Victory Claimed, Candidates Campaign

Poll: Clinton Won Debate

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Oct. 7) -- President Bill Clinton and challenger Bob Dole headed back to the campaign trail Monday, each claiming victory in the previous night's debate.

But a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll taken immediately after the matchup found that 51 percent of the people surveyed thought Clinton did the better job, compared to 32 percent for Dole.

Complete poll results

Clinton's schedule for Monday had him in three New England states -- Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine. Dole was to campaign for two days in New Jersey before heading to the Midwest later in the week.

"When the story is written about this campaign, the record will show that we turned it around in Hartford," Dole told supporters after Sunday night's two-man face-off in Hartford, Conn.

Clinton told a post-debate rally, "I believe the American people tonight got an accurate picture of the differences in this election and the stakes of this election."

The two will meet again Oct. 16 in San Diego, Calif., in another one-on-one encounter. As in the first debate, Reform Party candidate Ross Perot will be excluded.

During live CNN interviews on Monday morning, spokesmen for both candidates were upbeat about the results in Hartford. "We showed a substantial gain among young people and women," said Dole campaign spokesman Nelson Warfield, who said the campaign had taken its own post-debate poll.

What to expect at next debate


Mike McCurry	Nelson Warfield
Clinton's best moment	Dole casts a new image
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Dole's highlights	Clinton's advantage
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Warfield said the goal at the San Diego debate would be to "show the warmth, compassion and human side of Bob Dole that sometimes has been lost in this unprecedented barrage of negative advertising from the Clinton campaign."

White House press secretary Mike McCurry acknowledged that Dole was "engaging and humorous ... but this is about giving Americans a compelling vision of the future ... On that question, the president did a lot better than Senator Dole."

In San Diego, Clinton "will talk a lot about education," McCurry said. "That is the key that unlocks a stronger economy." There is a "clear difference between the two candidates .... in their view of education, how important it is and how you invest in education."

Other poll results

The CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll also found that nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of those surveyed said Dole did better than they expected.

The results came from 615 people who watched the debate and said they were likely to vote in the Nov. 5 election. The poll had a 4 percent margin of error.

Seventy-five percent of those surveyed said Perot's absence didn't matter. Asked if they were "better off" than in 1992 when Clinton was elected, about half (52 percent) said yes, while about one-third (34 percent) said no.

Victory Claimed, Candidates Campaign

Poll: Clinton Won Debate

Complete poll results

What to expect at next debate

Mike McCurry

Nelson Warfield

Other poll results

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