Presidential Elections 1996

In perhaps the gutsiest performance in his quest for the presidency, Republican Bob Dole on Friday asked the largest black audience of his campaign--many of them skeptical, some aloof--to consider voting for him. He said he would promote a "new civil rights agenda" that would "guarantee equality of opportunity" for all. In a speech to the National Assn.

How much does Bob Dole need California? Dole might look to President James A. Garfield. The Ohio native, our 20th president, was the last Republican to win the presidency without also winning California. That was in 1880. California Republicans make a point of recalling such history when they explain why Dole and Jack Kemp must make a serious run at winning the state and its 54 electoral votes. The Protest Area San Diego is intent on keeping protests as orderly as possible.

When Jack Kemp and several of his oldest political allies gathered for a private dinner last month, the evening took an unexpectedly emotional turn. Partway through the meal, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) angrily accused Kemp--who had publicly expressed frustration with the direction of the GOP-led Congress--of not being a team player, according to one source familiar with the discussion.

As a kid in school, Jack Kemp read thick history and philosophy books when others his age were reading comic books. Yet his intense interest in learning seldom resulted in good grades. As a member of Congress representing suburban Buffalo, N.Y., in the 1970s and 1980s, Kemp sowed the first seeds of what would become the 1994 "Republican revolution." But he left it to Newt Gingrich and other GOP upstarts to bring his vision to fruition.

In his first speech since the Republican convention confirmed Bob Dole as his opponent, President Clinton told gays and lesbians in a videotaped message that "we must put aside our differences and focus on what unites us, on our common ground." Bidding for support in the presidential election, Clinton said his administration "has taken more steps than any other to bring the gay and lesbian community to the table."

Closing their inaugural presidential nominating process and hoping to launch an alternative to the major political parties, Reform Party officials announced Saturday that Ross Perot would carry the party's banner in the fall campaign for the White House. The decision to pick the iconoclastic Dallas billionaire, who founded and has bankrolled the party, over former Colorado Gov. Richard D.

With his party energized and his own hopes soaring, Bob Dole now confronts the hard reality of overtaking a president still buoyed by positive public ratings of both his job performance and the economy. Political strategists in both parties agree that Republicans managed their convention here almost as well as possible--muting disagreement, moderating the party's image, humanizing their nominee and laying down several strong, clear themes for the general election.

Promising to keep America on a path of responsible economic growth, President Clinton on Saturday faulted Republican opponent Bob Dole for proposing "indiscriminate" tax cuts that would reduce government revenues by five times as much as the president says the country can afford.

Taking his campaign to a crucial Midwest battleground, Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole on Saturday told a crowd at the Illinois State Fair that America "deserves to do better" than maintain what he called an anemic economic growth rate, stagnant wages and high taxes under the Clinton administration.

It's political convention season. But as Ronald Brownstein, national political correspondent for The Times, writes in the current issue of Fast Company magazine, "The men and women creating the new economy won't be watching." Many leaders of the high-tech industry have given up on the two major political parties, if not politics altogether, writes Brownstein. They regard both parties as hopelessly out of touch with the high-tech economy.