Clinton Goes West, Heading for California

President Clinton swept through Colorado and Arizona on Wednesday on his way toward 24 hours of speeches and party fund-raising in California and the 27th visit of his presidency to the state.

In this retirement community near Phoenix, Clinton told an audience at a seniors center that people asked him why he was campaigning in Arizona--a state that no Democrat has won since Harry S. Truman in 1948.

The president, who turned 50 last month, joked, “I just got my AARP card and I thought I’d check it out,” referring to the American Assn. of Retired Persons. “It looks pretty good to me. Looks pretty good to me.”

Public and internal White House polls show Clinton leading GOP nominee Bob Dole by 5 to 8 percentage points in this conservative bastion.

Clinton was met enthusiastically at the Sun Dial Recreation Center by several hundred seniors, most of whom waited nearly two hours in near-100-degree heat to be cleared into the room by the Secret Service.

“Wonderful. It was the best speech I ever heard,” said octogenarian Naomi Jackson of Mason, Ariz.

Al Treglawny of Sun City said that he was a lifelong Republican but that he was considering voting for Clinton this year.

“He said some things that actually seem honest,” Treglawny said with some surprise. “I was impressed with some of it. He didn’t throw a lot of mud. Of course, if he starts slinging mud, he better watch out, because there’s a lot they could sling back.”

As if to prove his point, along the road into Phoenix from the military airfield where Air Force One landed, one protester had painted on his van: “Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire--Gennifer, Paula” in reference to Clinton’s alleged sexual encounters with Gennifer Flowers and Paula Corbin Jones.

Earlier Wednesday, in Pueblo, Colo., Clinton sought to immunize himself from GOP nominee Dole’s charges that the administration has been “absent” in the war on drugs.

At an outdoor rally before the domed sandstone Pueblo County Courthouse, Clinton proposed a law that would deny $7.9 billion in federal prison construction funds to states that do not test inmates and parolees for drug use.

Before leaving Arizona, Clinton visited former Sen. Barry Goldwater, the 1964 GOP presidential candidate, who is recuperating from a minor stroke at a Phoenix hospital. “He looks terrific,” Clinton said.

Clinton then flew to Northern California, where he attended a fund-raiser. Today he has appearances in Modesto, Rancho Cucamonga and Beverly Hills.

* FIRST LADY IN L.A.: Hillary Clinton visits students at Eastside learning center. B4