Clinton Tries to Blunt Bush Attack With ‘Courage’ Call : Campaign: Democratic nominee folds up map on second bus trip as he answers charges that he is too liberal and too inexperienced.

Seeking to counter increasing attacks from President Bush and other Republicans that have sought to depict him as too liberal and morally unfit to be President, Democratic nominee Bill Clinton closed out a campaign bus trip through the Midwest with a challenge for supporters to believe in his promises.

“You know it’s going to take a lot of courage for you to vote for us,” Clinton told more than 1,000 supporters Friday who risked dark, rain-threatening skies to attend a rally in La Crosse, Wis., to meet the Arkansas governor and his vice presidential running mate, Sen. Al Gore of Tennessee.

“Our opponents in this race, you know what they’re going to say, they’re going to say: ‘Clinton and Gore are rookies. They’re just two young fellows with a lot of strange ideas, and they could make it a lot worse,’ ” Clinton said.

He added: “I’ll tell you something. We could make it a lot better too.”

The bus trip, which began Wednesday with a rally in East St. Louis, Ill., ended Friday night with a similar gathering in Minneapolis.

The Democrats received a rousing welcome from several thousand people, who waited more than two hours for them to appear.

Clinton pleaded with the crowd to remain faithful come Election Day. “It’s always hard to vote for change when you could settle for the status quo. Promise yourself your courage will never fail.”

After the rally, Clinton returned home to Little Rock, Ark., and Gore went to his rural Tennessee home.

Some of the crowds that greeted Clinton and Gore on their meandering route up the Mississippi River did not match similiar gatherings during the six-day bus caravan last month from New York to St. Louis, the journey that spawned this trip.

Still, the turnouts were impressive enough, especially given the itinerary’s emphasis on small towns and rural communities.

Each day, the campaign buses quickly fell far behind schedule as a result of repeated “spontaneous” stops at highway crossroads and truck stops where a hundred or more people would show up.

While the stops were not formally scheduled, word was put out to local Democratic officials that the caravan would pause if there were sufficient folks on hand to warrant it.

These party leaders then passed the word to local radio and television stations. At one supposedly surprise rally, there were portable toilets set up for the crowd.

Perhaps the trip’s most memorable moment occurred when hundreds of people still were waiting for the motorcade when it arrived--several hours late--at a motel in La Crosse just after 2 a.m. Friday. Parents held their sleepy kids aloft to see the candidates, shake their outstretched hands or exchange high-fives.

Because of the late ending to a day that began 18 hours earlier, the two Democrats did not give speeches.

But as they walked along the rope line, Gore led the crowd in his now-familiar exchange about Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle: “What time is it?”

“It’s time for them to go!”

W eary reporters, longing for bed, gave their version: “It’s time for us to go!”

At virtually every stop, Clinton and Gore pledged to produce jobs and economic reforms, expand health care and education, and add training programs aimed at improving the lives of middle-class Americans.

But as the journey wound toward its conclusion, Clinton modified his basic stump message to include a warning not to believe the Bush campaign as it attempts to win voter support in part by attacking the Democratic ticket.

“Let’s this time vote on our hopes, not our fears,” Clinton took to telling his crowds. “Let’s have the courage to change.”

Dee Dee Myers, campaign press secretary, said Clinton’s appeal for his supporters to stiffen their political backbone was intended to serve as a flashing yellow-light warning of what is to come at the Republican National Convention in Houston later this month.

“Bush has stepped up his attacks,” she said. “As it gets closer to the convention, those attacks are going to increase, and they’re going to try to scare people, going to try to create an atmosphere of fear, which is what they do.”

Clinton campaign officials, who have closely studied and attempted to avoid the failures of recent Democratic presidential nominees, have pursued a strategy of anticipating GOP moves and preparing voters for what to expect before Bush acts.

“I think we have to acknowledge to people that (changing presidents) is not an easy thing for them to do, and to encourage them that it is a courageous thing to do,” Myers said.

To that end, Clinton repeatedly stressed the need for change, juxtaposing that message with one of caution about the opposition’s impending moves.

Speaking at La Crosse about his education reform policies--but also metaphorically for his campaign--Clinton said: “Nobody can say there won’t be change. We’ve got to make change our friend, educating people so they can deal with any change that comes along.”

And he used the President’s comments to help make his point.

“My opponent was on television this morning saying: ‘I’m going to attack, attack, attack. I’m going to define them. I’m going to tell everyone what their values are . “ Clinton said at a rally.

But he urged the crowd to cut through the criticisms and stick with him.

“At the end of the day, there’ll be some things none of this negative rhetoric can erase. They can’t run on their record. . . . They don’t have a plan for America’s future . . . and they can’t dispute the fact that we’ve worked hard . . . to lift up the hopes of America.”