Clinton, Dole Spar Over the Economy, Government Role

President Clinton and his Republican challenger, Bob Dole, Sunday opened their first presidential debate with polite, but firm, disagreements over the proper role of government and the state of the nation’s economy.

Seeking to continue his stance of being above the fray, Clinton began his two-minute opening statement by praising Dole’s record of public service, then asked for reelection on the basis of what he asserted was a history of accomplishment.

“Four years ago, you took me on faith; now there’s a record,” Clinton said, adding that “we are better off than we were four years ago.”

Dole quickly challenged that, saying to the audience of Americans watching the debate that “millions of you still have anxieties” and are “worrying about the future.”

America has been suffering with stagnant wages, with too many families “working harder to put food on the table” and laboring overtime to pay their taxes, Dole said.

On one issue certain to be faced by whichever man is elected president this year, the two agreed. Both endorsed the idea of a bipartisan commission to suggest changes in Medicare that would avoid bankrupting the system when the large baby boom generation hits retirement age in another 10 to 15 years.

Dole sounded almost plaintive on the subject, calling for “a truce” that would take the issue out of politics and complaining that the Democrats have spent millions of dollars in advertising to hammer Republicans over their proposals last year to scale down the size of the program in the future.

Clinton did not respond to Dole’s truce request, but argued that no Medicare rescue proposal would work if Dole’s proposed 15% across-the-board tax-rate cut was passed. He quoted Dole’s campaign co-chairman, Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.), who said earlier this year in a radio interview that Medicare cuts would be necessary to pay for Dole’s program.

Even before the debate opened, the two sides were jockeying for advantage. Dole’s aides had hinted for a few days that they planned a surprise as part of the debate audience. It turned out to be Billy Ray Dale, the former White House travel office official who was fired early in Clinton’s tenure.

To GOP critics, Dale become a symbol of White House failings in 1993. He was charged, but later acquitted, of misappropriating money from news organizations. Republican critics of Clinton have insisted the firing was done to open jobs that could be filled by Democratic patronage candidates, although in the end Dale’s job was filled by a nonpolitical appointee.

Dole’s aides placed Dale in the theater’s front row.

“If we choose to give our tickets to somebody who has been through hell unjustly, that’s our choice,” said Jim Cicconi, deputy strategy director of the campaign.

In an attempt to make points about his own life story and candidacy, Dole also invited Frank Cafara, a 75-year-old retired New Yorker who as a sergeant pulled a badly injured Dole to safety during the Italian campaign of World War II.

Both candidates spent the afternoon warming up--Dole with a tour of the theater in which the debate was to be held, Clinton with a pep rally outside his hotel.

Arriving in Hartford with a large entourage of aides, Dole declared he was well rested for the debate that his aides thought would offer his best chance to shake up a race that has long tilted in his opponent’s favor.

Saying he had slept “like a baby” for nine hours, Dole pronounced himself “up” for the confrontation. He inspected the Bushnell Theater debate site in downtown Hartford for camera angles, and examined the podium to see whether he could use it to rest his war-injured arm.

“Looks good,” he said after the inspection, giving a thumbs up.

Earlier in the day, Dole had climbed aboard his jetliner to hearty applause from his staff, consultants and GOP associates, including Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Connie Mack of Florida, advisors Donald Rumsfeld, Charles Black, Paul Manafort and Margaret Tutweiler. Dole’s daughter, Robin, was also along.

Dole joked that the standing ovation “might be the last” of the day for him. His planned surprise for the debate, he cracked, was “just showing up.”

For his part, Clinton basked in chants of “four more years” from the crowd outside his hotel here.

“Tonight I am going to have a chance to tell the American people what you know: We are better off than we were four years ago,” he told the crowd. “We are on the right track to the 21st century.

After thanking the well-wishers for their encouragement, Clinton asked for their moral support during his verbal contest with Dole.

“I ask you to be there tonight, rooting for me, but also rooting for you, for your families and the future of this country, because the best days of this country are still ahead,” he said.

The president flew to Hartford from a western New York retreat, where he had spent much of the last three days practicing and rehearsing for his match with Dole. During the brief plane trip, he took a break from the preparations and played a few hands of cards with a couple of his advisors.

“He wanted to do one thing today that he could win for sure,” said White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry, grinning.

McCurry and other White House spin doctors continued to try to talk down the president’s chances.

Referring to the president’s third trial debate against former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell Saturday night at Chautauqua Institute in rural New York, McCurry said: “The president did a better job than he has done the last two nights, although I still say Sen. Mitchell won three out of three.”

But McCurry conceded that it was unlikely that he could reduce the pressure on the president’s performance. Given Clinton’s reputation as an eloquent and skilled debater and Dole’s reputation as a clumsy talker, it is widely assumed that Clinton will be the clear victor.

“We all know what the expectations are,” McCurry said. “There’s not much that we can do about that tonight, because everyone expects the president to win.”

“Sen. Dole’s probably right when he says he wins just by showing up,” he said.

Dole’s aides suggested their candidate’s goal would be to use light humor and his personal story to try to sell himself as a viable alternative to Clinton.

Cicconi said that during practice Dole “really did demonstrate his ability to connect with people. . . . This is a conversation with the American people tonight.”

Cicconi acknowledged that “certainly there were some lessons” from Dole’s last national prime-time debate, which occurred in 1976 when he was running against then-Sen. Walter F. Mondale for vice president. Critics faulted Dole for a surly presentation in that debate; and he himself has acknowledged that he blundered when he decried the nation’s great 20th century conflicts as “Democrat wars.”

Dole made clear this weekend--jokingly, anyway--that he has already given thought to his next career move if he loses in November.

At an Italian American dinner on Saturday night, Dole spoke of a town in Italy where he has made many friends since his World War II service. If the election didn’t work out for him, Dole joked, he might go back and run for mayor.