From: Dead on Arrival - The Story of the Dole Presidency
Election fallout -
Politicians and pundits had of course already been decrying the possibility of a Dole Presidency. The public, by and large, had however taken a more wait and see approach to the situation. This changed when the House finally selected Dole and made him President-Elect.
The public reacted with anger at the obvious unfairness. Dole had finished third in the popular vote, with only 26.7% of the vote. A whopping 73.3% of the country had not voted for Dole. Dole had even finished third in the electoral vote as well. That fact that Dole was stuck with vice-president George Voinovich, a person he had not ran with, was a further irritant, but not one that the average vote cared that much about.
Dole's favorability ratings, already low, dropped even further. Many people begun to talk about Dole being a four-year lame duck. One Democratic Representative declared that the Dole Presidency was "dead on arrival," a phrase that was used to describe bills that had no chance of passing….
The election had left the Republicans in an unusual, perhaps unprecedented, situation. They had captured the Presidency after the four year Clinton interruption, and had held on to their majority in both houses of Congress. However, Dole's popularity was threatening historical lows even as he was being sworn in, and Congress's popularity was plummeting as well. Dole tried to reach out to Powell supporters by offering him the position of Secretary of State, but Powell declined. Many viewed this as the final nail in the coffin, dooming the Dole Presidency.
1997-1998 -
None of this changed the fact that the Republicans would hold the reigns of government for at least two years. There was little they could do however. Moderate Republicans often failed to toe the party line, especially in the Senate. It seemed safe to say that after a scant two-and a half years the Gingrich revolution was over. Therefore, not much new business was accomplished in Congress…
Perhaps the most interesting politics of the period were attempts to change the presidential election system. Most such proposals focused on taking Congress out of the picture in one way or another. The two most ambitious plans were likely the Popular Vote Method and the Electoral College Run-off Method. The Popular Vote Method would simply see the winner of the popular vote win the office. The Electoral College Run-off Method, in the event of no candidate winning a majority of the electoral vote, would see a run-off between the top two candidates. The run-off would be under the existing Electoral College rules.
Since any significant change to the election system would require a constitutional amendment, it is unsurprising that none of these plans came very close to being adopted. One attempt to bypass this need was the National Popular Vote State Compact. The NPVSC would see states agree to pledge their electors to the winner of the national popular vote. Since this would require agreement from a large number of states, this plan also proved impossible to implement…
