With one eye already turned toward a fall showdown with President Clinton, Bob Dole urged rivals Steve Forbes and Pat Buchanan on Monday to rethink their candidacies if they fare poorly in this week's "Super Tuesday" primaries.
Fielding questions from reporters in Florida, Dole, the faraway Republican front-runner, said he expected a big day Tuesday, when Texas, Florida and five other states divvy up 362 convention delegates. Dole leads everywhere and could end the day well past the halfway mark in the nomination chase."Then I would hope we can come together as a party and as a team," Dole said. "What I want to do is bring the party together and beat Bill Clinton."
Dole said he hadn't spoken to either rival about quitting but said if he has another big primary day, "obviously we will be looking for signals that might indicate a willingness to come aboard."
In the interest of unity, Dole passed up several opportunities to pick a fight with Buchanan, who has been scathingly critical of Dole.
Dole said he hadn't given a moment's thought to what role Buchanan might play at the August GOP convention, though he did say Buchanan's leverage depended on how many delegates he amassed. And Dole declined to comment on Buchanan's warning that anti-abortion voters would bolt the party if Dole selected Colin Powell or someone else who supports abortion rights as his running mate. Dole said he hadn't begun to think about running mates.
As Dole headed from Florida to Texas, Buchanan acknowledged he had little hopes of surprising the front-runner on "Super Tuesday."
"We may have a rough day Tuesday," Buchanan said. But he said he wasn't about to quit.
"We're going forward because I represent a cause and the people who are behind me want me to represent that cause in the Republican convention," Buchanan said. "We're going to San Diego to do battle for the things we believe in."
Forbes wasn't offering any predictions about Tuesday but promised to stay in the race whatever the results.
His top worry was trying to calm internal campaign turmoil caused by Jack Kemp, the former housing secretary who endorsed Forbes last week but began talking Sunday or brokering a deal with Dole that would get Forbes out of the race.
Suggesting Forbes might not be in the race much longer, Kemp said Sunday that, "I have a lot of friends in the Dole camp and maybe, if he asked me, at the right time, to help build a bridge to the party or to Dole, I could play that role."
Forbes on Monday repudiated Kemp's offer, saying his remarks were "totally out of bounds. Anyone who makes any remarks . . . is not speaking with my authority and is hereby totally, 100 percent repudiated."
Simple math explains the dilemma now facing Buchanan and Forbes: Dole has 392 of the 996 delegates needed to clinch nomination. Forbes is a distant second with 73 delegates and Buchanan third with 62.
With 362 more delegates at stake Tuesday, Dole is favored to win everywhere and pick up the bulk of them.