To be here, each had promised to raise at least $35,000 for Al Gore's Presidential quest.

Mr. Gephardt suspended his Presidential quest last month.

Mr. Bush's reception was a testament to the potency of his Presidential quest and underscored a new pragmatism among religious conservatives.

"He had to face that hard fact," Edward Elson, an Atlanta businessman who was the Governor's chief fund-raiser, said Thursday in analyzing the aborted Presidential quest.

The moment sounded reveille for Dole supporters, while his rivals could probably hear taps for the Republicans' narrow front-runner in his Presidential quest.

Patrick J. Buchanan put aside a lifetime of Republican fervor today and shifted his lagging Presidential quest to a run for the Reform Party nomination.

Gov. Bill Clinton has received a remarkable $2.2 million in donations for his Presidential quest from Arkansas, nearly a dollar for every person in the state.

"I'm in a pretty good mood," Mr. Buchanan said, preparing to retool his chronic Presidential quest.

After abandoning his Presidential quest in 1992, Mr. Wilder annoyed party officials by waiting until the nominating convention to endorse Mr. Clinton, a fellow Southern governor.

The suit was unsuccessful, but it tied up the money for a time and served to remind companies that extending credit to Mr. Hart's Presidential quests might be unwise.