CANDIDATES SQUARE OFF OVER TAXES, CHARACTER.

Byline: John King Associated Press 

President Clinton and Bob Dole clashed vigorously over taxes and trustworthiness Sunday night in a spirited prime-time debate over who was the better man to lead America into the 21st century.

``I think the best thing going for Bob Dole is that Bob Dole keeps his word,'' the Republican challenger said in a 90-minute debate critical to his hopes of launching an October comeback.

``It is not midnight in America, senator: We are better off than we were four years ago,'' Clinton said in making his case for a second term.

The Democratic incumbent and his Republican challenger stood just a few feet apart on a red-carpeted stage, challenging each other again and again in a showdown that ushered in the final month of the White House campaign.

Clinton took credit for an economy that had created more than 10 million jobs, for cutting the deficit by 60 percent and for vetoing Dole-backed Republican budgets he asserted would have cut $270 billion from Medicare and $30 billion more from education.

Looking ahead, Clinton said his $100 billion in tax credits targeted to making college more affordable were far more responsible than Dole's ``$550 billion tax scheme.''

``We have the right approach for the future,'' Clinton said.

Dole forcefully disagreed, and accused Clinton of running a campaign designed to scare elderly Americans. ``I am trying to save your Medicare, just as I rescued Social Security,'' Dole said.

The former Kansas senator told the viewing audience, ``If I could not cut taxes and balance the budget at the same time I would not look you in the eye tonight.''

Clinton was called the debate's winner by six of seven high school and college debate coaches from around the country who judged it for the Associated Press. The seventh called it a tie.

Dole lost points in the judges' views by failing to respond adequately to Clinton's charge that his plan for a 15 percent tax cut would result in deep cuts in social spending, especially Medicare.

Entering the debate, Clinton was ahead by a dozen points or more in most national polls and in surveys from the major Electoral College battleground states. The two candidates will meet again in 10 days, in another one-on-one encounter because of the controversial decision to exclude Ross Perot.

Dole was the aggressor throughout the night, asserting time and again that Clinton's conservative election-year rhetoric about curfews, school uniforms and welfare reform was at odds with a liberal record of giant tax increases and a massive government takeover of health care.

``I wouldn't want to be a liberal either - Mr. President - but you are stuck with it,'' Dole said.

Clinton shook his head at the label and called it the ``golden oldie'' of Republican presidential campaigns. He said that given his record of deficit reduction, paring welfare rolls and supporting the death penalty, ``I just don't think that dog will hunt this time.''

For all the sharp exchanges, there were several moments of laughter. ``You can probably tell we like each other, we just see the world in different ways,'' Clinton said.

And indeed they did.

``I trust the people, the president trusts the government,'' Dole said.

Clinton said he trusted the people, too, but that the government had a critical role in areas such as protecting the environment, putting more police on the street and regulating tobacco sales to keep children from smoking.

Dole said that the economy was not growing nearly as fast as it could, and that millions of Americans were feeling an economic squeeze. ``Americans are working harder and paying higher taxes,'' he said. ``. . . I want the government to pinch pennies for a change instead of the American families.''

Dole recalled Clinton's own admission that in 1993 he ``had raised taxes too much.'' A few moments later, Clinton recalled a decade-old quote from Dole's running mate, Jack Kemp, who said Dole ``never met a tax he didn't hike.''

With answer after answer, Clinton sought to portray Dole as bent on cutting or gutting vital government programs such as Head Start and student loans. He also criticized Dole's proposal to eliminate the Education Department. ``I think my ideas are better for the future,'' the president said.

Dole was equally determined to shed any suggestion he was hardhearted, referring obliquely to his own struggles overcoming grave World War II wounds and making the case that his school-choice plan would allow poor inner-city children to go to better schools. ``I'm not some extremist out here,'' Dole said. ``I care about people.''

Clinton and Dole waged the debate on a stage at Hartford's Bushnell Theater.

``When the story is written about this campaign, the record will show that we turned it around in Hartford, Connecticut,'' Dole told a post-debate rally. The Clinton camp saw things differently, arguing that Dole had done nothing to stall Clinton's momentum.

Shut out by the debate's sponsor, Perot took to the airwaves before and after the debate to complain.

Although Clinton and Dole had vigorously debated tax and education policy, foreign affairs and a host of other subjects, Perot said on CNN: ``My concern is that they never went to the core problems. The core problem is that we have two parties that control our government.''

Roughly 400 Perot backers joined other protesters near the debate site, many holding American flags upside down as a sign of their displeasure.

Dole also took aim at Clinton's foreign policy. ``Saddam Hussein is better off than he was four years ago,'' Dole said of the Iraqi dictator. Further, Dole said, Clinton had been too soft on Communist regimes in Cuba and North Korea. Clinton countered that the criticisms were off-base.

Clinton had some sharp criticism of his own as the president sought advantage heading into the campaign's final month. After Dole accused Clinton of being in the pocket of trial lawyers who have contributed millions to his campaigns, Clinton said Dole had sided with the tobacco companies when the administration tried to block cigarette sales to minors. He also said Dole and House Speaker Newt Gingrich had ``let polluters come into the halls of Congress and rewrite the environmental laws.''

``That's not true,'' Dole shot back. Dole also said he was on record 30 years ago pushing for warnings on cigarette labels - and said drug use among teen-agers had doubled during Clinton's term.

The president said he took some responsibility for that and vowed to keep fighting teen drug use. Recalling his younger brother's drug addiction, Clinton turned to Dole and said, ``I hate drugs, senator.''

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) President Clinton defended his record on deficit reduction and economic growth and blasted Bob Dole on Medicare.

(2 -- color) Dole said Clinton's conservative rhetoric belied his tax increase and plan to start a national health-care system.

(3) President Clinton and Bob Dole greet moderator Jim Lehrer after Sunday night's debate in Hartford, Conn.

(4 -- color) Ross Perot

Associated Press