Dole seeks a lifeline as 'bozos' enter fray

A small body of Bill Clinton supporters dressed up in frizzy wigs and red noses turned up at a Bob Dole election rally in Cincinnati, south- west Ohio, one of the few corners of the United States where the Republican presidential candidate holds a small lead in the polls. The Clinton clowns held up home-made banners identifying themselves as members of a new political movement called BAD: "Bozos Against Dole."

The joke was not lost on the 2,000 people at the rally.Cincinnati, a bland mid-west city, distinguished itself in the 1992 elec- tion as the only metropolitan centre with more than a million inhabitants to give George Bush an absolute majority.

In the most dramatic and heavily reported incident of a moribund campaign week, a man called out to Mr Dole during an election stop in New Jersey: "Please get Bozo out of the White House". Mr Dole shot back: "Bozo's on his way out."

That, to the frustration of Republican insiders, is the closest the former senator from Kansas has got to attacking President Clinton where he is weakest - on his character and morals. It seems, despite his supporters' pleading, that Mr Dole is refusing to stoop to the "attack dog" style of campaigning.

Twenty points behind Mr Clinton in the national polls, overall in Ohio, a state that no successful Republican presidential candidate has ever lost, he lags by eight points. Yet nothing at Cincinnati, Mr Dole's first leg on a two-day bus tour of Ohio, suggested any sense of urgency, and the BAD jokers sought in vain to goad him.

A large, limping man in a green jacket stood before the podium brandishing a sign which read: "Only in America can a homeless veteran sleep in a cardboard box while a draft dodger sleeps in the White House." But Mr Dole, the Second World War hero, did not rise to this bait, either. And, as if it were a campaign for a new mayor, a band played "Soul Man" on stage as little American flags were waved along with "Dole-Kemp '96" posters and round yellow signs that said "15 per cent" - the size of the tax cut Mr Dole is promising but perhaps an accurate indicator of the size of the vote he will attract in November.

In fact the man who got the loudest cheer of the day, was the retired general Colin Powell - there for the first time on the campaign trail, endorsing the man most Republicans regret they chose. Mr Powell spoke of Mr Dole's war wounds and of his "deep love for America", describing the candidate as "a straightforward man" who could be relied upon to set about "the restoration of the American family".

Yet the Republicans' products for sale are old goods, according to the polls. And Mr Dole did little to dispel that impression. "The election this year is between stealth liberals and commonsense conservat-ism," he said. "They don't want you to know they're liberal, but I'm going to tell you every time ... they're liberal."

It was tired stuff, even more useless now - President Clinton having spent the past 12 months making Republican policy his very own. But the Cincinnati faithful waved their little flags and whooped, suspending disbelief, and ignoring the larger truth contained in a giant red sign dominating Fountain Square, just behind the Republican stage. "Restaurant Rock Bottom", the sign read.