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With the debates behind them, President Bill Clinton and GOP nominee Bob Dole made up for lost time this week, and hit most of the nation's political battlegrounds.

Dole was the top road warrior this week, visiting 13 states that represent 217 of the 270 Electoral College votes he needs to win the White House. He took in every state Clinton hit and seven more.

Clinton's Week

Clinton chased dollars and stumped for Democratic Senate candidates this week. At the same time, he plunged deep into the South in an attempt to pick the GOP's supposed Electoral College lock on the region.

The president kept quiet over the weekend. He headed out to Ohio and Michigan on Monday, where Clinton sidestepped Dole's criticism of Democratic fund-raising tactics and instead chose to push his education plans.

In Detroit on Tuesday, Clinton gave an object lesson in the kind of politics that's been frustrating Dole all season long: He set the day's news agenda by calling for the expansion of NATO. It was very presidential, even though the speech was at a political event, and the timing and location were designed to give maximum boost to Clinton's standing with those Americans who hail from the Eastern European countries that might be among the next to join NATO.

Clinton jetted to Miami Tuesday to begin his Southern swing. The president has a slim lead in Florida, and he hopes to be the first Democrat to win the state since Jimmy Carter did in 1976.

Clinton was happy to let Dole's courting of Reform Party nominee Ross Perot dominate the headlines Wednesday. Meanwhile, he engaged in what his aides called an "in your face" Southern strategy designed to rattle Dole in what should be his own back yard.

After leaving Florida Wednesday, Clinton headed back to Washington overnight, then jetted to Alabama and Louisiana on Thursday and Georgia on Friday.

Each of these states could go either way for Clinton, and they're the states from which Democratic senators Howell Heflin (Ala.), J. Bennett Johnston (La.) and Sam Nunn (Ga.) all retired this year. Democrats must win the tight races in those states if they are to have much hope of regaining control of the Senate.

Here's how political analysts Charles Cook and Stuart Rothenberg rate the states Clinton visited this week:

	Electoral votes	Cook	Rothenberg
Alabama Florida Georgia Louisiana Michigan Ohio	9 25 13 9 18 21	lean Rep toss-up toss-up lean Dem lean Dem lean Dem	solid Dole toss-up toss-up lean Clinton lean Clinton lean Clinton

Dole's Week

GOP nominee Bob Dole hit three of the country's four corners this week, beginning in the Middle Atlantic and New England over the weekend, heading through the Midwest to the southeastern corner in the middle of the week, and skipping through Texas to end up in California at the end of the week.

In New Hampshire on Sunday, Dole established his message of the week: clean up campaign finance. He hit Clinton hard on questionable contributions from Indonesian citizens and Buddhist monks.

Unfortunately for Dole, his message wasn't heard much. Dole stood by the sidelines on Tuesday as President Bill Clinton announced his intention to expand NATO by 1999. Dole supports the expansion, and the best he could do to get a piece of the issue was to knock the president for moving too slowly.

After The Los Angeles Times delivered Dole bad news on Wednesday -- its poll shows him down 20 points in his new campaign priority, California -- Dole all but handed the spotlight to Reform Party nominee Ross Perot for the day. Dole dispatched campaign manager Scott Reed to Dallas to try to get the Texan to quit his presidential run. Perot firmly rebuffed his offer Thursday, calling it "weird."

Dole raised the volume of his rhetoric in Alabama and Texas on Thursday and Friday, attacking the media's coverage of his campaign and asking, "Is there no honor in this administration or in this White House?"

Here's how Charles Cook and Stuart Rothenberg rate the states Dole visited this week:

	Electoral votes	Cook	Rothenberg
Alabama Arizona California Delaware Florida Georgia Kentucky Louisiana Michigan New Hampshire Ohio Texas Virginia	9 8 54 3 25 13 8 9 18 4 21 32 13	lean Rep lean Dem likely Dem lean Dem toss-up toss-up toss-up lean Dem lean Dem lean Dem lean Dem lean Rep toss-up	solid Dole lean Clinton solid Clinton lean Clinton toss-up toss-up toss-up lean Clinton lean Clinton solid Clinton lean Clinton solid Dole toss-up

Tracking The Candidates

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