ES MOINES - President Clinton visited the presidential battleground state of Iowa yesterday to plug his proposal for school renovations and express concern for the financial woes of small farmers.
Aides said the president's visit, which also was to include two fund-raising appearances for Iowa Democratic Senator Tom Harkin, had no explicit connection with the escalating 2000 campaign to determine his successor.
But Clinton supported themes sounded earlier in Iowa by Vice President Al Gore, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, and stole some of the limelight from Republican front-runner George W. Bush, who was wrapping up a two-day Iowa visit yesterday.
Iowa is the site of the nation's first state presidential nominating contest next February and an informal but closely watched Republican straw poll next month.
''You folks should be glad to see me in Iowa. I'm the only guy that's been here in weeks that's not running for anything,'' Clinton said in a speech at Hiatt Middle School.
Clinton came to the 74-year-old building, where members of an audience of several hundred were fanning themselves in the heat, to make his pitch for a proposed $24.8 billion tax-credit bond program aimed at financing renovations in 6,000 schools nationwide.
He contrasted the proposed tax break with the broader tax cuts backed by many Republicans, which he said would crowd out other goals such as overhauling the Medicare health care program for the elderly. Clinton also said a Republican school-renovation proposal would aid only 644 schools.
Clinton said in his speech he had arranged a private meeting with Iowa farmers.
