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Subject: Clinton Exhorts Voters to Seize Their 'Destiny'; Clinton Camp Confident On
Date: Tue, 3 Nov 92 04:45:22 EST
Message-ID: <25.1992Nov3.044522@AmeriCast.com>

Clinton Exhorts Voters to Seize Their 'Destiny'; Clinton Camp
Confident On Election-Eve Marathon<By Edward Walsh<Washington
Post Staff Writer=

ST.  LOUIS, Nov. 2 - Bill Clinton's long march toward the White
House entered its final hours today in a whirlwind of airport
rallies that stretched more than halfway across the country and a
rallying cry from the Democratic presidential nominee for Ameri-
cans to "seize control of your own destiny."

For all the miles traveled, however, this was no frenzied dash to
the finish line.  Instead, despite the electorate's proven vola-
tility this year, despite the uncertainty that accompanies any
election, a sense of quiet serenity settled over the Democratic
nominee and his campaign staff as they hurtled their way through
the day and into the night.

Clinton's message was positive, meant to inspire, with barely a
mention of President Bush and none of Ross Perot or of the hos-
tility and negativism that has marked their extraordinary,
three-way contest for the presidency.

At Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, as a sharp wind whipped
off the waters of Lake Erie, the Arkansas governor echoed the
opening passages of Theodore H. White's classic book "The Making
of the President 1960," which recounts the election of Clinton's
political hero, John F. Kennedy.

"Tomorrow," he said, "the great mystery of American democracy
will sweep across this country. Wave after wave of you will go
quietly into the voting booth and in the solitude between you and
your vote, you will become as powerful as any person in the Unit-
ed States of America. I ask you to remember that this is a big
election which will shape the future of your country well into
the next generation, well into the next century."

Bundled against the cold and rain that greeted him in Cleveland,
Detroit, and here, Clinton swept through the Midwest and headed
south and west on a 4,108-mile journey through eight states that
was to end after dawn on Election Day in Denver.

His troublesome voice was hoarse but functioning and his mood
ebullient as Clinton, accompanied by his wife, Hillary, and Demo-
cratic National Committee Chairman Ronald H. Brown, made his fi-
nal plea in a campaign he began more than a year ago.

Invoking the names of American heroes from George Washington and
Thomas Jefferson through Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D.  Roosevelt
to Kennedy, Clinton told the sparse crowd at the Cleveland air-
port, "This election is a race between hope and fear, between
division and community, between responsibility and blame, between
whether we have the courage to change, to stay young forever, or
whether we stay with the comfort of the status quo. Tomorrow, we
will drown out the negative voices that have held us back so long
and build the America you deserve."

The lofty rhetoric was a reflection of the confidence that imbued
the Clinton campaign only hours before Tuesday's voting was to
begin. Gone were the attacks and the Clinton specialty - the
counterattack - against Bush, which were seen as unnecessary and
probably counterproductive at this stage of the race.

Dee Dee Myers, who worked for 1988 Democratic nominee Michael S.
Dukakis and is Clinton's press secretary, recalled today how four
years ago the Democrats were "constantly on the defensive" until
very late in the campaign, when Dukakis hit on his "on your side"
theme and what become known, half in jest, half in hope, as the
"Dukakis surge" began to take shape.

At the end of that contest, pushing himself through a final, non-
stop 36 hours of campaigning, Dukakis was attracting large crowds
- larger, in fact, than many that turned out to see Clinton to-
day. But the surge, if it was ever real, was gone by then and
what Myers describes as the "suspension of disbelief" necessary
for campaign workers to endure the hardships of their 20-hour
work days had given way to grim reality.

"Four years ago, I just wanted it to be over," she said. Now, she
went on, "a tremendous sense of responsibility is beginning to
set in" among the Clinton aides as they begin to look beyond
Tuesday.

"He's not president yet and it's still hard for me to imagine his
winning," Myers said.  "I don't have much frame of reference for
that in my career. But this doesn't feel like the end."

Part of Clinton's mission today was to shore up his party's tick-
et in key races around the country. He urged his supporters to go
all out for Lynn Yeakel, who is challenging Sen. Arlen Specter
(R) in Pennsylvania, for Sen. John Glenn, who is fighting for
political survival against Lt. Gov. Mike DeWine (R) in Ohio, and
for Geri Rothman-Serot, who trails in her race against Missouri
Sen. Christopher S.  Bond (R).

But for Clinton himself, the front-runner in the presidential
contest, the last campaign day was a time to remain carefully
above the fray. In Philadelphia this morning, where he began the
day with an appearance at the Mayfair Diner that was timed to
coincide with the morning television news programs, he brushed
aside a question about Perot's last-minute attack on his record
in Arkansas. "My staff put out a statement on that already,"
Clinton said.  Nothing better symbolized  the Clinton campaign
than what turned out to be the first event of the campaign's last
day. It took place in the early morning hours at Garden State
Park, a racetrack in Cherry Hill, N.J., where Clinton stopped on
his way to Philadelphia.

He arrived on a bus - the symbol of the campaign ever since he
and Gore embarked on their first bus tour following the Democrat-
ic National Convention in July - and he"The great mystery of
American democracy will sweep across this country. . . . I ask
you to remember that this is a big election which will shape the
future of your country well into the next generation, well into
the next century."<

-Gov. Bill Clinton> arrived late, another Clinton tradition firm-
ly established with that initial bus caravan.

But inside the racetrack, thousands of people awaited him, cheer-
ing wildly as fireworks exploded in the sky above. Nursing his
raw throat, he gave a short speech, but when it was over he could
not resist picking up the saxophone in the band and, with his
fellow musicians accompanying him, belting out the 1960s song
"Can't Sit Down."

The site was chosen because recently a standardbred horse named
Bubba Clinton, running at 37 to 1 odds, had won a race at the
track and after the rally, the governor and the horse were intro-
duced in the winner's circle. Clinton patted the horse's nose and
posed for pictures with the 2-year-old and his owner.

As he was leaving the track to climb aboard a bus for the last
time before his political fate is decided, he was asked whether
Bubba had offered any advice for the campaign's last day.

Clinton laughed. "Just run hard," he said.<02:23 11-03C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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