CLINTON MAKES APPEAL FOR UNITY.

Byline: Alison Mitchell The New York Times

With an appeal to the nation to rise above its racial, ethnic and sharp political divisions, President Clinton made his last bid for Florida on Sunday and then raced up the East Coast and into New England to bolster Democratic candidates locked in close races for the Senate.

Clinton made no mention of Bob Dole's latest campaign speeches against a generation of affirmative action programs and favoring restrictions on immigration. But the president was clearly seeking to offer a contrasting vision on the penultimate day of the presidential race.

He urged Americans to rise above the ``politics of division and gridlock'' and to say ``no to racial and religious hatred.''

``I'm a Democrat by heritage, instinct and conviction, as proud of it today as I've been in my life,'' Clinton said at an airport rally in West Palm Beach, Fla. In a theme he repeated throughout the day, he went on to note that there had been times when Republican presidents had been the healers seeking to shepherd the country forward.

He spoke of Abraham Lincoln ending slavery and of Theodore Roosevelt crusading for conservation and for better working conditions for the downtrodden. He then portrayed the Democrats as the inheritors of these missions and ideals ``because of the ideas we stand for, because of the campaign we've run, because of the record we have made and because of the ideas of those on the other side.''

Delivering a sermon earlier in the morning at St. Paul's African Methodist Episcopal Church in Tampa, near St. Petersburg, which was torn by a riot last month, Clinton pointedly told the parishioners to shun political leaders ``driving wedges between us and exploiting our fears and convincing us that our brothers and sisters of different races, different faiths, different walks of life are our inherent enemies.''

``When we are divided, we defeat ourselves,'' he said, referring to the riot that erupted after a white police officer shot an African-American teen-ager. Clinton also included a spontaneous tribute to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel, recounting how Rabin had been murdered a year ago ``by one of his own people because he sought peace in the Holy Land.''

Later, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Clinton, his eyes wet, recalled his affection for the slain Israeli leader.

In his high-toned appeal for unity, Clinton made no effort to rebut the assaults on his ethics, on his character and on Democratic fund-raising techniques that Dole has mounted with fervor in the closing days of the presidential race.

Instead, he hearkened back to the theme he used in the weeks after the Republican National Convention, saying he would wage a campaign of ``issues and not insults.''

``One of the more interesting aspects of the opposition's efforts has been the obsession with my wife,'' he said, referring to the many digs at Hillary Rodham Clinton leveled by Republicans during the campaign year. ``Well, I'm obsessed with her, too, but in a different way.'' Playing off his wife's book title, he quickly added: ``They think we're better off on our own. I think she was right when she said, it takes a village.''

Clinton's Florida appearances, in Tampa and West Palm Beach, began a grueling day of campaigning that brought him through New Jersey and Massachusetts before he headed for a post-midnight rally in Maine and a night's rest in New Hampshire.

Although the inexhaustible campaigner did not declare himself to be on a marathon run, as Dole did, his schedule was daunting. The president expected to stretch his final day of campaigning Monday through the night, arriving home in Little Rock, Ark., sometime around 4 a.m. on Election Day.

Clinton and his aides were confident of victory, and the planning was quietly beginning for the transition to a second term. Douglas Sosnik, the White House political director, said the campaign was certain of getting the 270 electoral votes needed for election.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) President Clinton salutes supporters during a campaign rally Sunday at West Palm Beach International Airport.

(2) Vice President Al Gore spent Sunday visiting African-American churches in Detroit; here, he's at Second Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Associated Press