WILL LOVE FIND A WAY?

By RICHARD STENGEL/HARRISBURG

You can marry for love. You can marry for convenience. Or you can let others (who say they have your best interests at heart) arrange a marriage for you. In the traditional mating ritual known as selecting a Vice President, those are Bob Dole's choices--and also his dilemma. He'd like to marry for love, is being pushed by his party's right wing toward an arrangement, and may, as a result, opt for a marriage of political convenience.

Last week Dole went a-courting to Pennsylvania, where he auditioned Governor Tom Ridge for running mate. Dole is obviously fond of the earnest, 6-ft. 3-in., 50-year-old Vietnam vet who looks as if he is carved out of Pennsylvania oak. A blue-collar straight arrow who was decorated in Vietnam and wears a hearing aid (owing to a childhood ear infection aggravated by combat), Ridge amplifies Dole's own story and tells it better than the candidate. From a podium in Harrisburg, Dole even teased a blushing Ridge, "Who knows where his future might take him?" Two Republican Senators last week whispered that Dole had already popped the question.

But Ridge has a problem that is a deal breaker to other Dole allies: he's pro-choice. Several pro-life groups, including the National Right to Life Committee and the Christian Coalition, have privately polled delegates to the Republican National Convention and found that more than half are pro-life and that half of those delegates might be willing to draft a pro-life alternative if Dole selects a pro-choicer. Dole forces are not eager for a floor fight. The selection of pro-choice keynoter Susan Molinari made some Christian conservatives nervous. Now they would like to arrange a match with pro-lifers like Florida Senator Connie Mack (a newcomer to Dole's list, who hails from a state rich in electoral votes). "It's too bad," a top Dole aide said sotto voce last week. "Ridge is so good."

The other candidates on Dole's dance-card--all of whom are pro-life--are former South Carolina Governor Carroll Campbell (Dole would be repaying his primary debt and shoring up the sagging South); Michigan Governor John Engler (he helps in the Midwest, but his sloppy eagerness has not endeared him to Dole); Arizona Senator John McCain (who also tells the Dole tale better than Dole does). Pressured to choose a Christian Coalition-approved conservative he doesn't cotton to, Dole may fall back on his good (pro-life) friend, New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici, who makes up in comfort what he lacks in excitement.

Ridge played his part beautifully. He didn't hover around Dole or afflict the Silent One with small talk. And he introduced Dole with feeling. "What Bob Dole did on that battlefield in Europe shows his deep passion and belief for the people of this country," he told an audience in Harrisburg. If only the candidate could sing that song.

The line on Ridge from political types is that he has a great story, and he does. Born to working-class, Roman Catholic parents (his father sold meat and was a part-time shoe salesman), he grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania, and got a scholarship to Harvard, becoming one of the few Harvard grads to go to Vietnam as an enlisted man. A staff sergeant in Vietnam, he won a bronze star for valor in combat. He came home, married and prosecuted violent criminals as an assistant district attorney. He's Dole Jr.

One foggy morning in 1982, when Ridge was running for Congress for the first time, a small plane landed near Erie and out stepped Senator Bob Dole, who had come to campaign for him. Ridge has never forgotten the favor, and he endorsed Dole early, even while Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter was having his 15 minutes in the race. Ridge served 12 years in Washington, putting together a voting record that reflects an independent, even ornery streak: he voted for the assault-weapons ban in a state with a high rate of gun registration; and although he's pro-choice, he voted against abortion coverage in federal-employee insurance. As Governor, he has gone from being called One-Term Tom to Tom Terrific, partly by passing strong anticrime statutes and pushing through a back-to-work welfare-reform program. Even so, his approval rating hovers just below 50%, and a statewide poll last week showed Dole behind in the Keystone State by 24 points with no difference whether Ridge was on the ticket or not.

With that in mind, why would Dole risk a revolt from his party next month? Perhaps as a way to prove once and for all he's no captive of the Christian Conservatives? But that may be overthinking things. "Anybody who knows Bob Dole knows he makes his own decisions," says G.O.P. Indiana Senator Dan Coats. That's why his choice of a Vice President may say more about Dole than a parade of campaign promises he might not keep.

--With reporting by Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and Michael Duffy/Washington

The TIME/CNN Election '96 Website at allpolitics.com features political news and daily updates from the campaign trail

With reporting by JEFFREY H. BIRNBAUM AND MICHAEL DUFFY/WASHINGTON