WASHINGTON – Elizabeth Dole, who stumped for husband Bob in 1996 and wowed the GOP convention with an Oprah-like performance, said yesterday she might run for president.
“I’m giving it serious consideration,” Mrs. Dole, 62, told reporters after she announced she was quitting as head of the American Red Cross after almost eight years.
Pals predicted that Elizabeth Dole’s a sure bet for a 2000 run.
“Her actions say she is going to run. She wouldn’t be leaving [a job she loves] unless she was heading for a political future,” said Nelson Warfield, a top Bob Dole aide in 1996.
In the wake of Sexgate, “people are looking for a different type of candidate … She becomes an immediate top-tier candidate,” said pollster Linda DiVall.
Dole – known as Liddy – coyly told a crowd of Red Cross employees yesterday, “There may be another way for me to serve our country,” and she vowed to “pursue it with all my might.”
Pundits praised the 62-year-old with the Southern purr and drop-dead resume – a Harvard-trained lawyer and two-time Cabinet member – as a formidable contender. Recent polls show her placing second to Texas Gov. George W. Bush.
Liddy Dole, who was labor and transportation secretary under Presidents Reagan and Bush, is an anti-abortion conservative, but also has a reputation as compassionate and pragmatic.
In the 1996 campaign, Bob Dole turned the spotlight on his telegenic wife, who appeared solo in TV ads, posed as a leather-clad biker with Jay Leno, urged women to “take charge” of their lives, and roamed the convention floor with a hand-held mike as she spoke of “the man I love.”
That summer, Mrs. Dole predicted the next GOP presidential nominee would be a woman, and some delegates were spotted wearing “Elizabeth in 2000” buttons.