I'd argue that sort of in between that of the Senate Republican coalition, you sort of probably had that of Bob Dole in a unique position in terms of that. Dole was similar to that of Ford in terms of economic issues (if I recall in reading while he worked on trying to balance the budget as Senate Majority Leader, he got constantly annoyed at Reagan for blowing the deficit up when they were trying to lower taxes and cut spending), but he arguably did fit in among some of the more Democrats on the left in terms of certain things in terms of social welfare (for example he was a strong supporter of food stamps and with McGovern got the McGovern-Dole Food Stamp Act which got rid of the Extended Purchase Requirement, and in '88 did support the creation of a federal childcare program if I recall reading through something in there).
Dole was in a good position to tack just a bit further towards the middle and become the standard bearer for old line GOPers but his failures in 1980 and 1988 are indicative both of how hard it was for him to translate that into presidential politics (without, say, the effect of being Ford's VP in a second term