Washington, Friday
IT has been a long campaign and the president is beginning to fray at
the edges. In a speech last night, Mr Bush attacked Mr Clinton's evasion
of the draft: ''You can't say I got an induction and then I didn't. You
can't say you wrote the man that once. You can't say that you're going
to have one position and then another position you got to stand up for.
Take a position. Lead. That's what being president is about. You cannot
lead by misleading.
''And here is my appeal. Barbara and I both have tried to uphold the
public trust. And character. Bill Clinton -- Bruce Willis mentioned
this. Bruce Willis said that, I mean Clinton said that it is not the
character of the president but the character of the presidency. Wrong.
They're locked in. They are interlocked.''
Mr Willis, the film star, has been appearing for Mr Bush, shouting to
crowds that Mr Clinton is unfit to be president and that ''I'm pissed
off.'' Sometimes he uses stronger language.
Mr Bush is almost as intemperate. He calls Senator Al Gore, the
Democratic candidate for vice-president, ''Ozone Man'' which he explains
thus: ''You know why I call him Ozone Man? This guy is so far out in the
environmental extreme, we'd be up to our necks in owls and outta work
for every American. He's way out, far out, man.'' He also says; ''My dog
Millie knows more about foreign affairs than those two bozos.''
Mr Bush's incoherence has long been a rather endearing characteristic.
Vice-president Dan Quayle is also inclined to wander off into the wide
azure, particularly when ambushed by something difficult.
But these personal attacks on Mr Clinton are something else.
At the same time, the Bush-Quayle campaign is broadcasting a large
number of flagrantly dishonest attack commercials, accusing the
Democrats of every imaginable sin, very often asserting matters that are
flatly untrue.
A few weeks ago, both sides tacitly agreed that negative campaigning
was a mistake, that the electorate disliked it. Now the Republicans, in
the last few days, are returning to negativism with a vengeance -- and
the Democrats are trying to keep up with aggressive counter-advertising.
Meanwhile, the opinion polls continue to confuse and worry both sides.
The Gallup Poll of ''likely'' voters has brought Mr Clinton's lead down
to just 1%: Clinton 41%, Bush 40%, and Perot 14%. The same organisation,
polling registered voters, shows Mr Clinton at 42%, Mr Bush at 36% and
Mr Perot at 16%. It is all a question of how many people will vote: the
higher the turnout, this time, the better for the Democrats.
Another poll of likely voters has Mr Clinton leading by nine points,
44% to 35%, and several other polls, of registered voters, show a
similar spread. A poll in California shows Mr Clinton at 45%, Mr Bush at
29% and Mr Perot at 23%.
It is all most confusing, but if there is a trend, it seems to be away
from Mr Perot (except in California), with his voters moving more
frequently towards the president than Mr Clinton.
In 1980, a week before the election, the polls still showed Jimmy
Carter and Ronald Reagan running neck and neck, but over the last
weekend, there was a big swing away from the president. It was so clear,
that the night before the election, Mr Carter's poll-taker was able to
tell him that he had definitely lost.
Picture/AP
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