| rdfs:comment
| - With Clinton retiring and Vice-President Gore seeming vulnerable due to scandals and some voter fatigue after 12 years of Democratic control of the White House, a number of Republicans vied for the nomination. Among them were Senators Dan Quayle (Indiana), John McCain (Arizona), Orrin Hatch (Utah), and Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania), as well as Representative John Kasich of Ohio. The "star" candidate, however, was George W. Bush of Texas, the popular Governor of Texas and son of the last Republican to be elected President (George H. W. Bush in 1984). Bush had been presented as the consensus candidate of the caucus of Republican Governors in order to present an instant, well-funded front-runner and avoid the in-fighting that had dominated previous Republican primaries. Their plan worked very
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| abstract
| - With Clinton retiring and Vice-President Gore seeming vulnerable due to scandals and some voter fatigue after 12 years of Democratic control of the White House, a number of Republicans vied for the nomination. Among them were Senators Dan Quayle (Indiana), John McCain (Arizona), Orrin Hatch (Utah), and Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania), as well as Representative John Kasich of Ohio. The "star" candidate, however, was George W. Bush of Texas, the popular Governor of Texas and son of the last Republican to be elected President (George H. W. Bush in 1984). Bush had been presented as the consensus candidate of the caucus of Republican Governors in order to present an instant, well-funded front-runner and avoid the in-fighting that had dominated previous Republican primaries. Their plan worked very well, as Bush positioned himself as an "outsider" to a Washington establishment unpopular with the average voter due to President Clinton's infidelity scandals and the excessive partisan zeal exhibited by the Republican leadership in Congress. Soon, the "establishment" candidates (most of them Senators) coalesced around the figure of John McCain of Arizona, and from that point on it became a 2-man race. Following an extremely divisive and bitter contest, Bush bested McCain to capture the nomination. With the two top vote-getters seemingly irreconcilably estranged as a result of the primaries, Bush "followed his heart" and surprisingly selected Gary Bauer, a man tied with evangelist conservative circles.
* George W. Bush (nominee)
* John McCain
* Dan Quayle
* John Kasich
* Arlen Specter
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