Clinton Dials For Votes

President Clinton, who has been noticeably absent from this year's presidential campaign, was on the phone Monday and Tuesday in an effort to get out the vote for Vice President Al Gore and Democrats across the country.

He predicted that voters would send Gore to the White House, saying he had no regrets about the way the Democratic campaign had been run and his limited role in it.

"(Gore) has done everything he can do and I think he's done it very well, especially in the last couple of weeks," the president told reporters late Monday aboard Air Force One en route to Chappaqua, where he president cast his ballot Tuesday morning for Gore and for his own wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is running for the U.S. Senate.

Mr. Clinton kept mostly out of the public eye on election eve but gave voters around the country an earful as he called around to radio stations stumping for Gore.

Working from the White House map room, Mr. Clinton made more than a dozen calls to radio stations in battleground states on Monday afternoon. He urged Gore supporters to get out and vote in a race going down to the wire.

Among the stations he called was WFAN, where he spoke on Mike and the Mad Dog show, calling the presidential election "tight as a tick."
He added, "People have to think about how this decision affects them, their community and their country."

Mr. Clinton said he would spend Election Day working the phones and giving additional interviews to radio stations in key states to "encourage people to vote."

"I think the important thing is that the side that wants to win the most will probably win. There is no question in my mind that Vice President Gore and (running mate Sen. Joseph Lieberman) will win," Mr. Clinton said in a call to CBS radio station WBBM in Chicago.

Democrats are counting on a massive get-out-the vote effort to bring African-Americans, Latinos, union members and other core supporters to the polls for Gore.

Mr. Clinton voted early in the morning with his wife and and their daughter Chelsea at Douglas Grafflin Elementary School in Chappaqua, the Clintons' home town in the state.

Chelsea voted first, followed by Mrs. Clinton, who emerged from the booth beaming, and then the president -- who officially becomes a "lame duck" Wednesday.

"You can't put me down as undecided. I'm there," said the president.

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