The Party had lost momentum after President Bill Clinton successfully co-opted the historically Republican issues of crime and welfare reform and portrayed Speaker Newt Gingrich as an extremist.

On the right, primary opponents Pat Buchanan and Alan Keyes withheld endorsements—Buchanan staged a rally for his supporters in nearby Escondido on the eve of the San Diego convention.

The long, bitter primary had also left the Dole campaign short of funds as a result of federal election spending limits in the months leading up to the convention.

Nearly all floor speeches were delivered by moderate or liberal Republicans, including the keynote address by New York Representative Susan Molinari, and Dole was nominated by fellow veteran and Arizona Senator John McCain.

Gingrich, who less than two years earlier had been a star of the party, was denied a prime time slot altogether, as was Buchanan, who had finished in second place for the nomination, with over 200 delegates.

Opinion polls taken shortly after the conclusion of the convention showed the Republicans with a significant "bump" of increased support.

However, this bump was extremely temporary, and they continued to trail the incumbent Clinton-Gore team; they went on to lose the election by almost nine points.

The San Diego Convention Center was far smaller than its predecessor venues, the Astrodome in Houston and the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, and its normal seating layout left several sections and skyboxes with obstructed views.

Ardent lobbying by Mayor Susan Golding, who some named as a potential candidate for U.S. Senate in 1998, and by Governor Wilson, himself to seek the 1996 presidential nomination, helped secure San Diego's selection in 1994.

The Convention Center was located on the waterfront, near a harbor frequented by thousands of small boats—upon one of which Dole and Kemp made their ceremonial arrival.

The convention was successful for San Diego, bringing positive publicity to the city and its revitalized waterfront and Gaslamp Quarter.

[9] "The Washington Post described Republican Party planning of the convention's prime time programming to be a "tightly packaged, carefully scripted format" and a "fast-paced program, replete with cutaways, taped segments and slick videos, in an effort to maximize air time for their partisan message.

[10][12][13] The Republican Party also purchased a half hour of morning broadcast time on USA Network on five days during the convention week.

Congressman from GA-06 (1979-1999) Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation (1983-1987) Wife of presidential nominee Bob Dole Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (1985-1988) Senator John McCain of Arizona gave the nominating speech for Dole during the roll call vote while Congressman Henry Bonilla of Texas and former Commodity Trading Futures Commission chair Wendy Lee Gramm gave seconding speeches.

Two further seconding speeches were delivered by two residents of Dole's hometown, Russell, Kansas to the convention via satellite-relayed video.

[17] Tonight, I stand before you tested by adversity, made sensitive by hardship, a fighter by principle, and the most optimistic man in America.

[28][29] Dole declared the Republican to be, "broad and inclusive," claiming that it represented, "many streams of opinion and many points of view".

[31] Dole issued negative characterizations of a varied array of groups and elements, including attacks on teachers unions, liberal judges, criminals, and government bureaucracies.

[31] Dole mentioned having talked on the phone that day with former president Ronald Reagan (who was absent from the convention due to his Alzheimers condition) and declared that he had promised that he would "win one more for the Gipper.

[31] John Marelius of the San Diego Union-Tribune characterized the speech as lacking either, "soaringly memorable language or a thematic spine."

However, he also opined that, by highlighting the issue of mutual trust government and the public, Dole articulated, "a rationale for his candidacy that had so often been missing on the campaign trail.

My fellow Americans I believe that in the years to come future generations will look back to this November, and say, "Here is where America earned a Badge of Honor.

This was an unusual staging for a convention speech that was likened to having optics resembling the format of an American daytime talk show.

U.S. Representative and Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference Susan Molinari delivered the convention's keynote address.

"[19][39] CNN described Molinari's speech, which frequently mentioned her 3-month-old daughter and the children of other individuals, as perhaps intending to help lessen the gender gap shown in polls of women voters favoring the Democratic ticket.

Former president George H. W. Bush, who been unseated in the previous 1992 election, delivered a speech on the convention's opening night.

Remember when you read today's national polls, Ford and Dole came from 30 points behind that August to win 49.9 percent of the actual ballots cast.

Bob Dole is a candidate most qualified by virtue of his beliefs, his character and competence to be the next President of the United States of America.

Powell's speech was largely a call for compassion and inclusion, and touched on his upbringing by parents who were black immigrants from Jamaica.

On the closing night of the convention, Stephen Fong, then-president of the San Francisco chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans, spoke at the dais as part of a series of speeches from "mainstreet Americans," but was not publicly identified as gay.