This comes from the page someone linked to in reply to a different question,
but seems apt nonetheless. I've decided to quote the entire portion that
seems relevant, excuse its length if you will...
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Of the others only Gandalf might be expected to master him - being an emissary
of the Powers and a creature of the same order, an immortal spirit taking a
visible physical form. In the ‘Mirror of Galadriel’, I 381, it appears that
Galadriel conceived of herself as capable of wielding the Ring and supplanting
the Dark Lord. If so, so also were the other guardians of the Three, especially
Elrond. But this is another matter. It was part of the essential deceit of the
Ring to fill minds with imaginations of supreme power. But this the Great had
well considered and had rejected, as is seen in Elrond’s words at the Council.
Galadriel’s rejection of the temptation was founded upon previous thought and
resolve. In any case Elrond or Galadriel would have proceeded in the policy now
adopted by Sauron: they would have built up an empire with great and absolutely
subservient generals and annies and engines of war, until they could challenge
Sauron and destroy him by force. Confrontation of Sauron alone, unaided, self
to self was not contemplated. One can imagine the scene in which Gandalf, say,
was placed in such a position. It would be a delicate balance. On one side the
true allegiance of the Ring to Sauron; on the other superior strength because
Sauron was not actually in possession, and perhaps also because he was weakened
by long corruption and expenditure of will in dominating inferiors. If Gandalf
proved the victor, the result would have been for Sauron the same as the
destruction of the Ring; for him it would have been destroyed, taken from him
for ever. But the Ring and all its works would have endured. It would have been
the master in the end.
Gandalf as Ring-Lord would have been far worse than Sauron. He
would have remained ‘righteous’, but self-righteous. He would have continued to
rule and order things for ‘good’, and the benefit of his subjects according to
his wisdom (which was and would have remained great).
[The draft ends here. In the margin Tolkien wrote: ‘Thus while Sauron
multiplied (illegible word] evil, he left “good” clearly distinguishable from
it. Gandalf would have made good detestable and seem
evil.’]