• The Whitewater Bounce -- Aug. 15, 1996
• Get Out The Kleenex -- Aug. 15, 1996

The Whitewater Bounce

WASHINGTON, D.C.: For the Dole campaign, perhaps the biggest bounce of the week came not from San Diego but from Little Rock, where former Clinton business partner James McDougal has decided to cooperate with prosecutors in the Whitewater investigation. McDougal's lawyer opposes his client's move, and wouldn't even visit prosecutor Kenneth Starr's office when McDougal began to cooperate about three weeks ago. McDougal's cooperation comes as he faces sentencing Monday of up to 84 years in prision and a fine of as much as $4.5 million for obtaining fraudulent loans from two Arkansas banks. "There is no finer gift than this to the Republican Party," says TIME's Janice Castro. "As the convention winds up, it has started serious talk among people here that Dole has a real chance to win." The reason? It allows the issue of character back into the campaign. "It's a TV campaign, and it's a question of how people see the candidate. If you see enough pictures of Clinton friends and associates in court, while at the same time you see Dole with Liddy at his side along with Jack Kemp the football hero, it may be enough to raise new questions in voters minds about Clinton."

--Terence Nelan

Get Out The Kleenex

SAN DIEGO: One of Bill Clinton's most affecting qualities on the campaign trail is his tendency to shed tears at exactly the right moments. In Jack Kemp, the Republicans have mounted their heart-strings defense. At the big GOP gala dinner on Wednesday night, taking the hand-off from Bob Dole as the top dog departed for the evening, Kemp unveiled an oddly passionate line that is likely to grow familiar as the campaign season wears on. As he heaped praise on the courage and accomplishments of Dole, Kemp paused, looked searchingly at his wife, and then continued in a thick voice: "I'm gonna do something here." Hunching his shoulders, he turned to Dole's courage in overcoming his devastating war wounds and building a political legacy of leadership, never hesitating despite his crippled arm. He promised to stand with Dole every campaign step of the way, "in the barrios and the ghettoes" from coast to coast. Long pause. Then, with tears in his eyes, Kemp fired the payload: "I'm going to be Bob Dole's right arm!" The scattering of groans were lost amid the wild applause that followed.

-- Janice Castro

Copyright Time Inc. 1996. All Rights Reserved.