The favorite of the Clinton White House in the Republican presidential race was not Pat Buchanan, despite the harm he’s done Bob Dole. Nope, they believe Steve Forbes had a much bigger and more deleterious impact on the race.
How so? Well, Forbes froze out any other alternative to Dole such as Lamar Alexander by siphoning off votes. The Clinton camp loved this. And they were delighted with those Forbes ads trashing Dole. “Forbes hurt him,” says a Clinton aide. Also, Forbes managed to take the fiat tax off the table for the fall campaign. Clintonites feared it might click, but Forbes’s advocacy of it led to sharp attacks and sinking popularity for the fiat tax. Now, Dole has run away from it.
