texas town of Fairfield, some 80 miles southeast of Dallas, Buchanan taunted and criticized Dole, accusing him of repeatedly voting for tax increases in Congress and of having no direction.
"Where are we going, Bob? Where are you going to take us if you win the nomination, Bob?" Buchanan said, calling Dole "the fugitive candidate" for opting out of the debate on Friday.