Getting Personal?
Dole has suggested he will hit hard on character

Ready or Not
Clinton prepares his counters

The Invitation List
Third parties not welcome (Oct. 6)

The Format Fight
Clinton and Dole camps struggled to agree (Oct. 6)

What's At Stake?
What it means and what the candidates have to say

Second Debate. Last Chance?

Will Dole's tough talk save his campaign or will tonight's matchup pass quietly?

By Kathleen Hayden/AllPolitics

SAN DIEGO, Ca. (AllPolitics, Oct. 16) -- Less than three weeks before election day, the American public will have its last look at President Bill Clinton and his Republican challenger Bob Dole on equal footing. The two candidates will take the stage in San Diego Wednesday night for the second and last of the 1996 presidential debates.

Questions will be asked by 120 pre-selected audience members in tonight's town hall-style debate. The men and women invited are registered and undecided voters from San Diego County. Jim Lehrer of PBS, who moderated the first two debates, will randomly select topics and can hone or sharpen the questions.

Round one of Clinton v. Dole in Hartford was largely a civil issues-oriented debate that political experts hesitated to call a victory for either man, though opinion polls suggest the public gave Clinton the edge. The following vice presidential debate between Al Gore and Jack Kemp in St. Petersburg, Fla., was an equally high-minded affair, with Gore earning a decisive win from pundits and the public.

Still suffering from a double-digit lag behind Clinton, Dole has heard many advisers urge him to drop the niceties and attack the president on the so-called "character issue." In stump speeches over the last few days, the former senator has been getting progressively tougher on his opponent, previewing the areas that his campaign has decided to open for questioning.

Denying they're "going negative," the Dole camp says integrity and trust are legitimate campaign issues. The line they are walking is thin, however. Polls indicate that voters, particularly the key demographic plum of women, don't like candidates to attack each other personally, but want to hear about the issues.

Until now that is what they've gotten. Trouble is, nobody seems to be paying attention. Viewership for the first presidential and vice presidential debates was down significantly from 1992; in fact, polls also reveal that far fewer people are closely following this race than did the previous one.

So what's a candidate down in the polls with time running out to do?

G E T T I N G   P E R S O N A L ?

In his last public appearance before the San Diego debate Dole said: "Public ethics is a public trust, and when it is violated, the damage is done to our nation, and our institutions, and our idealism. Confronting it directly and forcefully is not a personal attack; it is a public duty." (160K WAV sound)

This speech seemed to indicate a new willingness from Dole to go after Clinton's character, the president's perceived Achille's heel. And the campaign's strategy seems to try to draw a distinction between "private character" and "public trust."

"I have never questioned anyone's private character and I will not start now," Dole said. "People are not perfect and public service does not require them to be. But there's a difference between private character and public ethics, because public ethics is a public trust."

The alleged violations that the Dole campaign considers within "public ethics," and therefore fair game, are numerous: investigations and firings of more than 30 Clinton officials; the hundreds of personal FBI files on Republicans colleced by the White House; possible pardons for former Clinton business partners convicted of Whitewater-related crimes; the firings of the White House Travel Office staff; refusals to turn over health care task force records; the use of Marine helicopters for staff golf outings; suppression of a report on the administration's drug policy; and, most recently, political contributions from a wealthy Indonesian family, which may be illegal.

There are two challenges that face Dole if he is to make these points in tonight's forum. The first is to do so without alienating voters. Dole's second challenge is tonight's town hall format. There is no guarantee that an audience member will ask a question that touches on the issue directly. That could force Dole to raise the issues himself, which might come across as snide and uncaring.

R E A D Y   O R   N O T

As Dole switches tactical tracks, the president insists he will focus on issues. Taking time off from debate preparations yesterday, Clinton told a group in New Mexico, "You know my view is, this country's better off than it was four years ago, and we've worked hard to make it so, and we've worked hard by concentrating on ideas and issues, not insults."

"We've spent very little time worrying about our opponents, and we spent a lot more time being concerned about the American people. I expect to do that tomorrow. The issues, ideas, not insults. And the American people can simply make up their own mind," Clinton said.

But aides say that the president will also be ready to respond to any ethical questions thrown during the debate.

On the Indonesian donations issue, senior administration officials say the president is prepared to answer any questions. Clinton, they say, will not deny his Riady family friendship but will explain that the donations the Democrats accepted were legal, and that the one which was found to be problematic was returned. He may even turn the tables and accuse Republicans of taking money from international companies through their U.S. subsidiaries.

As to Whitewater pardons, the president has received some help from Iran-Contra prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, who characterized Dole as hypocritical for demanding that Clinton rule out future Whitewater pardons. Walsh says Dole urged the pardon of a former Reagan cabinet officer for "crimes of constitutional dimension" related to the Iran-Contra affair.

Most Democratic strategists believe that, regardless of what happens, little is at stake for the president tonight. Clinton proved to be strong in the town hall debate in 1992, and these strategists believe the public has heard all of the Republicans' ethical accusations before. Democratic pollster Mark Mellman says: "He's great at people. That's his strength. But at the end of the day, all the president has to do is run out at the clock at this point."