But this convenience store is already doing a very good business with commuters who are
heading for their jobs in Los Angeles two hours away.
The people who live in these far-flung new bedroom communities may well make the difference
in California's choice for president.
The election needs to be fought right now to the commuters.
They're sort of the new frontier people.
They have left the city to go where the land's affordable so that they can have a starter
home.
They're banking on things being better for the next five years.
There are dozens of California communities like Lancaster with more than 100,000 people
that barely existed before the Reagan years.
Voters here are concerned about education and about urban crime.
They live from paycheck to paycheck.
A downturn in the economy would devastate them.
Many are Democrats who voted for Reagan, the swing voters of this election.
The Democrats have done something unique in California politics, a grassroots campaign
to woo the Reagan Democrats back.
We have those red, white, and blue signs all up and down.
A lot of the Republicans thought that it couldn't be done, but we have actually contacted more
than a million voters already in California.
The Republicans in California have waged a much more traditional campaign with television
advertising at the core.
Today inflation is down, taxes are down, and the economy is stronger.
Trying to convince the Reagan Democrats that things will just be better with Bush in the
White House.
I believe that today America is better off.
And you've got to very strongly emphasize what President Reagan and Vice President Bush
have accomplished in terms of the economy.
Bush and Benson were in California over the weekend.
Dukakis will be here today.
Both sides say the race is still very tight here in California with as many as 15% of
the electorate still undecided.
Right?
Okay.
Don Oliver, Lucky Severson, Mike Leonard.
Gentlemen, thank you all.
Ken Bodie is next with the best and worst of the political ads.
Liberals in Congress to throw our money away and that special interest groups have been
putting his strings for years.
Produce some unusual television commercials.
While film has its Oscars and television has its Emmys and now Ken Bodie has some awards
of his own at the topic of Bodie's Journal.
Good morning, Ken.
Good morning, Jane.
Everything you're about to see is actually on tape, showing on television screens around
the country.
These are some of the best and the worst ads that politicians are using to sell themselves
this year.
Run for your lives.
It's the brain polluters.
First they invade your home.
Then they pollute your brain with political promises and expensive propaganda.
Yes, the brain polluters.
This year's video political pitch mania.
A good solution for brain pollution.
The best.
My opponent is a puppet commercials.
We're finally getting the truth about Tom Lueckin that he votes with the big spending
liberals in Congress to throw our money away and that special interest groups have been
putting his strings for years.
And here meet the special interest doll.
The AFL-CIO gave her over $7,000.
Full of strings and price tags.
And the seafarers union thinks she's a grand lady.
More and more strings.
Okay, in the jock category we have the fumbling basketball player.
And we have the skydiver.
In all my years of skydiving, one lesson is held true.
Even little mistakes can be costly.
And I believe that's true in Washington, too.
Washington needs some politicians who know how to land on their feet.
Ooh.
But the best jock entry of this year, the jogging justices of Texas.
Now they're trying to buy the Texas Supreme Court.
Texas, football, big money and backroom deals.
They've taken $2 million from special interests and here's the game plan.
This looks like the Judge Rehnquist morning exercise class.
The award for the best home video goes to Senator Danforth.
I'm told I'm the most feared senator in Japan.
Danforth should serve popcorn with this.
I sure appreciate your support again.
Not without the popcorn, thank you.
The award for the meanest, sneakiest, wickedest and wittiest ad of the year, using Republican
Senator Bob Dole's voice to skewer Republican Senator Pete Wilson.
Listen.
Senator Pete Wilson had had an appendectomy that morning.
We rolled him in from the hospital.
He was under heavy sedation.
They rolled him in on the floor.
I said, vote yes.
He voted yes.
We rolled him out again.
He does better under sedation.
From the sneakiest to the sweetest.
Since 1978, one or more of my grandchildren have been on television with me.
Grandpa Larson and the grandkids.
Happy to be back with us again this year.
And I'm pleased to say that all of my grandkids are with me again today.
Vote Grandpa Larson November 8th.
In the put them out to pasture category, cows were very big in political ads this year.
Doc Melchers, Montana talking cows are back.
Every election, some greenhorn runs against Doc Melcher.
They come in thinking they can put Doc out to pasture.
But they leave with an egg on their faces.
And worse on their shoes.
In the cow barns of Vermont, they're sweeping up after politicians.
I may not know everything, but I sure know where that kind of stuff belongs.
And here's a man who wants to trade the good outdoor life of Vermont for the blue suits
and slick politics of Washington.
Why?
I'm only in it up to my knees, but our farmers are in it up to their necks.
Bring those shoes with you to Washington, Peter.
We'll all be able to find you.
The best, the cheapest use of cows wasn't on TV.
It happened in a pasture in Nebraska.
Total cost, one can of paint and the patience of a few cows.
Puppets, jocks, grandfathers, grandkids and cows, cows, cows.
It's now up to the voters and if the ads are any indication they're about to elect a couple
of Guernsey's, a few Herefords and a Swiss Holstein.
Jane?
Thank you Ken.
Back after a message.
Candidates in just a moment.
Jane?
We've been on the rise on the voting booths in less than 24 hours and our panel of political
experts, Bode, Broder and Jumond will give us some last thoughts on what they expect
and we'll take a special look at many of those interesting, funny and outrageous moments
that have capsulized the last year and a half on the campaign trail.
All together, interesting, funny and outrageous.
8.01, on to the news desk.
Here's John Palmer.
Brian, Jane, thank you.
Good morning again.
In the news, it's only a matter of hours now before voters across the country go to the
polls to choose the next president of the United States.
Both major candidates remain on the campaign trail today trying to sway those still undecided
voters.
George Bush will swing through Michigan, Ohio and Missouri today before appearing tonight
on national television.
On Sunday in California, Bush blasted Michael Dukakis calling him hypocritical and naive.
He denied setting the negative tone of the campaign and he said of Dukakis, quote, if
he can't stand the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen.
The vice president will spend election day in Texas.
Dukakis is in Cleveland this morning where he met with members of the United Auto Workers
Union.
Andrea Mitchell is there in Cleveland and has more on the presidential race in that
state.
Good morning, Andrea.
Good morning again to you, John.
Well, it's a lot quieter here than it was an hour ago when Michael Dukakis came here
to Cleveland in a desperate attempt to carry Ohio.
Ohio is critical to any chances he might have of an upset victory.
He spoke here in this union hall trying to get traditional Democrats to come home.
Dukakis is hitting traditional Democratic themes in this final push and attacking what
he believes to be a Republican soft spot, Dan Quayle, ridiculing the idea that Quayle
could be put in charge of crisis management in a Bush White House.
Quayle isn't a crisis manager.
He's a crisis that has to be managed.
Now from here, Dukakis left for St. Louis.
Missouri is also a very close race.
Then it's back to California for a day of campaigning.
Then in the middle of the night, he will go to the Midwest, to Des Moines, Iowa.
And then we are told a last minute change is that he will head toward Detroit when polls
open in Michigan.
You can tell from the strategy that he's hitting all of the big states.
This is his last chance to try to pull off this upset victory.
John?
Thank you, Andrea.
In the final NBC News Wall Street Journal poll, Bush continues to lead Dukakis, but
by a narrower margin.
The Republicans lead now by only five percentage points, 48 to 43 percent.
Two weeks ago, Bush led by nine percentage points.
The vice presidential candidates are also campaigning today.
Dan Quayle will be in Baltimore and Virginia before returning tonight to his home state
of Indiana.
On Sunday, during a campaign stop in Richmond, Virginia, Quayle was asked if the Bush campaign
organization was intentionally giving him a low profile schedule in the waning days
of the campaign.
If you're going to Virginia, you got a 56, a 28 point lead.
Very versatile, very flexible.
We've got a good one, a bad one.
This is where you're most needed today?
Wherever they say.
The Democratic candidate Lloyd Benson was in his home state of Texas on Sunday trying
to narrow the gap between Bush and Dukakis.
Bob Jamieson has a report on that.
As the sun set over the Sierra Madre Mountains, Lloyd Benson wound up his weekend campaigning
in the west Texas town of El Paso.
Well, it's great to be home.
Delighted to be home.
His broad grin was inspired by the new NBC News poll.
And he accused Republicans of responding to the tighter race by trying to intimidate Hispanic
voters in Texas, a key block for the Democrats, warning that illegal voters face immigration
trouble.
Now they're trying to run radio ads in Spanish to try to keep Hispanics from voting, but
they won't do it because we're going to see them vote.
Turning out Hispanic and other traditional Democratic voters in Texas will be the main
concern of Benson's organization in the next 24 hours.
But on Meet the Press, Benson said an upset is within reach.
The move is very much in our direction and the undecideds are moving our way and that
is most encouraging.
It's going to be a dead heat.
But here in Texas, considered key to any hope of a national victory, the Democratic ticket
is trailing by almost 10 points.
So tomorrow, Benson will stump his home state one last time, trying to translate his personal
popularity into a win for Dukakis.
Bob Jamison, NBC News, with the Benson campaign in El Paso.
In eastern France, at least nine people were killed this morning when an express train
hit a work train and derailed.
Several people on the Luxembourg to Paris train were also hurt.
Friends of a computer who believe the tightening, it's going to be a little closer.
Actually I am low to predict, but I think it's going to be a fairly big Bush win.
Jack, David?
I don't think there's much question that Bush is going to win.
But it seems to me it's tightened in a few states.
I can see Bush winning by five or six points in popular vote and still winning a big electoral
vote landslide.
I think it's going to be a little bit bigger than that, Brian.
I think Dukakis has clearly been a strong closer in this campaign.
But he was so far down after the second presidential debate that I don't think he's managed to
make it a real contest.
Why has he been a strong closer?
I mean, just because he had so far to come?
Well, you know, one of the things that happens, Brian, is when a candidate gets far behind,
they become liberated.
And they start, they become loose and they start playing better politics than when they
were in a tight race.
They say all the things they should have been saying all along, which is what's happening
with Michael Dukakis.
If you look at the things that Dukakis is saying at the present time about quail, about
democratic populism, he hasn't really hit the Supreme Court theme, which I thought he
would.
And he hasn't hit the nuclear theme, which I thought he would.
But these are the things that really could have brought the Democrats back home.
It's been very late for him to do it.
And he's finally gotten to it.
And I think Jack's right why he did it.
Well, can you say he's, that he really could have brought the Democrats back home?
It strikes me that the environment for Bush and the Republicans this fall has been extraordinarily
favorable.
There hasn't been any bad news that has jolted the voters in, I don't know, four months,
six months.
And in that kind of environment, I think it would have been tough for the Democrats to
win the election.
Well, the bad news was to turn on your television and sit and see this campaign, which is about
as much bad news anybody could take.
I mean, it's been a disgrace.
But David, don't you fault Michael Dukakis for not creating an environment where George
Bush was forced to defend anything?
I do fault him for that.
But and I think that we've learned some things about Dukakis from this campaign.
I think the Democrats learned some things about him in terms of his unwillingness to
listen to people who said, you have to respond to these ads that Jack is talking about that
send a kind of disquieting message as to what kind of a president he might have made.
But or he might still make.
But it was going to be a tough election for the Democrats to win.
I think at the beginning of this, Michael Dukakis made a strategic error and it had
to do with the fact that he really believed that the end of the Democratic convention
or at the end of the primary season that he could win in 50 states, that it was going
to be a 50 state campaign.
He selected his vice presidential candidate to appeal to the Reagan Democrats to try to
bring that section of the party together.
He was told that they could run on that ticket.
But what's really happened all around the country is that Democrats in congressional
races and in Senate races have decided they just it's unacceptable.
He's too liberal and the Benson factor doesn't help enough.
So I think the caucus made a strategic error at the beginning by not trying to go back
to the Democratic base right away.
I think you made a more serious error, though, when the when they when Bush started all those
started to attack on all those issues, issues in quotes such as the Pledge of Allegiance
and the furlough program and the ACLU card carrying member of all those things.
Michael the caucus, I'm convinced he will deny this, but I'm convinced his attitude
was those things are so silly, nobody will take them seriously.
Well, they weren't as it turned out.
Let me ask all three of you to interpret the number for me.
I mean, the findings of this NBC poll this past weekend found that 21 percent of the
voters, fully one in five, say they've still not made up their minds or may yet change
their minds.
Brian, I asked a number of the campaign people about that, and I think partly what they suspect
is that those probably even half of those who still say they're undecided or may make
may change their minds will end up not voting at all.
Those are people who really haven't absorbed the information, haven't involved themselves
in the campaign.
The other half, the 10 percent, really are people who are fluctuating back and forth.
The fact that the fact that there's that many undecided bond is one of the reasons we're
all sort of hedging our bets, even if only minimally this morning.
That's a high 21 percent figure.
Well, I think I buy it, but I think I also agree with David that it's just an inflated
number.
And I think that the electorate is hemorrhaging at the bottom.
There are just a lot of people who are saying at this point, either one of these guys is
addressing the issues that I need to have addressed that I care about.
But can any voter legitimately say at this point that he still doesn't know where a certain
candidate stands on any of the issues?
No, I think the interviews and the amount of television exposure, I say this not to
flatter this network, but I've never seen a campaign where in the last two weeks the
networks have made such large blocks of time available to the candidates.
Dukakis has taken more advantage of that than Bush has.
But any voter who says that he doesn't know who these people are, what they stand for
at this point, really hasn't been listening or reading the coverage.
On the other hand, I've never seen a time when the networks, all of them, so uncritically
accepted a lot of symbolic garbage early in the campaign and helped Bush very successfully
and very cleverly build that picture of Dukakis.
So you say we're running to make amends at this point, Jack?
I think network presidents are like, oh, mafia dons, they want to get respectable before
they die.
Say goodbye, Jack.
No, no, no.
What about the voters, gentlemen?
I mean, can we say that they have been ill-served or well-served by the campaign at this point?
I mean, there was a general distaste all along.
But as we near the finish, do you sense a broader acceptance of what's been?
No, Brian, I'll tell you, I think one way the voters have not been well-served, and
that is by the enormous number of polls and the reporting of these polls throughout this
campaign.
I think polling has become the computer virus of political journalism, that basically a
lot of the stories that we do are characterized by polls and coverage of polls and the candidate
standing and what he's got to do are covered, colored by polls and so forth.
I'm really frankly fed up with it, and I think we ought to take a hard look at the way we
report these things in the future.
Kenny, let me play devil's advocate on that.
I mean, if the networks don't poll, aren't we left with taking whatever the campaigns
are offering in terms of their polls?
No, you're not.
First of all, you do poll.
You just don't let it seep into all the reporting that you're doing about the candidates.
How many stories have you heard about Michael Dukakis needing a miracle to win this thing?
How many times have you seen Dukakis covered in the context of how far behind he is in
the polls?
You do poll.
You just use your polls to guide your coverage in other directions.
Besides which, you can tell how a campaign is going by just going out there and doing
some honest, true leather, honest reporting.
When you go into a congressional district and you see that the candidate's not carrying
Michael Dukakis' literature, when you go to a rally and you find no Dukakis signs, no
Dukakis buttons, you know the Democratic party is deserting the candidate.
You don't need polls to tell you that.
In the minute and a half or so we have left, gentlemen, talk to me about turnout.
What do you foresee tomorrow?
I think it's going to be a light vote.
There are a lot of states where there really is no contest on the ballot that is in serious
doubt and I think those voters are probably going to make the practical judgment.
Why bother?
So I think we're going to see a light vote.
We had a last time in 84 when we had a campaign almost as dreadful as this one, there was
a blip up and the reason there was a blip up was because there had been an intense Democratic
registration campaign which the Republicans counted with one of their own.
This year there has been a Democratic registration campaign, a field campaign in several big
states.
I suspect it will be about like it is maybe a point less than last time, meaning 52 percent.
I think Jack and David are both about right.
I don't see a big drop down but in places like Illinois where the registration money
really never got to where it was supposed to go because they've got a mayor's race
next time, they didn't want to put a whole lot of blacks on the ticket who are in the
rolls would vote for Dukakis now but then vote for a black mayor next time, you see
registration down, New York and Illinois.
So I think it's going to be about a 51, 52 percent turn out.
Kenny as I thank you, let me ask Jack and David, what did you think of Kenny's film
festival gentlemen?
Thumbs up or thumbs down?
Bring it back.
I'm very big on cows.
I'm very big on cows.
Keep on working.
Gentlemen, thank you all very much.
Twenty-two past, we'll take a break right here.
We'll be back in San Francisco and Los Angeles on this election eve hoping you will see things
his way.
Dukakis will appear at a San Francisco waterfront rally at noon then jet down to LA for a Hollywood
hullabaloo at UCLA's Polly Pavilion this evening.
And along with the Republican and Democratic Party tickets to talk about today, there's
another ticket that could directly affect your pocketbook.
That's the parking ticket that you may not have paid.
A new statewide effort is underway to make you dole out the dollars.
The Department of Motor Vehicles says 470 courts, colleges, and city traffic departments
are cooperating in an effort to reduce the number of drivers who've been parking without
paying.
The only public appearance in rural Virginia where the Republicans hold a...