Local Republicans accepted Dick Cheney as George W. Bush’s running mate this morning, but many couldn’t hide their disappointment that Salisbury native Elizabeth Dole won’t be on the GOP ticket.

“Of course, everybody in Salisbury is disappointed we don’t have our favorite girl in that place,” Elinor Swaim said, “but we feel she’ll have some important position because she’s been such an asset to this campaign.

“She’s better qualified than anybody considered. I think they just didn’t want to repeat the same combination of names again.”

As for Cheney, Swaim said, “We think he’ll do well.”

Swaim and her husband, Bill, liked U.S. Rep. John Kasich of Ohio as their second choice for vice president behind Dole. Kasich reportedly was on Bush’s list of potential running mates, a list being assembled over this last few months by Cheney.

“We thought he was a great communicator,” Elinor Swaim said of Kasich.

Swaim said Cheney’s selection moves the GOP ticket to a bit more conservative position, something that might appeal to the far right of the party.

If Vice President Al Gore, the probable Democratic presidential nominee, chooses a running mate who leans more toward the left, Swaim said, voters will have a clearer choice. Republicans prefer that sharp distinction, Swaim said.

“It would be great if there’s a clear choice because of the vast number of independents we’re getting,” she added.

Norene Foster and Mary Messinger, both of Salisbury, will attend the Republican National Convention next week in Philadelphia as N.C. delegates. Both wanted Bush to choose Dole as his running mate.

“If she’s not vice president, she certainly will play a major role in Bush’s cabinet,” Messinger said Monday.

Messinger’s second choice for a Bush running mate was former Sen. John Danforth, R-Mo., an Episcopal minister.

“His record is pure as the driven snow, and we need some really good, honest statesmen up there,” Messinger said.

Foster, chairman of the Rowan Republican Party, also co-chaired a North Carolina petition drive urging Bush to select Dole as his running mate. She said she had especially looked forward to the convention, hoping Dole might secure the vice presidential spot.

But Dole apparently never made Bush’s short list of favorites.

Jim Cohen, a former Rowan County commissioner and a 1998 Republican candidate for Congress, described Cheney as “conservative, dull and loyal.”

“Bush has picked somebody that certainly is not going to upstage him as a partner,” Cohen said. “He’s a safe pick.”

Cohen said a subsidiary of Cheney’s company, Halliburton of Dallas, profits from U.S. troops being in the Balkans. If Bush wins in November, Cohen warns, U.S. troops will have a long stay in that region.

Cohen said the former defense secretary also will have a hard time “restraining himself from sticking his nose all over the world.” He fears that Cheney would have the United States involved in too many regional conflicts.

“Cheney always has been a little bit of a warmonger,” Cohen added.

Cohen would have preferred conservatives Alan Keyes or Gary Bauer as running mates for Bush. He acknowledged that he’s probably leaning toward voting for Pat Buchanan for president in November.

As vice presidential choices go, Cohen added, “Neither Bush nor Gore had a lot to pick from.”