While both attended Ivy League schools, Ridge earned scholarships to attend Harvard and worked summers as a construction worker to make tuition.

Unlike Bush's less-than-stellar record at Yale, Ridge earned honors in government here and was known as a serious student. Ridge was also highly decorated in Vietnam, while Bush served in the Texas National Guard, far from military action.

Bush will choose his running-mate sometime before late July's Republican convention in Philadelphia.

Though his name has been mentioned the most often of those angling for Bush's vice presidential spot, party conservatives have declared Ridge an unacceptable choice.

The two most influential organs of Republican opinion, the neo-conservative Weekly Standard and the traditionalist National Review, have prominently fronted articles labeling Ridge, in effect, a liberal Democrat in liberal Republican's clothing.

The National Review's writers have written that Ridge would alienate conservative Catholics. They note that, because of Ridge's avowed pro-choice positions, his own bishop refuses to let him attend church functions. Ridge's problem is that of John F. Kennedy's '40 in reverse--he is not Catholic enough.

But presidential campaigns move in cycles. Come July, the dynamics of Republican politics could well have changed.

So almost no one, including party conservatives, has written off Ridge's chances.