1ibai7y's Journal

The Israelis had opened a tunnel that ran under...
The Israelis had opened a tunnel that ran under the Temple Mount in Jerusalems Old CityThe ruins of the Temples of Solomon and Herod were under the mount, atop which stood the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, two of the holiest sites to MuslimsSince the Israelis took East Jerusalem in the 1967 war, the Temple Mount, called Haram al-Sharif by the Arabs, had been under the control of Muslim officials; when the tunnel was opened, the Palestinians saw it as a threat to their religious and political interests, and riots and shooting broke outAfter three days, more than sixty people had died, with many more woundedI called on both sides to end the violence and get back to implementing the peace agreement, while Warren Christopher burned up the phone lines with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Chairman Arafat to stop the bloodshedOn Christophers advice, I invited Netanyahu and Arafat to the White House to talk things over

I ended the month by signing a health-care appropriations bill that ended so-called drive-by deliveries, by guaranteeing a minimum of forty-eight hours of coverage to mothers and newborns; provided medical assistance to children of Vietnam veterans who were born with spina bifida, as I mentioned earlier; and required the same annual and lifetime coverage limits in health insurance policies for mental and physical illnessThe breakthrough in mental-health care was a tribute not only to the work of mental-health advocacy groups but vintage chanel jewelry also to the personal efforts of Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico, Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, and Tipper Gore, whom I had named my official advisor on mental-health policy

I spent the first two days of October with Netanyahu, Arafat, and King Hussein, who had agreed to join us to try to get the peace process back on trackAt the end of our talks, Arafat and Netanyahu asked me to field all the press questionsI said that while we had not yet resolved the tunnel issue, both sides had agreed to begin immediate talks in the region with a view toward ending the violence and returning to the peace processIn our meeting, Netanyahu had reaffirmed his commitment to implement the agreements made before he took office, including the withdrawal of Israeli troops from HebronNot long afterward, the tunnel was sealed again, consistent with the commitment both parties had made to do nothing to change the status quo in Jerusalem until it was negotiated

On the third, I was back on the campaign trail again, stopping for a rally in Buffalo, New York, a city that had always been good to me, on the way to Chautauqua, to prepare for my first presidential debate with Bob Dole in Hartford, Connecticut, on October 6Our whole team was there, including my media advisor, Michael SheehanGeorge Mitchell came in to play Bob Dole in the mock debatesHe cleaned my clock at first, but I got better with practiceIn between sessions, Erskine Bowles and I got in a round of gold gucci watches golfMy golf game was getting betterIn June, I had finally scored below 80 for the first time, but I still couldnt beat Erskine when his game was on

The debate itself turned out to be civilized, and educational for people who were interested in our different philosophies of government and positions on the issuesThere were a few fireworks when Dole hit me for scaring seniors with my ads criticizing the Medicare cuts in the Republican budget I had vetoed, and he repeated his claim from his convention speech that I had filled the administration with young elitists who never grew up, never did anything real, never sacrificed, never suffered, and never learned and who wanted to fund with your earnings their dubious and self-serving schemesI shot back that one of the young elitists who worked for me in the White House had grown up in a house trailer, and as for the charge that I was too liberal, thats what their party always drags out when they get in a tight raceIts sort of their golden oldie I just dont think that dog will hunt anymore

The second debate was scheduled ten days later in San DiegoIn the interim, Hillary, Al, Tipper, and I visited the massive AIDS quilt that covered the Mall in Washington, with separate squares in honor of people who had died; two of those commemorated were friends of Hillarys and mineI was gratified that the death rate from AIDS was coming down, and I was determined to keep pushing for more research to develop black chanel tote lifesaving medicines

Mickey Kantor had negotiated a town hall format for the San Diego debateOn the sixteenth, citizens at the University of San Diego asked good questions, and Dole and I answered them without hitting each other until the endIn his closing statement, Dole appealed to his base, reminding people that I opposed term limits as well as constitutional amendments to balance the budget and to protect the American flag, and forbid restrictions on voluntary school prayerI closed with a summary of my proposals for the next four yearsAt least people knew what the choice was

With two weeks to go until the election, the polls showed me with a twenty-point lead, and 55 percent of the voteI wish the survey hadnt been released; it took some of the life out of our campaign when our supporters thought the election was overI kept working hard, concentrating on our pickup targets, Arizona and Florida, and the states wed won before, including three of those I was most worried about, Nevada, Colorado, and GeorgiaOn October 25, we had a great rally in Atlanta, where my longtime friend Max Cleland was in a tight race for the USam Nunn gave a particularly effective argument for my reelection, and I left the state thinking we might have a chance

On November 1, I headed into the homestretch of the campaign with a morning rally at Santa Barbara City CollegeOn a warm, sunny day, a large crowd gathered on the campus hillside overlooking the Pacific OceanSanta mulberry roxanne Barbara was a good place to end the California campaign, a once solidly Republican area that had been trending our way

From Santa Barbara, I flew on to Las Cruces, New Mexico, then to El Paso and the biggest crowd of the campaign, as more than forty thousand people came out to the airport to show their support, and finally to San Antonio and the traditional rally at the AlamoI knew we couldnt win Texas, but I wanted to honor the loyalty of the states Democrats, especially the Hispanics who had stuck with me

As we headed into the last three days of the campaign, I had a choice to makeSenate candidates from several relatively small states were asking me to campaign for themMark Penn said that if I spent the last days of the campaign doing that, instead of going to the larger states, I might not get a majority of the vote, for several reasonsFirst, our campaigns momentum had been slowed in the last two weeks by allegations that the DNC had received several hundred thousand dollars in illegal campaign contributions from Asians, including people I had known when I was governorWhen I heard about it, I was angry; my finance chair, Terry McAuliffe, had made sure the contributions to our campaign were reviewed scrupulously, and the DNC was also supposed to have a vetting operation to reject questionable contributionsThere were clearly problems with the DNC clearance proceduresAll I could say was that any unlawful contributions should be returned cartier love immediat