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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 20, 1992)
r ■ * ■ ■! fc •* By The Associated Press Edited by Alan Phelps Climactic debate sends race off to final lap LAST LANSING, Mich. — In a jousting,, climactic campaign debate Monday night, President Bush pre dicted Bill Clinton would “sock it to the middle class” if elected president. Clinton pledged, point-blank, that he would not raise taxes on the middle class to pay for his initiatives. Fifteen days from the election, the exchanges were fast, furious and pointed. At one point Bush sug gested Clinton’s home-state of Ar kansas is “the low est of the low,” drawing a quick and passionate defense from the five-term Democratic governor. Ross Perot, the third man oh the debate stage, stressed his non politician’s background in pledging to work on economic problems. He said he was spending S60 million of his own fortune on his independent bid for the White House. It was the last in a series of debates that began with Clinton ahead in the race for the White House and ended with Bush still searching for a break through, and Perot for a miracle. There were no obvious gaffes of the type that could doom a campaign. Neither did any of the candidates dominate in a way that would suggest an overnight turnaround in the polls. The most recent surveys showed Clinton hovering slightly below 50 rnmmmmmmmm — — — — — — <% The Final Debate what they said "Is the guy who is out of work better off? Of course he's not But he's not going to be better off if we grow the government11 percent in a three-way race, Bush getting slightly more than a third of the vote,and Perot lagging far behind. Each man stripped his appeal to its essentials in brief closing remarks before the-audienccal Michigan State University. Clinton praised Perot for stressing the importance of the deficit, and paid tribute to Bush for his service to the nation. “1 wish him well,” he said of the president, “1 just believe it’s time for a change.” Bush said the election comes down to “who has the judgement and the experience, and yes, the character” to serve in the oval Office. “I need your support, I ask for your vote,” he said. "I believe we can do better if we have the courage to change." Bush played the role of the aggres sor throughout the 90-minutc debate, charging that on issues as diverse as free trade and the draft, Clinton had a pattern of “trying to have it all ways.” Clinton said that Abraham Lin coln, too, had once opposed a war. He said he could send Americans into battle if necessary to protect the nation’s interests, pointing out that Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt had done so w ithoul having served in uniform. The two men debated over issues as diverse as trade to auto efficiency standards to the banking systenrin the final 90-minute debate of the cam paign, butthc sharpest exchanges came over the economy and Bush’s attempt "What we need is people to stop talking and start doing it" to raise doubts about Clinton’s trust worthiness. Mocking Bush’s announcement that James A. Baker III would take command of domestic policy initia tives in a second Bush term, Clinton said that in his administration, the person “responsible for economic policy will be Bill Clinton.” Bush broke in swiftly: “That’s what worries me. He’s going to be respon sible.” He criticized Clinton’s record as governor of Arkansas. “We don’t want to be the lowest of the low. We don’t want to be a nation in decline. We arc a rising nation.” Bush was aggressive throughout the early going and Clinton wasclearly pul on the defensive, forced to re spond to the president’s attacks on “trickle-down government,” his record in Arkansas and his position on newgovernmcntregulations to tighten efficiency standards for automobiles. Clinton, ahead in the race for the White House and wary of aggressive attacks from Bush or Perot, said Bush advocates a policy of “trickle down economics” that has brought pain to the middle class. “I believe we can do better if we have the courage to change,” he said. Bush said that many Americans are better off than they were four years ago, despite the recession. He said lower interest rates were good news for those who recently refinanced their homes. He said the elderly were better off because Republicans had brought inflation under control. “Is the guy who is out of work better off? Of course he’s not,” said Bush. “But he’s not going to be better off if we grow the government.” Bush and Clinton alsoclashedover Clinton’s record of economic achieve ment in Arkansas. Bush rattled off a scries of statistics indicating that CJinton’s slate ranks near the bottom in a series of categories. Clinton countered with statistics of his own designed to prove that his record was enviable. Perot listened to theexchange, then swiftly labeled it irrelevant. He said just because someone can run a “smal 1 grocery store on the comer” doesn’t mean someone can run “Wal-Mart.” I I I I I I I I I I I Every' Tuesday I I 9 pm. I I 1823 "0" Street * NO COVER WOaB£ANlnnLLS GOLF COURSE Attention Students: Woodland Hills Golf dub irwites you to come apd experience one of Nehraskas I mosNcgnic golfpourses. Beginning tffiober 1 Wood 1 and Willy i s offering discount rates BMon.-Fri. to any student witn a valid I.D. In addition you may register to win i years wonh of free greet fees for 1993. Call 47:5-4653 for Tee Times ^/Information Cuban missile crisis details come to light LANGLEY, Va. — The CIA had 25 agents reporting from Cuba during the 1962 missile crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Intelligence analysts in Washington discounted their reports of seeing what looked like huge missile-like tubes, believing the Soviet military buildup in Cuba was purely defensive. “The record of intelligence is not, unblemished in this crisis,” Deputy CIA Director Adm. William O. Studcman said Monday during an unprecedented seminar at CIA head quarters. The compilation of documents in cludes notes taken by then-agency director John McCone during White House crisis meetings, estimates by the intelligence community, reports from Cuban agents, and memoranda coded Ironbark — meaning they were based on information from one of the most valuable Soviet spies of the Cold War, Col. Oleg Penkovsky. If the CIA could do it over, Studeman said, it would ppy more attention to the informants reporting sightings of Soviet missiles^ Cuba, and analyze better how the Soviets viewed deployment of missiles out side their borders. The documents and reminiscences highlight how the United Slates nearly missed the deployment of the SS-4 medium-range missiles in Cuba until it was almost too late. The deployment only became known when a U-2 spy plane photo graphed the launch pads on the west ern third of Cuba on Oct 14. Warren Frank, then with the agency’s foreign intelligence branch, said much of the Cuban agent report ing was collected in Miami at what* bccame the largest CIA station in the world. The 300-member station collected reports from some 25 agents on the island, interviewed Cuban refugees, and talked to emigres in regular touch with their families. One report declassified Monday was made Sept. 17, 1962 by a 47 year-old Cuban described as a busi nessman with four years of schooling and of average intelligence. The informant described driving out of Havana and observing a convoy of 16 trucks and eight trailers, seven of which were carrying “what looked like huge tubes extending over the entire length of the flatbed and com pletely covered with canvas.” The eighth was carrying what looked like a radar, he said. Lobbying pays for AIDS drug maker WASHINGTON — A biotech company’s effort to rush an experi mental AIDS vaccine to large-scale human trials was rebuffed by govern ment researchers, so it went the old fashioned way: it lobbied. It hired former Sen. Russell Long, one of Washington’s legendary powerbrokers who now is a lobbyist with a rare asset — access to the Senate floor. The result? Congress slipped S20 million into a S250 billion Pentagon spending bill for the coming year, earmarked for trials of the Connecti cut company’s developmental drug. But that move, which circ um vented the scientific process the government normally uses to allocate research dollars, created what some say is a dangerous precedent: Thatpoliticians, not doctors, can make life-and-dcath decisions about drug testing. “I don’t know how in good con science you can go to a patient and say, ‘We’re giving you this drug be cause a lobbyist chose it,’” said Dr. Bcmardinc Healy, director of the National Institutes of Health. -44 AIDS is the most politi cal disease I've ever dealt with, and this only further politicizes n. c — Silverman AIDS researcher -tt - Dr. Mcrvyn Silverman, president of the American Foundation for AIDS Research, said, “AIDS is the most political disease I’ve ever dealt with, and this only further politicizes it.” The provision in the defense ap propriations bill, already signed by President Bush, earmarks $20 million for large-scale clinical trials of the vaccine gpl60, a genetically engi neered version of a protein that sur rounds the virus that causes AIDS. The pioneer and leader in gp!60 research is MicroGencSys of Meriden, Conn j»The company is represented in Washington byJ/ong, a former Loui siana senator who chaired the tax writing finance committee for more than 15 years. . At least a dozen potential vaccines to prevent or treat AIDS are in devel opment. The MicroGcncSys product is one of about half a dozen such drugs now undergoing limited trials in hu man patients. Healy said Long had approached her agency and asked for spec ial treat ment for gpl60, to “pull it out of line” and give it expedited consideration. At one point, he sought to have the NIH brief senators on the relative merits of all the developmental vac cines. The agency declined. “This vaccine is not in a class by itself,” Healy said. “There are others that may be as good if not better.” When that failed, Long pursued what Healy called “a backdoor chan nel." He approached Sens. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., and John Warner, R-Va., the chairman and ranking Republican on the Armed ScrviccsCommiltee. They added the provision Sept. 18 on the Senate floor. There was no opposition and little debate. Nebraskan Tu _ „ w ' FAX NUMBER 472-1761 The DaHy NebraskantUSPS 144 080) is published by the UNL Publications Board, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St., Lincoln NE Monday through Friday during the academic year; weekly during summer sessions 7 Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by phoning 472-1763 between 9 a m. and 5 D.m. Monday through Friday, The public also has access to the Publications Board For information, contact Tom Massey 488-8761 Subscription price is $50 for one year 71 Postmaster. Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St .Lincoln, NE 68588-0448 Second-class Dostaoe paid at Lincoln, NE. ” ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT __1992 DAILY NEBRASKAN