 What was something that Dole, Bauer, and McCain all have in common?
Like Dole, Bauer needed to crack the top tier and seal off the pack. Since sports analogies tend to cut off the top tier at three rather than four (e.g., "bronze medal," "win, place, and show"), Bauer changed metaphors, telling reporters that he had reached "the first rung of candidates" and that lower finishers might soon perish. Pundits concluded that Bauer "did what he had to do ... beat Pat Buchanan," and therefore "can legitimately say he is the candidate of the Christian right," establishing himself as "one of the winners," the "three or four" candidates who "got their tickets punched" to stay in the race.
 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