Posted on 11/02/2002 5:10:45 PM PST by MadIvan
Arkansas residents will today and tomorrow witness what the rest of the country never got a chance to see: a political contest between George Bush Jr and Bill Clinton.
On the stump at Ouachita Baptist University, deep in rural Arkansas, the Republican senator Tim Hutchinson is standing in front of a cardboard cut-out of the President of the United States.
"I have a personal relationship with George W. Bush," he tells an audience of 300 students. "He is a good friend of mine. And President Bush will be here on Monday to push us over the finish line in the closest and most important Senate race in America."
Sixty miles away in Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas, the local Democratic Party chairman, Ron Oliver, is also preparing for a distinguished visitor - one whose credentials are more local if not quite as current.
"Mr Clinton will arrive back here on Sunday," said Mr Oliver, whose office walls are lined with photographs of the former president in his youthful days as governor of the state. "We will have the help of the best political campaigner of the previous century, back on his own patch, to give us the edge and get the vote out."
Control of the Senate is in the balance in Tuesday's congressional elections, with each party currently holding 49 seats, one seat vacant and one held by an independent.
Arkansas, the small southern state best known for its catfish suppers and the escapades of Bill Clinton, has once again taken political centre-stage.
The Senate race between Mr Hutchinson and the Democrat hopeful, Mark Pryor, is too close to call. The prize, amid the most tense congressional elections in recent memory, is valuable enough to have attracted the biggest names that the Republican and Democratic party machines can offer.
Anticipating the loss of at least one seat to a Republican in a handful of tight Mid-West contests, Democrats believe that they require a "flip result" of their own in the south to maintain control. Arkansas, which became a Republican Senate seat for the first time since the Civil War at the last elections, is the top target.
President Bush will speak at the Republican stronghold of Fayetteville tomorrow afternoon, on the eve of the national poll. Ex-president Clinton will speak today to the black Democratic heartland of Jefferson County. No other state can match that line-up.
In Little Rock, Mr Clinton's power base when governor of Arkansas and presidential candidate, it is quite like old times. Doe's Steakhouse is again full of politicians, strategists and hangers-on.
Waitresses at the Plaza Grille restaurant wistfully remember the times when tips were good and the gossip was even better. "It was never a dull moment with Bill Clinton," said one.
Pardon me whilst I'm sick in the corner - Ivan
In a race defined by who the two candidates know rather than what they say, the Republicans countered the Clinton factor with an extraordinary array of star appearances last week. Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, toured the state yesterday.
Charlton Heston, known locally as "Moses" after his most famous film role, spoke on the same platform as the Republican candidate the day before. Oliver North also made the trip to Little Rock.
The two candidates have meanwhile made a spirited attempt to keep a grip on their campaigns. Mr Hutchinson accused his opponent of favouring tighter legislation on gun ownership, a certain vote-loser in Arkansas. Mr Pryor responded by appearing in a television spot wearing military fatigues and brandishing a rifle.
Democrat campaigners have gleefully accused Mr Hutchinson, who is closely associated with the religious Right, of lax moral standards following his divorce and subsequent remarriage to a member of his Senate staff. To ram the point home, Mr Pryor appears on the hustings with a Bible. The poll ratings remain stubbornly even.
Among young Republicans at Ouachita Baptist University, there was a distinct air of apprehension. "Clinton is an operator and a pretty unscrupulous one at that," said Stuart Jones, the chairman of the university Republican group.
As he spoke, a student removed the cardboard cut-out of Mr Bush. With a fraught Senate campaign reaching its final stages, Mr Hutchinson will be relieved to see the President in the flesh tomorrow.
I am thankful to see that most FReepers with this "holier than everybody else" attitude do not live in Arkansas and therefore will not be the ones to determine the outcome of this election. Rest assured, the Arkansas FReepers are working very hard for Tim Hutchinson and will do our part tomorrow to remind voters what Clinton did for TO Arkansas!
Mark Pryor is NO conservative but he is sure TRYING to say he is. Another LIAR just like his buddy Clinton! The Pryors and Clintons are VERY good friends! I wonder if Mark Pryor had a problem with Bill Clinton and Monica? NO!!! Yet he brings up Hutchinson's getting REMARRIED!!! I hate these people!
No, he's a man who walked out on the kids he brought into this world. It's a sign of how Clintonized and Hugh Heffnerized our society has become - even many freepers - that such wicked behavior is seen as no big deal.
No; just some of His followers.
It might please you to know that divorces are just as common in the Christian community as they are in the general population.
Your piety makes me sick! I hope you get exactly what you deserve........................Nothing!
Tell me, do you not care about his kids? Do YOU have kids you've abandoned so you could screw around with another woman? Is that why you're so protective of this evil lout?
BTW, how many skeletons are locked away in your closet? People who think they are BETTER than everyone else are usually just the opposite.
Tim Hutchinson is NOT my MORAL leader! He is ONLY my elected official who I expect to VOTE on things I care about the way I would. I don't want to know who he slept with last night.
As I've noted, I oppose family-abandonment because it's bad for kids and bad for society. I'm not making an argument from religion or "piety," but from common sense. Your ignorance is truly breathtaking.
Clinton couldn't have said it better. In fact, isn't that a direct quote from Clinton or Carville? I love it the way freepers stand up for Clintonite politicians - as long as they're Republicans.
That is so true. Those who would bite off their noses to spite their faces (pouting Pubs mad at Hutch for his divorce)will cost us a great senator if they actually stay home or vote for Pryor. They will in essence make this a Clintonized state again! Pryor is bad news. A liar already. How much more a liar when he is sipping suds with Daschle!
LOL!
Does Tim Huthinson have kids he's abandoned? He is NOT screwing around with another woman...HE MARRIED HER! Maybe there is MORE to the story than YOU KNOW! I wouldn't put anything past the Clintons for putting out this CRAP! Go ahead and vote for someone who SAYS they are more moral than the rest of us while the REAL immorals run the country! IDIOTS!!!
What poppycock!
When you marry a bitch you divorce her. I wasted years of my life with one.
Uh, would this abandoned child be this guy? Representative Jeremy Hutchinson resides in Little Rock with his wife, son and baby daughter. He is an investment banker and the son of Senator Tim Hutchinson. Kinda hard to abandon a 27 year old, don't cha think?
I have met both Clinton and Hutchinson. Believe me, there is no comparison. Hutchinson is a fine man. Clinton gave me the creeps and I couldn't wait to be out of his presence.
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