Campaign Almanac

Read their lip

Here’s how you can tell the ad is a fake.

President Clinton and Bob Dole both look well-rested. Oh, yes, and both sport the signature white mustaches of the National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board’s campaign that uses celebrities with painted upper lips to pitch the product.

“Vote. Strengthen America’s Backbone” is the exhortation under the doctored pictures.

The text may be innocuous, “but the president’s likeness can’t be used for a commercial endorsement. It was not authorized. We agree with the message but maybe not the medium,” said White House spokeswoman Mary Ellen Glynn of the ads running in USA Today and this week’s Time and Newsweek magazines.

“We certainly think everyone should vote, and we generally agree that milk is good for people,” Glynn continued, adding, “I’m probably losing the lactose-intolerant vote.”

Dole-Kemp spokeswoman Christina Martin was similarly tolerant: “The Dole campaign was unaware of the ad, but being a champion of children and agriculture, the senator’s campaign is not terribly upset.”

Dole lets wedding secret slip

Sen. Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas and former Senate majority leader Howard Baker of Tennessee had hoped to keep their wedding date a secret until after Election Day. But that was before Bob Dole began his virtually non-stop, 96-hour final campaign blitz.

During a Monday night campaign rally with Baker in Knoxville, the Republican presidential challenger mentioned that his old friend, Kassebaum, planned to wed Baker on Dec. 7. Then apparently realizing the date was supposed to be a secret, Dole said, “Oh, disregard that remark, yes.”

Kassebaum is retiring after 18 years in the Senate, and Baker was Dole’s predecessor as GOP Senate majority leader.

The candidates

Bill Clinton: Asked voters to “seize the day” and vote for him and fellow Democrats, during the last stops of his last national political campaign. The president personally crafted his 21-hour closing-day schedule, which included stops in New Hampshire, Ohio and Arkansas. New Hampshire was a sentimental choice. It was where Clinton became “The Comeback Kid” after surviving character scandals for a second-place showing in the 1992 Democratic primary.

Bob Dole: Closed out his third - and probably last - run for the White House by telling crowds: “I need your votes. There’s still time.” Dole, his voice cracking after 70 hours of virtually non-stop campaigning, said in Alamogordo, N.M., that re-electing Clinton would amount to ceding the White House for four more years to an administration with no regard for the law.

Ross Perot: Told fellow Texans that character should count when they select a president. “Do you want them selling your White House for political contributions?” Perot asked as he thrashed Clinton in a speech in San Antonio.