ARRINGTON, R.I. - President Clinton, taking aim at George W. Bush as the Republican National Convention is about to convene, ridiculed the Texas governor's background and said he was trying to blur party distinctions.
The president said at a fund-raiser for Democratic Representative Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island: ''Near as I can tell, the message of the Bush campaign is just that, `I mean how bad could I be? I've been governor of Texas, my daddy was president. I own a baseball team. They like me down there.'''
Continuing to speak as if he were Bush, Clinton said, ''`Everything is rocking along hunky-dory. Their fraternity had it for eight years, give it to ours for eight years, because we're compassionate and humane, and we're not like what you think about us from watching the Congress for the last five years.'
''That's the message isn't it? Blur, blur, blur! Blur all the distinctions,'' Clinton said.
A Time-CNN-Gallup poll this week showed Bush with an 11-point lead over Vice President Al Gore.
