Dole Embarks On 96-Hour 'Campaign-a-thon'

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AllPolitics, Nov. 1) -- Accompanied by former GOP presidents, Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole set out this morning on the first leg of a 17-stop, 96-hour campaign sprint that he hopes can turn the presidential race around.

"We have four big days," Dole told a campaign rally this morning in Columbus. "Four days until Americans, not the pollsters, not the pundits, but Americans... decide who wins the election on November 5. And starting at noon today in Ohio, in Mansfield, we will kick off a 96-hour, non-stop campaign on the road to victory." (160KWAV sound)

Borrowing what has become a standard Clinton strategy, Dole preempted Clinton on an issue the president plans to address in a speech later today -- campaign finance, and the brewing flap over Democratic fund-raising.

"This is not a game," Dole declared. "This is not a contest of how arrogant you can be. And I wonder sometimes -- all the things, almost every week there's another scandal. Even The New York Times today -- (they've) been a Clinton apologist forever -- saying he ought to tell what's happened."

Friday's schedule includes stops (in order) in Columbus, Ohio, Cleveland, Ohio, and Grand Rapids, Mich. Former presidents Gerald Ford and George Bush helped launch Dole's final push today.

After those events, a bus tour is planned that stops in the Michigan cities of Detroit, Portland, Lansing, Fowlerville, Brighton, and Farmington. The bus tour is slated to end in Detroit, where it began.

The campaign told CNN that Dole's Saturday schedule includes Newark, N.J., Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Covington, Ky., St. Louis, Omaha, Neb., Sioux Falls, S.D., and Grand Junction, Colo. The only two stops announced so far for Dole on Sunday are Las Vegas and San Diego.

"We can sleep after Nov. 5," Dole told a Florida audience late Thursday. "But we want to wake up America.... Bob Dole isn't going to give up. I decided two or three days ago we needed to shake up this race at the finish."

Dole's vice-presidential candidate, Jack Kemp, will also participate in the 96-hour campaign dash. Kemp staffers tell CNN that Kemp will begin the sprint in California on Friday, then travel on to Missouri, Florida, Tennessee, Montana, Washington and back to California on November 5. He will appear in 16 cities during that time.

The Clinton-Gore campaign had no comment about Dole's final push. Scheduled to address the issue of campaign finance today, the president Thursday spoke in Oakland, Calif., on affirmative action.

"I know that all these affirmative action programs haven't been perfect," he said. "I've actually gotten rid of some myself. We've raised the standards on others. I've never been for quotas. I've never been for anybody unqualified getting anything they were not qualified for. But I am for giving people a chance to prove that they are qualified," Clinton said.

Part of his 29th trip to this state since taking office, Clinton reaffirmed his opposition to a popular state ballot initiative (Prop 209) here that would abolish all affirmative action programs. That drew boos from several audience members.

He praised Colin Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, "for coming out here and taking on his own party and being candid enough to talk about how many African American, Hispanics, Asian American and female military officers there are who got there because they had the right kind of affirmative action, not because they were unqualified (but) because they got a chance. Somebody made an extra effort to give them a chance to prove they were qualified. I admire that."

Dole Embarks On 96-Hour 'Campaign-a-thon'

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