Campaign 96 Watch - Page A1
November 5 11:15 PM EST
Clinton Routs Dole in U.S. Election
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Democrat Bill Clinton was re-elected U.S. president Tuesday, blowing away Republican Bob Dole in a whirlwind of votes from people who relish America's prosperity and preferred Clinton to lead them into the 21st century.
Computerized voter tallies by television networks projected Clinton the winner in 25 of the 50 U.S. states to only nine for Dole by 9 p.m. EST.
That sealed victory for Clinton, giving him 284 Electoral College votes to 97 for Dole, 14 more than the 270 needed to win under the indirect U.S. system.
Clinton, 50, the first president from the post-war "baby boom" generation, also became the first Democrat re-elected to the presidency in more than half a century--since Franklin Roosevelt in 1944.
Dole spokesman Nelson Warfield conceded defeat, saying "Bob Dole has completed his last political mission with courage and honor even in defeat, he has much to claim in the way of success...(leading) his party in this election, representing trust and conservative principles."
But it was still unclear whether the voters would also reward Clinton by breaking the Republican lock on both houses of Congress.
Many analysts were betting they would hold him in check by returning a Congress under opposition control, and might even underscore that message by denying him the popular vote majority he covets.
But for Clinton any victory at all was sweet vindication, befitting the political legend of a man who once dubbed himself "The Comeback Kid."
Exactly two years ago he was written off as a one-term lame duck by many analysts after disgruntled voters tossed his Democrats out of Congress in droves and handed control of both houses to the Republicans for the first time in 40 years.
The message from voters Tuesday was very different from the discontent they felt then: the country is now on the right track, they told pollsters as they left ballot stations and their personal financial outlook is much rosier.
They did not seem much to care about Dole's insistent message that Clinton is not very honest or trustworthy.
For Dole, 73, a former Senate majority leader from Kansas who was badly wounded as an infantryman in World War II, it was the end of long, distinguished career in public service and of his dream to win "one last mission" at the pinnacle of power.
Opinion polls had indicated with brutal regularity for months that his hope was Quixotic, that Americans were not prepared to turn back the clock and put one of his elder generation in command.
In the end, Dole's hope of becoming another Harry Truman, the upset champion of American politicians, turned out to be just a grand dream.
Texas billionaire Ross Perot was again in the race as a third-force candidate, for the Reform Party, but he appeared to be much less of a factor than in 1992 when he won 19 percent of the vote.
Perot kept Clinton from winning a popular vote majority in 1992 -- he won with only 43 percent -- and could yet score just strongly enough combined with Dole to deny the Democrat the majority mandate he wants in 1996.
By mid-evening CBS said Clinton was taking 48 percent of the vote to 44 percent for Dole and eight percent for Perot.
Final results would depend on voting far into the night on the U.S. west coast, but the crushing dimensions of Clinton's victory were apparent early on.
He swept Dole in most of the big prize electoral-vote states, taking away usually Republican Florida and Ohio among others and adding the big industrial states of New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois and New Jersey.
Dole could retaliate only in Texas and North Carolina from the major states plus a handful of smaller ones.
Among the early congressional results, arch-conservative Republican Jesse Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was re-elected in North Carolina, as was 93-year-old Republican Strom Thurmond in South Carolina.
Clinton's home state of Arkansas bucked its native son at the Senate level, electing newcomer Tim Hutchinson as the first Republican senator in over 100 years.
The tale of Clinton's victory seemed clearly to be of voters rating personal security and national prosperity far above the character issues and tax-cut promises Dole pushed.
ABC News reported 58 percent of those leaving the polls rated the economy in good shape.
That compared with only 19 percent four years ago, when Clinton ousted Republican George Bush by hammering at discontent with a weak economy.
NBC said its exit poll also showed 58 percent believed the country was headed in the right direction, compared to two years ago when 60 percent thought it was on the wrong track and Republicans won Congress.
The ABC exit poll also suggested Dole's scorching attacks on Clinton's character -- virtually the whole focus of the last two weeks of his campaign -- had gained him little ground among voters who said they cared little about that issue.
A majority of voters said they did not consider Clinton to be honest, but that did not hurt him because, given a choice, 62 percent said it was more important to have a leader who understood their problems -- a Clinton strong point -- than one with good character.