Clinton, Dole Begin Final Push

TAMPA, Florida (AllPolitics, November 3) -- Bob Dole and Bill Clinton hit their respective campaign trails early Sunday to begin the final 48-hour push to Election Day. The Republican challenger made a pre-dawn trip to a Las Vegas casino, while the Democratic incumbent addressed an African-American church in Tampa.

"You know we are divided deep among ourselves," Clinton said at St. Paul's African Methodist Episcopal Church. "We have to decide if we want to build a bridge on shifting sands or on common ground."

Clinton touted his administration's advances in the civil rights arena, but said the job was far from finished.

"We have work to do," the President said. "And our best work is still ahead."(221K/20 sec. WAV sound)

The church choir kept spirits lifted while Clinton left the pulpit and made his way out the door. He was scheduled to meet with St. Petersburg Mayor David Fischer about the shooting death of an 18-year-old African-American by two white police officers. The incident touched off rioting and prompted calls for an outside investigation.

Clinton began his day in Florida, a state George Bush won in a close race four years ago but considered a better possibility for Clinton this year. Clinton was set to barnstorm his way up the East Coast, with stops in New Jersey and Maine along the way, and end up in Manchester, New Hampshire, Sunday evening.

Dole, in the middle of an 11-state, 96-hour blitz designed to jolt new life into his campaign, predicted a come-from-behind victory on Tuesday.

"We're going to go around the clock," Dole told a cheering crowd in the ballroom of the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas in the early hours Sunday. "We can feel the momentum building and it's building all across America."

Earlier, Dole donned a black bomber jacket for a airport rally in Omaha, Nebraska, telling the crown that Clinton is "not a bad fella, but it's time to go back to Arkansas."

Dole left Omaha for stops in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Grand Junction, Colorado, before arriving in Las Vegas.

Throughout the last few weeks of the campaign, Dole has continued to hammer the president on ethical questions, as he has in every campaign stop. But Dole's allegations of misconduct in the White House have done little to shake the president's lead in the race.

Dole arrived in San Diego Sunday morning, where he is expected to continue his push for California's 54 electoral votes. The three-day marathon is set to end Tuesday at the Independence, Missouri, home town of former President Harry S. Truman. Truman's dramatic, come-from-behind win over Thomas Dewey in 1948 is the stuff of legend -- one that Dole makes frequent reference to on the campaign trail.

Dole will cast his own ballot in his home town, Russell, Kansas, later Tuesday.

Stumping in suburban Detroit, Michigan, on Saturday, Reform Party presidential candidate Ross Perot again lashed out at Clinton's policies and ethics.

Perot called on women to be offended by what he calls Clinton's attempt to buy their votes.

Calling Clinton the "free candy bar boy," Perot said: "Every day it's another goodie for girls." He cited small business loans for women and a new law that requires insurance companies to pay for 48 hours of hospital care for new mothers.

Perot told a couple of hundred supporters that "the worst thing a man can do to offend a women is to try and buy her."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Dole Barrels Through Six States - Nov. 2, 1996

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Clinton, Dole Begin Final Push

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