I agree that Dole was much weaker politically than was Clinton. Had the Republican Party considered the 1996 election winnable, then some stronger candidate such as Bush the Younger or Rumsfeld would have run. The only possible way I could see Dole winning was that Clinton is caught in some outrageous scandal shortly before the election (and neither resigns nor is murdered by his wife - in those cases, I think Gore would still receive the votes!
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Dole would probably have been a competent President in 1997, but I doubt that he would have run for re-election - the job is just too strenuous, and he was showing his age long before the election campaign. If the Dole economy was well managed, however, we might have seen Jack Kemp elected President in 2000!
Dole on terror? My first guess is that he would have gone military in the same way as has Bush the Younger. Given the response of the terrorists, this could have developed into an earlier "hot" War on Terror, including possible actions in the Middle East and in South Asia. Might be interesting to speculate on an action against Iran rather than Iraq.
In this timeline, Dole probably never makes the "little blue pill" commericials.
