Dole, though he won the nomination, believes his campaign never fully recovered. Forbes and campaign manager Bill Dal Col insist the private calls didn't spook them. Rather, they were waiting for a political opening, which came when Bush announced his plan to reduce taxes a few weeks ago. The ad features Mary Williams, who runs an anti-tax group in Texas. She says Bush broke his pledge not to propose increases in sales or business taxes.
Nobody wants to be thought ill of.
Any campaign can take down any candidate now in two weeks, as long as you're willing not to win. What Dal Col suggested, in other words, was that there's a potential backlash from airing strongly negative ads. This is exactly what callers from Bush's orbit had warned Forbes. Bush aides don't claim credit for delaying attacks by Forbes. But they suspect they helped.