 What was something that Dole, Bauer, and McCain all have in common?
But Ames failed to resolve the fate of the candidates who came in third and fourth--Elizabeth Dole and Gary Bauer--and the one who skipped Ames, John McCain. Pundits bought the three-winners line, treating Ames as a horse race ("win, place, and show") and noting that "no one's ever won the Republican nomination without finishing in the top three" at Ames. Newspapers, cramped for space, confined their headlines to Bush, Forbes, and Dole. The Boston Globe called Dole "the winner of this contest-within-the-contest." Her spokesman told reporters that "on a dollar-per-vote basis, Elizabeth Dole trounced George Bush and Steve Forbes."
 They were all trying to justify their position in the primaries
 They were all trying to justify their position in the primaries  They were all trying to secure financial backing  They all had very small odds of winning overall  They all had things that were actively going against their personal record