Candidates Finish Race Battling for Key States

Familiar themes dominated campaign rhetoric yesterday as the 1992 campaign drew to a close, with Bill Clinton linking himself to former Presidents Jefferson, Washington and Kennedy while George Bush lambasted his challenger as "slippery when wet."

Meanwhile, independent Ross Perot tried in one last round of prime time commercials to portray both his opponents as men who "don't know how to create jobs, don't know how to manage money, don't know how to build businesses."

Polls showed Clinton's lead widening again after shrinking to a near tie with Bush over the weekend. In polls with 3 percent margins of error, Clinton weighed in at 44 to 46 percent, Bush at 36 to 37 percent and Perot at 14 to 16 percent.

And a 50-state ABC News survey showed Clinton with solid leads in states totaling 295 electoral votes. Only 270 votes are needed for victory.

Bush had solid leads in states totaling 81 votes, with the remaining states too close to call.

Clinton ended his campaign, which began in October of last year, with a 29-hour swing through nine states. His message ended much the way it started, with a call for change.

"We must have a new economic policy," Clinton said in Ohio. "No more trickle down, not tax and spend, but put the American people first, invest in our jobs, control our health care costs, provide education to all our people. And we can be the greatest country in the world forever."

Clinton linked himself to America's heroes, suggesting that a vote for him honored the ideas of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, the sacrifice of Abraham Lincoln, the optimism of Franklin D. Roosevelt '04 and the commitment to the future espoused by John F. Kennedy '40.

Bush continued to present himself as the confident incumbent yesterday, cramming in six campaign stops and attacking Clinton's economic policy proposals and character at each.

"The choice before the American people is the vast difference in experience, avast difference in philosophy and, yes, a vastdifference in character," Bush said late in theday. "Character matters."

Perot wound up his candidacy with a final rallyin Dallas, where he poked fun at those who havequestioned his temperament for the job. On cue,the loudspeakers blared lyrics from Pasty Cline:

"We're crazy, crazy for feeling so lonely,we're crazy, crazy for feelin' so blue."

The vice presidential candidates pulled out allthe stops yesterday as well. Vice President DanQuayle, like Clinton, spent the day stormingthrough the battleground state of Ohio.

"When you have tough times, you want the verybest--the best in character, the best inintegrity," Quayle said. "And the very best isGeorge Bush."

Al Gore '69 stopped eight times yesterday toplug Clinton's central message, calling theelection a "chance to reject the politics ofdenial and division, inaction, excuses, delay,failure and the betrayal of a whole series ofpromises to average working families."

Top aides on both sides exuded confidence, eachclaiming an imminent win.

"I feel victory in the air," said DemocraticNational Committee Chair Ronald H. Brown in Ohio.

"It's very doable, and we're going to do it,"said White House Chief of Staff James A. Baker IIIaboard Air Force One.

Advertising reached a frenzied peak as wellyesterday, with Perot airing his 30-minuteadvertisements repeatedly on several networks, andClinton joining the prime time arena with his ownhalf-hour spots.

Analysts predict that turnout in today'selections of the president, U.S. House and 35 U.S.Senators could exceed 100 million voters.

On campus at Harvard, student groups focused onreaching the state's voters with last minute phonecalls and visibility efforts.

Key Clinton economic advisor Robert B. Reich, alecturer at the Kennedy School of Government,offered anecdotes and personal accounts to anelection eve gathering of about 35 people at theHarvard Union.

Reich said afterward that he predictsClinton--his roommate while the two were at Oxfordon Rhodes scholarships--will win, but said he was"cautiously optimistic."

This report was compiled with assistancefrom wire dispatches and Emily J. Tsai.

Perot wound up his candidacy with a final rallyin Dallas, where he poked fun at those who havequestioned his temperament for the job. On cue,the loudspeakers blared lyrics from Pasty Cline:

"We're crazy, crazy for feeling so lonely,we're crazy, crazy for feelin' so blue."

The vice presidential candidates pulled out allthe stops yesterday as well. Vice President DanQuayle, like Clinton, spent the day stormingthrough the battleground state of Ohio.

"When you have tough times, you want the verybest--the best in character, the best inintegrity," Quayle said. "And the very best isGeorge Bush."

Al Gore '69 stopped eight times yesterday toplug Clinton's central message, calling theelection a "chance to reject the politics ofdenial and division, inaction, excuses, delay,failure and the betrayal of a whole series ofpromises to average working families."

Top aides on both sides exuded confidence, eachclaiming an imminent win.

"I feel victory in the air," said DemocraticNational Committee Chair Ronald H. Brown in Ohio.

"It's very doable, and we're going to do it,"said White House Chief of Staff James A. Baker IIIaboard Air Force One.

Advertising reached a frenzied peak as wellyesterday, with Perot airing his 30-minuteadvertisements repeatedly on several networks, andClinton joining the prime time arena with his ownhalf-hour spots.

Analysts predict that turnout in today'selections of the president, U.S. House and 35 U.S.Senators could exceed 100 million voters.

On campus at Harvard, student groups focused onreaching the state's voters with last minute phonecalls and visibility efforts.

Key Clinton economic advisor Robert B. Reich, alecturer at the Kennedy School of Government,offered anecdotes and personal accounts to anelection eve gathering of about 35 people at theHarvard Union.

Reich said afterward that he predictsClinton--his roommate while the two were at Oxfordon Rhodes scholarships--will win, but said he was"cautiously optimistic."

This report was compiled with assistancefrom wire dispatches and Emily J. Tsai.