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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 1992)
S“jr*pu. News digest Candidates take tightening race to heartland Clinton again battles ‘buyer’s remorse’ WASHINGTON — When it hap pened before, Bill Clinton said buyer’s remorse was eroding his lead — but he made the sale anyhow. In a replay against President Bush, the odds point to the same outcome. Bush has been gaining but still trails in the public opinion polls he’s called cra/y, with weekend surveys giving Clinton leads that range from nearly 9 percentage points to as few as 3. Those polls also show Ross Perot’s independent support running in the teens, a share that almost certainly will hold the winner short of a popular vote majority. But when there’s a significant vote for a third candidate, as in 1968 and 1980, it actually has widened the winner’s margin in electoral votes, the statc-by-statc competition that settles presidential elections. The narrowing poll margins near election eve fit the pattern of presi dential preference surveys in the final days of a campaign, especially one in which an incumbent president is strug gling for a second term. And Bush remains in electoral vote peril even with his gains in the na tional polls. The Republicans effec tively wrote off states with 145 elec toral votes, more than half the 270 it takes to win, earlier in the campaign. That left Bush competing in states with 393 electoral votes, and means he’s got to win more than two-thirds of them. To do that, he will have to capture every battleground state — including some in which the polls show him well behind — while de fending GOP territory without a single slip. > Republican National Committee Chairman Rich Bond insisted on Sun day that it is manageable. “I think you go to your basic coa lition of your South and your West and you add on Ohio, New Jersey, Michigan, and that gets you to 270,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” But even that southern and western coalition isn’t reliably solid this time. And Bush also would have to carry states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Missouri to gain an electoral majority. Brown said the Democrats always expected the polling margins to nar row near the end. He said Clinton’s margin has started edging up again, and “it probably is a five- or six- or seven-point race now.” Rivals make closing economic arguments WASHINGTON — For Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, the campaign sea son ended much the way it began — in a struggle to keep the spotlight on the nation’s economic destiny. President Bush’s thematic odys sey took him from last winter’s “Mes sage: I care” loclosing arguments that Clintdn had run down Arkansas, would raise everyone’s taxes and did not have the integrity to sit in the Oval Office. * Clinton’s Victnam-cra draft his tory was the cornerstone of Bush’s attempt to raise doubts about his suit . ability for the White House. But Bush had his own problems on the trust issue — including a late-breaking in dictment of former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger that challenged Bush’s claims he was “out of the loop” on the Iran-Contra arms-for hostages deal. The president also was challenged on his no-new-taxes pledge. He still branded Clinton as an old-fashioned tax-and-spend Democrat— a line of attack that drew many Republicans belatedly back to the fold. “Watch your wallets,” Bush warned audience after audience. It was an aggressive appeal against Clinton, who was trying to break out of his party’s liberal stereotype. He was, he said, “a different kind of Democrat” — who supported the death penally and a two-year cap on welfare; who was “committed not to trickle-down economics and not to tax-and-spend economics” but to in vesting in jobs, education and infra structure. “He has done everything a Demo-, crat needs to do in terms of trying to reposition himself. We’ll see whether the public believes it,” said analyst Stuart Rothenbcrg. The finale featured TV ads that amounted to statistical duels over Clinton’s long Arkansas record and Bush’s stewardship of the national economy. In speeches they accused each other of deception and waffling and broken promises. Clinton called Bush’s economic record worse than Herbert Hoover’s and, at 46, depicted himself as the logical candidate of change in a ydar when voters seemed intent on clean ing house. But Bush, 6S, despite his lengthy government resume,'wasn’t ceding that ground. “Who do you trust to make change?” he asjeed frequently, and insisted Clinton would make the economy worse. Bill Clinton and George Bush battled across the nation’s recession scarred heartland on Sunday, the front running Democrat summoning sup porters to “fight on” for two more days and the president attacking his rival as “Slick Willie,” unfit to lead. Ross Perot was campaigning in California and unveiled a new 30 minute television commercial that attacked both his rivals as failures on economic leadership. The daily CNN-USA Today na tionwide poll showed Clinton with a seven-point edge over Bush — up from three points on Saturday — and Perot a distant third. There was more encouragement for the Democrats in a spate of single state surveys that gave Clinton a com fortable edge in Missouri, a key battle ground, and showed Bush with unex pectedly slender leads in traditional base Republican states such as Indi ana, South Carolina and Virginia. Bush’s rhetoric grew sharper as the poll tidings grew dimmer. “Slick Willie,” he said of his rival in Auburn Hills, Mich. “He is bobbing and weaving and you can’t do that as president.” Clinton, struggling to regain his voice after a string of long days, said the election was a choice between “those who say things arc fine and . those of us who believe we can do better.” Far more than the White House was at stake in a year of unbridled voter anger at incumbents of both parties, as evidenced by the 14 states with congressional term limitation measures on the ballot. Republicans all but conceded Democrats would renew their majori ties in the Senate and the House on Tuesday, although an unusually large number of races appeared close in the final two days of the campaign. Thcslatcs where Clinton and Bush wcrccampaigning in the final 48 hours of their race bore the scars of the - it I’d say the economy is getting better. Don’t listen to those who say we’re in a recession. Look at the character issue, look at the trust issue. — Bush -ff - recent recession: Unemployment in Michigan was 8.8 percent in Septem ber; New Jersey 9 percent; Ohio 7.1 percent; Pennsylvania 7.6 percent; Connecticut 6.9 percent. Bush has frequently attributed his political difficulties this year to the economy, and says economic growth has resumed after the recession, al though slowly. Asked in a CNN inter view what he would say to those who supported him in 1988 but now seem in Clinton’s column, he replied: “I’d say the economy is getting better. Don’t listen to those who say we’re in a recession. Look at the character issue. Look at the trust is sue.” He said Clinton’s brand of eco nomics would produce a replica of the Jimmy Carter years: “Interest rates up at 21 percent, inflation at 15.... He would not be good for the country.” Clinton partook of three vital American institutions: church, pro fessional football and politics on the final Sunday of his candidacy. His voice nearly gone, Clinton lim ited himself to a few words at a tail gate parly in the parking lot outside Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium. “Fight on. Don’t give up. Go.” Said Hillary Clinton, his stand-in: “This campaign has been about c hang ing this economy, giving back good jobs to decent, hardworking Ameri cans again and bringing this country together,” she said. Shuttle mission ends in Florida CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Columbia swooped through a clear sky and landed at NASA’s spaceport Sunday with six astronauts who re leased a laser-reflecting satellite and tested a robotic eye during their 10 day journey. “Beautiful ending to a great mis sion,” Kevin Chilton, an astronaut inside Mission Control, told the crew. Columbia landed on the concrete runway at Kennedy Space Center at 9:05 a.m. EST. Just before noscwhccl touchdown, the astronauts released a red, white and blue drag chute that slowed the shuttle as it rolled to a stop. It was a fine morning for a landing. There were only a few wispy clouds and, contrary to earlier forecasts, barely any fog. More than 300 people were on hand to welcome Columbia home. Columbia traveled 4.1 million miles during its voyage, which began Oct. 22, and circled Earth 159 times. It was the 51 si shuttle mission and the 13th flight of NASA’s oldest shuttle. A quick inspection showed the shuttle to be in good shape, said N AS A launch director Bob Sicck. Ground controllers had to scramble when shuttle commander James Wcthcrbcc reported during descent the failure of a mechanical gauge that displays the positions of the rudder, body flaps and other flight control surfaces. Mission Control told him to turn the power off and on, which got the gauge working but only for a few minutes. NASA spokesman Jeff Carr said it appeared to be a power problem and that the crew was able to monitor the information on computer screens. The five U.S. astronauts and one Canadian completed their primary orbital job — releasing the Laser Gcodynamics Satellite — early in the mission. They released the satellite on Oct. 23, and an attached rocket quickly boosted the craft into a 3,632 milc-high orbit. ? ■■ /> MALI I 5 American nuns slain in Liberia MONROVIA, Liberia — Five American nuns were shot lo death behind rebel lines, Monrovia’s arch bishop said Saturday. A spokesman for the rebels denied they were re sponsible. Roman Catholic Archbishop Michael Francis refused l(j>pcculalc about who killed the nuns, all from Illinoisandinihcir50sor6()s,butsaid in an interview they had been “bru tally murdered.” Two were killed along a road and the other three were slain in front of their convent outside Monrovia, Francis said, adding that he did not know when they died. The nuns, mem bers of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ order, had been missing for more than a week. The Vatican newspaper L’Osscrvatorc Romanocallcd the kill ings a “massacre.” Meanwhile, the battle for Monrovia raged. Two jets of a seven-nation West African force defending the city screamed over the city and headed behind rebel lines, where they have been strafing roads to cut the rebels’ supply route. Clouds of smoke from West Afri can shells rose from Gardncrsvillc, where the American nuns’ hcxJics still lay on the street. It was loo dangerous to recover them. The chief suspects in the slayings were the undisciplined fighters of guerrilla leader Charles Taylor, who have besieged Monrovia for 14 days. Barbara Brillant, from Brunswick, Maine, who is one of three remaining American nuns in Liberia, said Taylor’s fighters “see the CIA behind every while face.” All the slain nuns were white. x In Washington, the Stale Depart ment called the killings a “cowardly act” and said the nuns were appar ently slain several days ago in an area under rebel control. The United States holds Taylor’s forces responsible for the safely of foreign nationals in territory they hold, the State Department said. John Richardson, a spokesman lor Taylor, denied the rebels killed the nuns. “I can assure you those nuns were never in our area,’ he told the British Broadcasting Corp. Bush derides Iran-Contra probe WASHINGTON—President Bush refused to say Sunday whether he’d fire Iran-Contra prosecutor Lawrence Walsh after Election Day, but ac cused him of engaging in “a big witch hunt.” Bush went on the attack against Walsh as Democrat Edmund S. Muskic, a member of the bipartisan panel that investigated the Iran-Contra affair, raised new questions about the president’s role in the arms-for-hos tage dealings. Muskic said Bush’s “claims of ig norance” about arms sales to Iran by the Reagan White House “conflict directly” with the latest revelation in the affair—a note by former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger saying that Bush knew of the arms-for-hos lagcs scheme on Jan. 7, 1986. Bush has said he didn’t realize the Reagan White House was trading arms for hostages until mid-December 1986. After the arms deal became public, Bush requested an interview with Muskic and the other two members of the prcsidcntially appointed board, John Tower and Bush’s current na tional security adviser, Brent Scowcrofl. TheTower Board’saccountofthat interview is at the Reagan library in California and won’t become public until 1994. “Nothingemerged from that meet ing to suggest that the Vice President was well aware of or significantly involved in the Iranian arms trans fers,” Muskic said in a statement is sued by Democrat Bill Clinton’scam paign. “In short, Vice President Bush pre sented himself then as President Bush likes to characterize his role now—as being ‘outof the loop,’’’said Muskic’s statement, issued Saturday night. “But President Bush’s repeated claims of ignorance about the arms for-hostages deal now conflictdircctly with the personal notes” by Weinberger of the Jan. 7,1986 meet ing, Muskie’s statement added. Scowcroft has steadfastly defended his boss in recent days. He character ized as “political” Walsh’s decision to include information about Bush in the new indictment of Weinberger. “They arc rehashing the same old stuff, there is no new information,” said Scowcroft. For the first lime, Bush was asked Sunday whether he would fire Walsh, whose $32 million probe began in December 1986. “I am not going to discuss what I’ll do about that,’’Bush replied in an in tcrvicwonCNN. Bul“I think il’sbccn a big witch hunt out there when you sec a decent man like Cap Weinberger going through all kinds of hell.” Mary Belcher, a spokeswoman for Walsh s office, said she could not respond to the accusation because the Weinberger case is pending. Weinberger faces trial Jan. 5. Federal law says Walsh may be removed “only by the personal action of the attorney general and only for good cause.”Good cause isdefined as an act that “substantially impairs” the performance of his duties. T Nebraskan —-- Editor Chrl* Hoplen*perger 472- 1766 Managing Editor Kris Karnopp Assoc. News Editors Adaana Lahln Assoc News Editor/ Wendy. Navrat II Writing Coach Editonal Page Editor Dionne Searcey Wire Editor Alan Phelps Copy Desk Editor Kara Wells Sports Editor John Adkisson Arts & Entertain Shannon Uehllng ment Editor Diversions Editor Mark Baldridge Photo Chief William Lauer Publications Board Chairman Tom Massey 486-8761 Professional Adviser Don Walton 473- 7301 FAX NUMBER 472-1761 The Daily NebraskanfUSPS 144 080) is published by the UNL Publications Board, Nebraska Union 34.1400 R St.. Lincoln, NE Monday through Friday dunng the academic year; weekly during summer sessions Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by phoning 472-1763 between 9 a m. and 5 pm. 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