As Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole tees off on President Clinton, the president is getting relief from his debate preparations by teeing off at a golf course.
"You get beat up in the morning, you clear your head in the afternoon and get beat up again at night," Clinton said after stepping off the 10th tee on Monday. "It's a great way to do it."Clinton spent most of Monday in practice sessions with aides, taking a break only to play golf with Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez and announce that he'd signed a bill allowing the sale of surplus military planes for fighting wildfires. Dole, meanwhile, is preparing for the debate in San Diego, and is already sharpening his attacks on Clinton.
Other than the golf foray - which also included Clinton's former aide Erskine Bowles and close friend Vernon Jordan - the president stuck close to his hotel, the Holiday Inn Pyramid. The bill signing took him only as far as a hastily erected stage in the hotel parking lot.
Clinton told reporters he wants Wednesday's final debate in San Diego to offer voters a solid view of where he and Dole stand on issues. He would not comment on Dole's new strategy of questioning his ethics, nor on how he plans to respond.
"We'll see what the people have to say afterwards," Clinton said. "Many people said to me after the last debate that they thought it had been fundamentally positive and that people had really learned from the debate what the differences between us are. That's all any of us could hope for, and that's what I hope will come out of this debate."
Dole, however, left little mystery as to where he wants the line of inquiry to go. On his way to San Diego for his own debate practice, Dole hammered at Clinton's ethics, raising questions about contributions to the Democrat's re-election campaign from Indonesian banking interests.
"He does not have an ethical administration. And we're going to go after that in the debate on Wednesday night," Dole said.
Clinton aides dismissed Dole's attacks as desperation moves.
"They have basically given up trying to convince people of a positive rationale of why Bob Dole should be elected president, and they've resorted to purely negative politics," said Clinton political aide Doug Sosnik.
Added White House spokesman Mike McCurry, "They're getting very desperate. I think that's been pretty obvious for some time."
The president himself shrugged off as another political attack House Speaker Newt Gingrich's call for Congress to investigate contributions to his campaign from an Indonesian banking con-glom-er-ate.
"It's election time," Clinton said.
In San Diego, Dole was promising a full-bore battle for California's 54 electoral votes.
"It all started right here in San Diego. We're going to work and work and work. . . . When the bell rings in California, it's going to say Bob Dole, Bob Dole won," Dole said as he arrived for debate preparations and some California campaigning.
But it was a rocky beginning in the city that was host to the 1996 Republican convention. Dole at first proclaimed he was "honored to be back here in San Francisco" at a waterfront rally Monday evening. After groans from the audience, Dole corrected himself. "Yeah, San Diego, sure."
Dole campaign officials, buoyed by polls showing Clinton's lead down to about 10 points here, say they have decided to pour additional resources into the state in a high-risk strategy that could result in less being spent in other battleground states.
A final decision on how much to pump into California in the final three weeks of the campaign won't be made until after Wednesday's debate, aides added.
Tuesday, Dole was expected to launch his sharpest attack yet on ethical problems in Clinton's administration during a speech to an electronics industry organization.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Most networks to televise the debate
ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS, but not Fox, will broadcast live coverage of this year's second and final presidential debate, originating at 7 p.m. MDT Wednesday from San Diego.
Fox Broadcasting will carry the baseball playoff game between the Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals instead of the debate.
On cable, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC also will carry the debate.
Afterward, CNN will have a special edition of "Larry King Live" with independent presidential candidates including Ross Perot and Ralph Nader.