Ten Days To Go

Dole rolls through California, gets Giuliani endorsement

NEW YORK (AllPolitics, October 26) -- With ten days to go until voters cast their ballots, GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole might be a number of points behind President Bill Clinton in most tracking polls, but he's getting one vote that could've gone either way. Rudolph Giuliani, the mayor of New York City, endorsed Dole for President on Saturday.

The announcement was made at a La Guardia airport press conference before the sixth game of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. Dole's running mate Jack Kemp is attending the game.

"It's a great honor to have the suport of a good friend like Rudy," Kemp said in accepting the endorsement.

Giuliani angered Republicans a few years ago when he refused to endorse George Pataki, a Republican, for governor of New York, instead throwing his support behind incumbent Democrat Mario Cuomo, who was defeated.

The announcement put a "Back East" twist on a day of campaigning in California for Dole. The Dole motorcade made several stops, hitting the state's hot-button issues of illegal immigration and affirmative action, while making character attacks on Clinton.

In Selma, Dole kicked off a parade and pledged to end both affirmative action and health care for illegal immigrants.

"You come to America with AIDS, you're entitled to medical treatment. This is going to stop. Legal immigration is one thing -- illegal immigration is entirely something else," Dole said.

Dole continued his jabs at Clinton, poking fun at the president's expensive 1993 runway haircut outside Los Angeles to his lack of military service and the misappropriation of FBI files by the White House security office. Dole worked one crowd into a brief chant of "It's time to go!"

And for the first time in months, Dole targeted First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and the disappearance of her Whitewater-related papers after the death of White House counsel Vince Foster.

"How much of this has gone on, how long has it gone on? Why did these records show up in the living quarters that nobody can find? They don't know how they got there, they've been missing two years," Dole said. "Outrage after outrage after outrage."

Meanwhile, the Democratic president took a one-day break from vote-stumping to celebrate the birthday of Mrs. Clinton, who turned 49 Saturday.

In his weekly radio address taped Friday and broadcast Saturday, Clinton called on states to earmark some $44 million from a federal fund to help victims of gang violence. The victims' assistance fund has been bolstered recently by multi-million-dollar criminal fines paid by the Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Diana Bank.

"I'm challenging states to earmark 10 percent of the new resources from these huge new criminal fines ... to help victims of gang violence and to keep gang violence from spreading," the president said.

Clinton also touted his record in law-and-order issues, noting his police-backed gun-control initiatives and program to put more police officers on the street.

"We put in place an anti-crime strategy that is both tough and smart," he said. "Crime is coming down in every region in every category."

On Sunday, the president will campaign in Virginia, Tennessee and Missouri.

Earlier Saturday, Elizabeth Dole, in her own radio address, said her husband is the man who wants to be known as "the president who saved Medicare".

"Under Bob's plan, we will have lower taxes, a balanced budget and a Medicare program that is strong and more reliable," she said.

Bob Dole would appoint a bipartisan commission to "tackle the problem of Medicare," Elizabeth Dole said, adding that "Bob's word is his bond. When he makes a promise, you know it will be kept."

Meantime, in New York, Giuliani made his vote official.

"Their vision for the Republican Party -- and for America -- is one of inclusion, opportunity and optimism," Giuliani said. "I have no doubt....millions of other undecided voters will join me in pulling the Doll/Kemp lever."

When asked why he waited so long to endorse the Dole/Kemp ticket, he responded, "On the question of waiting so long, the fact is maybe I am like a lot of voters -- a lot of voters really make up their mind, now, 10, 12 days before an election. And I have made up my mind, I support them."

Reform Party candidate Ross Perot was in Ohio Saturday.

With less than two weeks to go before the November 5 election, the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup tracking poll showed little change in voter preference over the last week.

In a survey conducted October 24 and 25, 54 percent of voters favored Clinton, 34 percent favored Dole and 7 percent leaned toward Perot. A week ago, Clinton stood at 55 percent, Dole at 32 percent and Perot at 8 percent.

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