And Now It's Her Turn

Dole could at least raise the money to pay for his mistakes; his wife lacks the network for raising $20 million in $1,000 increments. After she made her announcement, Republican National Committee phones lighted up in ways they haven't for months. But those donors were the $10 kind.

Dole has already proved that Bush's front-runner status is tortilla-thin. She is ahead of him in one poll of New Hampshire voters. But if she gets into the race, Liddy's biggest obstacle will be Liddy. Her custom-made pastel suits hide a porcelain performer who is scripted down to her laugh lines and paranoid about surprises. The programmed responses that are acceptable in a First Lady may not work for a candidate, who must see around corners and think fast in the clutch.

Though she delivered a flawless speech last Monday, her gears seized up when Katie Couric asked her the obvious question: Should Clinton be removed from office? And her announcement was rehearsed right down to her exit from the room. By prearrangement, she stopped on the way out to take a spontaneous question from a network correspondent--at a point where some duct tape had been carefully placed on the floor. "She hit her mark perfectly," a former aide said later. "That's discipline." And it's the only way she knows.