Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 10, 1992 TAG: 9203100214
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin folded his uncompromisingly liberal campaign, bowing out of the race with a parting shot at Bush and a pledge to "bear any burden" to help unseat him in the fall.
His departure left Clinton, Tsongas and former California Gov. Jerry Brown still afloat in the Democratic field, a trio of Washington outsiders angling with increasing ferocity for the ultimate insider's job.
Brown said Clinton could not win in the fall. "You can't elect a candidate with a scandal a week. I'll tell you that," he said in Rhode Island.
Tsongas, in Florida, criticized Clinton's advocacy of a middle class tax break and expanded tax breaks for dependents as "kinder, gentler voodoo economics."
Clinton courted the large Jewish vote in Florida, criticizing the Bush administration for withholding loan guarantees from Israel in a dispute over the construction of housing settlements on occupied territory.
The Arkansas governor seemed assured of winning at least six states and a rich delegate harvest today. Tsongas was favored in two New England states and struggled for a Florida showing strong enough to give him a boost as the campaign moves on to industrial states.
Bush and his camp exuded confidence in the race against Patrick Buchanan and David Duke, despite the prospect of a continued protest vote in the 30 percent range. The president campaigned from the White House, sitting for dinner-hour television interviews broadcast live to Super Tuesday states.
In his adopted hometown of Houston, Bush told KHOU-TV that "it hasn't been a pleasant time - being jumped on from the right and from the left."
Vice President Dan Quayle carried the president's re-election message to Massachusetts, but ran into several voters who told him pointedly of the troubles brought on by the recession.
Buchanan made no attempt to dispute White House claims of a presidential sweep of all eight Super Tuesday GOP primaries, but lashed Bush anew in a final swing through the South. Bush "has walked away from the principles and philosophy of the Republican party," he said.
Harkin, who cast himself as the heir to liberal Democrats of the past, quit after a string of setbacks and faces a $300,000 debt.
Harkin vowed to continue fighting for the cause he espoused in his campaign. "Circumstances may change, but the work of care and compassion still continues," Harkin told an audience at Gallaudet University, a school for the deaf in Washington, D.C.
All three remaining Democrats said they would reach out to Harkin's constituency, particularly the union workers whose votes will be critical in next week's primaries in Illinois and Michigan.
But first there was the Super Tuesday combat to attend to.
Clinton headed for Kissimmee, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa in Florida on the final rounds of his campaign.
He said, "I've got the best program for conversion from the defense to the domestic side."
Tsongas said the choice was between "whether you grow the economy or whether you give out tax breaks."
Brown took aim at the political establishment in general and Clinton in particular.
"Rhode Island is a perfect example of what politics is doing to people right in their pocket," he said in a reference to a scandal in the state's banking system.
According to the latest ABC-Washington Post survey, Bush's public approval rating has hit an all-time low and, for the first time, he's no better than even money against either of the two leading Democratic contenders.
The nationwide poll, taken between Wednesday and Sunday, showed Bush in a dead heat, 44-44, when hypothetically paired against Tsongas. Against Clinton, Bush was preferred by a scant 45 percent to 43 percent edge - again, too close to call, given the poll's statistical margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
When the poll was limited to just registered voters, Bush ran a few points behind both Democrats.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB