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Battle of the Presidents closes with poll blitz (FINAL COUNTDOWN ALERT)
The Times ^ | November 4, 2002 | Tim Reid

Posted on 11/03/2002 11:15:21 PM PST by MadIvan

PRESIDENT BUSH and former President Clinton will today complete three days of rival campaign blitzes in an attempt to woo wavering voters on the eve of America’s crucial mid-term elections.

The battle of the Presidents, a political contest denied voters in 2000 when Mr Clinton was forbidden by Al Gore from helping his bid for the White House, was waged at competing campaign rallies in the American South.

Few in the White House need reminding, however, that Mr Clinton defeated George Bush Sr in 1992, and there is little love lost between the present incumbent and his father’s nemesis.

The two men first descended on Florida, where Jeb Bush, the President’s younger brother, is in a close race to be re-elected Governor. Although the contest will have no impact on who controls Congress, it is perhaps the most important election for Democrats and Republicans.

Florida is vital to President Bush’s hopes of re-election in 2004. A defeat for his brother would be a huge boost to the Democrats.

After the state’s controversial presidential election count two years ago, which gave Mr Bush the presidency by 537 votes, Mr Clinton told a huge crowd in Miami on Saturday night: “If they took it from you once, don’t give it to them twice.”

After stops in Atlanta, Georgia and Tennessee, Mr Bush arrived in Tampa, where he countered under the city’s Sun Dome: “For the sake of dignity and integrity in the office of Governor, send Jeb Bush back to Tallahassee.”

That appearance by the President was the beginning of a whirlwind three-day, ten-state campaign finale, underscoring the importance to the White House of tomorrow’s elections.

Voters in all 50 states will decide who controls Congress. The Republicans need only a net gain of one Senate seat to retake the chamber, which they lost when the Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republicans last year. The Democrats need six seats to take control of the House of Representatives.

With American opinion split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats, as it was two years ago, only a few hundred votes in half a dozen states will decide the control of Capitol Hill, and with it the fate of Mr Bush’s political and legislative agenda.

Voter turnout, expected to be little more than 30 per cent in an election that has failed to capture the public imagination, is crucial. To rally the black vote in his home state of Arkansas, where the Democrat Mark Pryor is fancied to unseat the Republican incumbent, Senator Tim Hutchinson, Mr Clinton made an impassioned call to arms in the south of the state yesterday. Mr Bush will speak in northern Arkansas tomorrow.

Earlier, Mr Clinton travelled to Maryland to campaign for Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Robert Kennedy’s daughter, in her gubernatorial contest.

After stopping in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota yesterday, the President will also visit the key state of Missouri today, where another Senate race is close, before spending the night at his Texas ranch. He returns to the White House tomorrow to monitor the results. The election is so close that the tiniest shift in voter mood could determine the outcome. There was some good news for Democrats yesterday. A Time/CNN poll found that a majority of Americans have doubts about trusting the President to solve the nation’s domestic problems and only 45 per cent trust him to manage the economy.

That came after a poll by the Pew Research Centre, which said that the fragile American economy, a strong point for the Democrats, was now much more important than an attack on Iraq or the War on Terror: 55 per cent want to hear candidates’ views about the economy, only 7 per cent about their views on Iraq.

There was encouraging news, however, for the Republicans in Minnesota, another close Senate contest. Norm Coleman, the Republican challenger, who had trailed Walter Mondale, the former Vice-President, in the polls, was in a statistical tie yesterday, according to a local newspaper. Mr Mondale replaced Paul Wellstone on the ballot after the Senator’s death ten days ago in a plane crash.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Arkansas; US: Florida; US: Georgia; US: Illinois; US: Iowa; US: Maryland; US: Minnesota; US: South Dakota; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: bush; clinton; closecall; election
I'll be praying all day tomorrow. Really, it's time to reduce Tom Thumb Daschle's stature even further. ;)

Regards, Ivan


1 posted on 11/03/2002 11:15:21 PM PST by MadIvan
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To: BigWaveBetty; widgysoft; Da_Shrimp; BlueAngel; JeanS; schmelvin; MJY1288; terilyn; Ryle; ...
Bump!
2 posted on 11/03/2002 11:15:44 PM PST by MadIvan
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To: MadIvan
prayer will help.
so will ENERGIZED CONSERVATIVES and
Despirited Democrats.

Lord help.
3 posted on 11/03/2002 11:18:17 PM PST by Robert_Paulson2
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To: MadIvan
Thanks. We need allies like you. And I have to say Tony Blair has been pleasantly surprising.
4 posted on 11/03/2002 11:19:39 PM PST by soccermom
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To: MadIvan
Ivan, George W. Bush isn't afraid to take his rivals to the mat in an open manner. He's taken on the Clinton/McAullife mobsters snout to snout in Florida, and he's looking to stick it to Tommy Daschele's bum in South Dakota. Out President hides from no-one. When folks, here or abroad, don't respect his overtures and sacrifices to gain win-win resolutions, he'll go primal.
5 posted on 11/03/2002 11:20:20 PM PST by ArneFufkin
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To: Robert_Paulson2
Pray hard as if everything depended on God. Get out and vote as if everything depended on you!
6 posted on 11/04/2002 1:20:28 AM PST by AmericaUnited
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To: MadIvan
Ivan, here's some empirical data for you, straight from the heart of Coastal Georgia... I live in a small "city" of about 16,000 people, within a county of about 60,000.

I have never heard so many angry people call local talk radio before... not even during the impeachment of Little Big Fraud.

Local government has kept raising our taxes ( we are taxed twice for property, city first, county second ) turned a deaf ear to the citizens protests, and generally behaved in an arrogant, high-handed manner.

The attempt in August to raise, for the fourth time, the local option sales tax was beaten so badly the various commissioners ( those who actually run local government ) were stunned.

Last week, the city tried to raise property taxes 43%... and were met with so many angry citizens they "went back to the drawing board..."

Previous meetings of the City Commission had, as one member put it "nary a citizen would show up..."

This last one was "swamped..."

What I am saying is this-- I have no idea how this will translate at state or national level, but locally, people are in a "tumbrels & guillotine" mode.

7 posted on 11/04/2002 1:36:16 AM PST by backhoe
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To: MadIvan
I'm hoping it'll all be over on Tuesday (I really need the sleep-it's 4:00 AM!) but then, after witnessing Election 2000, I can't be too sure. The drama (lawsuits) may just be getting started then.
8 posted on 11/04/2002 1:48:49 AM PST by stands2reason
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To: MadIvan; backhoe; soccermom; All
FL Radio Poll thread on this topic here:

Come here to FREEP:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/781780/posts
9 posted on 11/04/2002 5:09:45 AM PST by JulieRNR21
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To: JulieRNR21
Hi, Julie... thanks for the link, I'll add it to my file of contigency sites I've been sharing.

I am about to loose what little mind I have left answering all the pings... but FYI, FWIW, some of us ended up at FD during the outage:

-Free Dominion Guest Room for Freepers--

10 posted on 11/04/2002 7:07:59 AM PST by backhoe
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