ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607150127
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CAROLYN BARTA DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Sen. Jesse Helms recently told fellow North Carolina Republicans that when he is asked his choice for Bob Dole's running mate, he responds: ``What's wrong with a Dole-Dole ticket?''
During the 1992 presidential campaign, Bill Clinton told voters that his candidacy was a ``two-for-one'' bargain.
Both presidential candidates have power wives. So prominent are the two women that they were invited to participate in what could have been the first first-lady wannabe debate in Ohio. While Hillary Rodham Clinton mulled the invitation, Elizabeth Dole declined. ``We're not the candidates,'' she said.
But they are the No. 1 stand-ins for their candidate husbands. And, forgetting for the moment the partisan difference, the two have striking similarities.
Both are hard-driving professional women. Associates describe them as ``bright,'' even ``brilliant.'' Both are articulate public speakers. Both have had a controversial role in their family's finances.
One is a Republican-turned-Democrat; the other a Democrat who became Republican. Both were president of their college classes and are Ivy League-educated lawyers.
``I actually see more similarities than not, because of their practical and professional experience,'' said first lady historian Carl Sferrazza Anthony, although ``the details of their views on issues may be different.''
``Both women are used to being included and indeed expect to be included in strategy and planning of the campaigns. That's a marked difference from years past,'' Anthony said.
It has been said that either woman could have been a presidential candidate. Betsey Wright, Clinton's longtime chief of staff in Arkansas, was disappointed when the Clintons married, according to the biography ``Hillary.''
``She has been absolutely critical to Bill's success, but, then, I had images in my mind that she could be the first woman president,'' Wright said.
Dole has joked about her own political future.
In 1984, speaking before Capitol Hill journalists at the annual Gridiron Dinner, Bob Dole stated that under no circumstances would ``Dole'' be a candidate for president in 1984. Elizabeth jumped to her feet. ``Speak for yourself, sweetheart,'' she recounts in their joint autobiography, ``The Doles: Unlimited Partners.''
Despite their likenesses, the two women have markedly different styles, which were noticeable early.
According to biographies, Hillary Rodham relished intellectual competition with male schoolmates, and was uninterested in clothes and makeup. In high school, she was voted most likely to succeed and predicted to become a nun, known as ``Sister Frigidaire.''
She had few romantic interests before meeting Bill Clinton in the Yale law library and marrying him in 1975. In her husband's 1982 ``comeback campaign'' for governor, however, she underwent a makeover and finally shed her maiden name.
Elizabeth Hanford was May Queen and a fashion-conscious sorority woman at Duke University, besides being Phi Beta Kappa. She later became known as ``Sugar Lips'' for her ability to sweet-talk members of Congress.
Experts say Dole hides her strength behind a Southern belle demeanor. As University of Texas professor Lewis Gould notes, she has been called a ``steel magnolia.''
(EDITORS: NEXT 9 GRAFS OPTIONAL TRIM)
Her friends dismiss the idea that she and Clinton are similar.
``Oh, no,'' said Nancy McKenzie of Rowan County, N.C., while waiting for Dole's speech at the GOP state convention in Winston-Salem, N.C.
``Liddy is a lady,'' she said, using Dole's childhood nickname.
Acquaintances of Clinton bristle at the inference that she's not. ``Mrs. Clinton is a first-class lady,'' said state Rep. Charlotte Schexnayder of Dumas, Ark., who worked with her on education issues.
Tilly Fowler, a Republican congresswoman from Florida and longtime friend of Dole, thinks Dole carries a far more impressive resume. Dole is on leave as president of the world's largest humanitarian organization, the American Red Cross.
``I don't see any similarities at all, other than that both have law degrees,'' she said.
Clinton's supporters say she has had a far more difficult role, as aggressive feminist, first wife, policymaker and mother.
``Being a professional, a mom, taking an active role in what her husband's doing, sets her apart,'' said Paul Hoffman, Texas organizer for the Hillary Rodham Clinton Fan Club.
The Clintons' daughter, Chelsea, is 16. Bob Dole's daughter, Robin, 41, was grown when he married Elizabeth, who was a federal trade commissioner, in 1975.
(END OPTIONAL TRIM)
And, while Dole is known for her charm, friends of Clinton say she likewise can be warm and charming.
Yet, people are polarized about Clinton. They either love her or detest her.
Clinton's fan club has 127 chapters nationwide with 20,000 members, said Hoffman, a Terrell insurance man.
But a poll published last month in USA Today showed Clinton's detractors match her fans - 47 percent registered an unfavorable opinion of her. A Washington Post spring poll showed three times as many people like as dislike Dole.
Why is the first lady such a political lightning rod?
``I can't understand it, unless it's some kind of latent macho-ism, a tool to get at the president,'' said Liz Carpenter, former press aide to Lady Bird Johnson.
Clinton also has come under fire for her role in the Whitewater real estate deal, including the missing billing records from her Arkansas law firm that mysteriously reappeared in the White House family quarters.
And she has been accused of playing an improper role in the firing of White House travel office personnel, replacing them with Arkansas political loyalists.
But Dole's financial investments have come under media scrutiny as well.
Since she married, her personal fortune has grown from $200,000 to more than $2 million, including inheritance, speaking honoraria and investments, according to news magazines.
The New Yorker magazine has written about investments made on her behalf by David Owen, Bob Dole's chief Kansas fund-raiser who wound up in federal prison on income-tax fraud charges. She also is co-owner of a building with a former aide to her husband who received a minority set-aside contract.
Dole has declined to talk about her investments, saying only that they were in a ``blind trust.''
Strategists describe similar roles for the two wives in the campaign - energizing the party faithful and appealing to female voters.
Dole is trying to close a large gender gap, because polls show women voters prefer Clinton. Clinton wants to make sure women who stayed home in 1994 turn out.
Asked on a PBS ``NewsHour with Jim Lehrer'' if she would take on a high-profile issue in a second term, Clinton said, ``I like working with the president. We have a lot of fun when he asks me to do something, so I anticipate that in the second term I'll continue to be part of trying to help.''
Dole said she intends to go back to her $200,000-a-year job as Red Cross president, just across the street from the White House.
According to Roy Clason, Dole's longtime friend and Red Cross colleague, ``She views the Red Cross as a mission field. The humanitarian nature of the work complements her personal faith.''
But it's fraught with conflict questions. Dole has been criticized for traveling to Red Cross speeches on planes owned by Dole campaign donors. And the federal government regulates Red Cross blood programs.
Conflict questions aside, first-lady expert Lewis Gould said Dole would be offering a ``radical departure, a sweeping innovation or change in the role of first lady'' by working outside the White House.
Despite differing interpretations of the role of the first lady by the two women who would serve, even Hoffman of the Hillary Rodham Clinton Fan Club sees a parallel between them.
``To be honest with you, I think they are a lot alike. Either way,'' he said, ``we'll have a strong first lady.''
LENGTH: Long : 152 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Hillary Clinton< Elizabeth Dole (headshots) color.by CNB