Polls showed her beating Democratic Vice President Al Gore in a hypothetical matchup. Her latest poll showed her besting Gore 44 to 37 percent, according to Republican pollster Linda DiVall. But the polls also showed how far she would have to go to defeat Bush before she could hope to face Gore in a general election matchup. Her last national poll showed her in a distant second place, trailing Bush 58-12. It's a kind of Catch-22.
Inadequate funding limits the number of staff at headquarters and in key states.
It restricts your ability to communicate with voters. It places a ceiling on travel and travel staff. Over time, it becomes nearly impossible to sustain an effective campaign. Dole has been a cabinet secretary in two Republican administrations and president of the American Red Cross, but she had never run for elective office. Dole tapped into a network of professional women in her search for money, and managed to pull many into her campaign.