After a night at home, Bob Dole embarked on the final week of his 16-year quest for the presidency Wednesday, brushing aside discouraging polls and turning to a fresh attack on President Clinton's handling of the economy.
Although national polls reflect little movement, Dole predicted a historic come-from-behind victory. "It's looking better and better and better," he said at the end of a four-day sweep through California.The Republican nominee Tuesday headed back to the South - a region that is usually a GOP presidential stronghold but where he has been having problems - with stops in Tennessee and New Orleans. He was to wind up in Tampa, Fla., for the night.
Criticism of Clinton's stewardship of the national economy was to be a major focus of Dole's remarks in Tennessee, campaign spokesman Nelson Warfield said after Wednesday's release of government figures showing economic growth slowing to an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the summer.
"The myth of the Clinton recovery has long been known to anxious wage-earners, and now the cold economic statistics Bill Clinton is so fond of are falling, too," Warfield said.
The economy grew at a robust 4.7 percent rate in the April-June quarter, although it has generally been growing in the 2.5 percent range over the past few years.
Dole was being joined on the final push by campaign manager Scott Reed, who for most of the campaign has devised strategy from Washington headquarters. But with Dole's schedule now in constant flux, Reed was moving his operation to the candidate's campaign plane.
Armed with maps and continually updated polling data and making frequent phone calls to governors and others on the ground, Dole strategists were scheduling, then canceling, events and arranging new ones.
"There are inevitably adjustments in the campaign," Warfield told reporters. "The campaign is trying to be very flexible, to turn on a dime."