PRESIDENT Clinton and the Republican challenger, Mr Bob Dole, stepped up their frenzied pace, criss crossing the US to reach as many voters as possible before polling day tomorrow. While Mr Clinton still seems assured of victory, there are increasing signs that the Republicans may retain control of Congress.
While a Reuter opinion poll showed Mr Dole at less than five points behind Mr Clinton, who scored 43.5 per cent, other polls put the President comfortably ahead with double digit leads. The difference may be because Reuter's poll did not distribute the 8 per cent undecided voters among the three candidates. Reform Party candidate Mr Ross Perot scored 7.7 per cent.
President Clinton warned against racial and class divisions when he worshipped at a black Methodist church in Tampa, Florida, yesterday. The church was across the hay from St Petersburg where there had been racial rioting recently following the shooting dead of a black driver by a white policeman.
A win in Florida for Mr Clinton would be the first victory in the state for a Democratic presidential candidate since that of Mr Jimmy Carter in 1976. Earlier, he had campaigned in Texas, Louisiana and his home state of Arkansas.
In one speech in San Antonio Mr Clinton puzzled aides by referring to the election being "not so much about the mind as an affair of the heart". He said that if the Republicans had a president who had presided over an economy as successful as the present one, "they'd be saying it is morning in America a famous Reagan slogan. They'd be saying that the President can virtually levitate."
Mr Dole, who is 73, reached San Diego for a few hours rest in his 96 hour virtually non stop final drive to close the gap with Mr Clinton. On his way he addressed night rallies in South Dakota, Colorado and in Las Vegas.
In between the night time stops he chatted with exhausted reporters, telling them: "You're young you can handle it all right. We're having a great time. We've only got about 56 more hours to go."
After a day campaigning in California where he desperately needs to win its 54 Electoral College votes if he is to have any hope of victory, Mr Dole took off for a tour today of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Iowa.
Mr Dole wearing a leather bomber jacket, hammered away at the alleged ethical shortcomings of the President and the White House, saying at a rally in an airport hangar in Indianapolis that if Mr Clinton is re elected "he's going to spend half his time with investigations".
Mrs Elizabeth Dole took over the speaking role at times to give her husband a rest. She suggested at a Kentucky rally that feminism and liberalism had led to an undisciplined society that relied too much on government.