News digest
Candidates confident at campaign trail’s end
Bill Clinton charged confidently
through a final, grueling day of cam
paigning on Monday, beckoning vot
ers to “embrace new ideas” after 12
years of Republican presidents.
George Bush predicted a poll-defying
upset and attacked his rival to the end
as “slippery when wet.”
Ross Perot pur
chased two hours of
clcction-cvc net
work advertising
and skewered both
his rivals as men
who “don’t know
how to create jobs,
r don’t know how to
manage money, don’t know howvto
build businesses.”
Democracy’s most sacred rite was
with the balance of the slates rated as
toss-ups.
The Arkansas governor tested the
limits of human endurance with his
last and longest day as a candidate —
29 hours ofcampaigning through nine
states before returning home to Little
Rock. Aboard his jet was his physi
cian, Dr. James Y. Suen, to offer
treatment for a cracking voice.
In uplifting, final night television
commercials, he said, “we can make
American work again.” And on his
final day of campaigning, he touted
his message ol change over and over.
Outside a diner in Philadelphia,
Clinton said the election was a “fight
between the comfort of the status quo
and the couragctocmbraccncw ideas.”
“We must have a new economic
already under way in Texas, where
polling places opened on Oct. 14.
Officials said more than one million
voters had already marked their bal
lots.
Nationwide, there were estimates
that the votes could total 100 million
on Tuesday, not only to pick a presi
dent, but 35 senators, a new House of
Representatives, a dozen governors,
and countless state and local leaders.
Clinton was the leader in all the
nationwide polls as the three rivals
reached for the finish line. A 50-state
survey by ABC said the Democrat
was either clearly ahead or leading in
states with 295 electoral votes, more
than the 270 needed for victory. Bush
was clearly ahead or leading in states
with 81 electoral votes in the survey,
policy,” he said later in Ohio. “No
more trickle down, not lax and spend,
but pul the American people first,
invest in our jobs, control our health
care costs, provide education to all
our people. And we can be the great
est country in the world forever.”
Clinton linked himself to America’s
heroes, idling supporters that when
they vole on Tuesday, they could
honor the ideas of Jefferson and Wash
ington, the sacrifice of Lincoln, the
optimism of the Roosevelts, and “the
commitment to the future of John
Kennedy.”
Bush set six stops to end his last
campaign.
White House chief of staff James
A. Baker III said there had been no
talk of defeat in the forward cabin of
Air Force One. He said Bush was
upbeat and added, “It’s very doable,
and we’re going to do it.”
He said his rival was “slippery
when wet,” trouble wailing to happen
oircconomic policy and the possessor
of a flawed character.
The Democrat, he said, “offers an
economic disaster for this country,”
and predicted anew that a Clinton
administration would lead to the high
interest rates and high inflation of the
last Democratic presidency under
Jimmy Carter. “We simply cannot go
back to those days.”
“And so in the final analysis, what
it boils down to is who has the expe
rience and who has the character to
lead the greatest, frccstcountry on the
face of the earth,” Bush said.
AP/Carl Fox _
r
Republicans choice challenger proves formidable toe
Clinton retains lead in poll despite political baggage
WASHINGTON — There was a
lime when Bill Clinton was the Re
publicans’ favorite Democratic chal
lenger. Now the man they thought
tlFWc would be vulncr
able is at the door
step of the White
House, the cleclion
cvc favorite to dc
| feat President Bush
on Tuesday.
To compound
the irony, theorigi
^4 LYSV* na* GOP reckoning
may have been
right.
The character and trust questions
Bush was pressing in the final days,
when Clinton’s lead in the polls nar
rowed to striking distance, couldn’t
have been appl icd toa di fferent Demo
crat.
One lop Republican mused that if
the Democratic nominee had been
one of the front-rank dropouts — Bill
Bradley of New Jersey or Sam Nunn
of Georgia, for example — the
president’s re-election chances prob
ably would be none instead of slim.
The GOP theory was that Clinton
was a flawed candidate, carrying loo
much political baggage to oust the
incumbent. He certainly had baggage,
but he carried it skillfully and dis
pensed with much of it early in the
season.
Even so, when Bush and his allies
began bearing down on character as
an issue, the president did show tem
porary gains in the polls.
However, a new, final ABC News
poll released Monday night indicated
that Bush had been doing belter in the
dosing days because more voters were
persuaded that the economy was im
proving. The survey showed 18 per
cent believed it was getting better by
the end of October, up from 10 per
cent early in the month, and that helped
Bush. But 49 percent still said the
economy was getting worse.
The poll, completed Sunday,
showcdClinton leading Bush by seven
percentage points.
“We simply cannot take a risk on
Gov. Clinton,” Bush said Monday.
“You have to have the trust of the
people through character and you have
to have the trust of the world when
you arc president.”
Bush said he didn’t come up with
the word “slick” to describe Clinton.
“I did say slippery when wet. I will
stand with that.”
The Gcnnfftr Flowers affair accu
sations and Clinton ’ s varying accounts
of the way he avoided the Vietnam
draft both surfaced before the presi
dential primary elections began; both
were problems but not the disasters
they could have been later.
Angolan clash leaves 1,000 dead
LUANDA, Angola — Angolan
government forces had mostof Luanda
back under control Monday and ap
pealed to citizens not to wreak re
venge on UNIT A rebels after fighting
reportedly left up to 1,000 dead.
As rebel resistance melted in the
capital, armed civilians were reported
hunting down rebels. UNITA leader
Jonas Savimbi’s second-in-command
and nephew were reported killed, and
a third top rebel wounded. Police said
they captured three UNITA generals.
If confirmed, the losses would be a
major setback to the U.S.-backed
UNITA rebels, who signed a cease
fire with the pro-Soviet government
in 1991 to end a 16-year civil war in
which 350,(X)() people died.
i
Clashes between the governing
MPLA — the Popular Movement for
the Liberation of Angola — and
UNITA - the National Union for the
Total Independence of Angola —
erupted in the provinces Thursday
and spread to Luanda Saturday.
State radio said up to 1 ,(XX) people
died in the fighting, which threatened
ip renew the war until a U.N.-spon
sored truce took effect just after mid
night Sunday.
Tensions had been rising since
September’s national elections, which
UNITA lost. Savimbi contends the
vote was rigged; the United Nations
says the balloting was generally free
and fair.
Rebel officials reported skirmishes
in some parts ot the country Monday,
but police claimed to have Luanda
back under control. Only sporadic
shooting and explosions were heard
in some districts.
A dusk-to-dawn curfew was im
posed, and police warned civilians to
stay off the streets because of snipers.
Police vehicles with loudspeakers
cruised the streets urging people to
respect the cease-fire.
Many armed civilians had fought
alongside police against the rebels
over the weekend.
A government statement read over
state radio appealed to people to show
“humanitarian treatment” to UNITA
supporters.
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Lottery
Continued from Page 1
Education and the Environment
support noble causes, Eskridge said,
but they must realize that the rev
enue from a slate lottery will not go
directly to those causes, which in
clude education and the environ
ment.
Instead, Eskridge said, the
money will go into one fund and
will be allotted according to need.
“I’m in agreement that the envi
ronment and the schools arc in
need,” he said. “But the whole thiug
is a fraud.”
Former Nebraska Gov. Charles
Thonc said he opposed the lottery
because it raised government rev
- (4 --
The lottery has a
hollow allure. It is
misleading, especially
to the poor.
Eskridge
criminal justice professor
-*> "
cnucs through gambling, which hits
poor people the hardest.
“It’s a regressive lax,” he said.
“My response to the uses of the
revenue arc immaterial — it’s how
they arc raised is what I’m opposed
to.”
If the lottery passes, Moody said
he hoped it would lake effect next
year. He said the lottery would
bring in about S65 million in rev
enues to the stale per year.