For the Record

■ Compilation of polls by daily political report The Hotline has Bill Clinton leading in 37 states for 428 electoral votes; Bob Dole leading in 13 for 101 electoral votes. … In California, Dole still trails by 17 points, with voters evenly split on whether Dole or Clinton has better ideas for handling illegal immigration. Dole would beat Clinton by just 30,000 votes in GOP-rich Orange County; typically, Republicans need to carry Orange County by 300,000. . . . Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll asks whom Americans would rather sit next to on a plane; 35 per cent say the Clintons, 23 per cent the Doles. . . . But first round of Louisiana Senate race provides a cautionary lesson against putting too much faith in polls: Republican Woody Jenkins surged to first-place finish shortly after polls showed him in fourth place. … In haggling over debates, Dole campaign succeeded in excluding Ross Perot, but gave way on all other fronts: there will be just two debates rather than the four the Dole camp pushed for, and one of them will be the town-hall format favored by Clinton. . . . Former Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm says Perot should be in debates even though the Texan refused to debate Lamm for Reform Party nomination: “Being individually hypocritical is a lot different from actually having an important message that the nation has to hear.” . . . Dole’s former chief of staff, Sheila Burke, is now splitting time between Harvard’s JFK School of Government and Dole campaign.

■ ABC’s Sam Donaldson, famous for shouting questions at President Reagan, says that except for CBS’s Rita Braver he has “heard no reporters trying to ask the President any question” on the campaign trail. “[T]here seems to be a change in attitude toward covering the President. I’m not being critical. I’m just saying it has changed. Maybe they’ve figured out a better way.” … A new Dole ad features footage of Clinton telling an MTV audience that he would have inhaled if he had it to do over again. Asked by Barbara Walters about the MTV comment, Clinton responds: “I was trying to say that I actually tried. I was not trying to exonerate myself when I said I didn’t inhale. . . . The important message is that these things are dangerous, that I wish I’d never done any of that, although I did such a little bit.” . . . Clinton, triangulating away, is signing bills in defiance of his instincts, but visibly keeping his distance. He signs Defense of Marriage Act at 12:50 in the morning, on a plane. On welfare reform, he signs bill but says Hillary will have a role in fixing it in second term: “When I signed the bill, I said it was the beginning, not the end. And I think the real advocates of children, including the First Lady, have to weigh in here.” . . . Liberal Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen recants his support for partialbirth abortion after reading report in his own paper that perhaps the majority of late-term abortions are not for medical reasons: “If, in fact, most women seeking late-term abortions have just come to grips a bit late with their pregnancy, then the word ‘choice’ has been stretched beyond a reasonable point. . . . President Clinton, apparently as misinformed as I was about late-term abortions, now ought to look at the new data.”

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■ Compilation of polls by daily political report The Hotline has Bill Clinton leading in 37 states for 428 electoral votes; Bob Dole leading in 13 for 101 electoral votes. … In California, Dole still trails by 17 points, with voters evenly split on whether Dole or Clinton has better ideas for handling illegal immigration. Dole would beat Clinton by just 30,000 votes in GOP-rich Orange County; typically, Republicans need to carry Orange County by 300,000. . . . Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll asks whom Americans would rather sit next to on a plane; 35 per cent say the Clintons, 23 per cent the Doles. . . . But first round of Louisiana Senate race provides a cautionary lesson against putting too much faith in polls: Republican Woody Jenkins surged to first-place finish shortly after polls showed him in fourth place. … In haggling over debates, Dole campaign succeeded in excluding Ross Perot, but gave way on all other fronts: there will be just two debates rather than the four the Dole camp pushed for, and one of them will be the town-hall format favored by Clinton. . . . Former Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm says Perot should be in debates even though the Texan refused to debate Lamm for Reform Party nomination: “Being individually hypocritical is a lot different from actually having an important message that the nation has to hear.” . . . Dole’s former chief of staff, Sheila Burke, is now splitting time between Harvard’s JFK School of Government and Dole campaign.

■ ABC’s Sam Donaldson, famous for shouting questions at President Reagan, says that except for CBS’s Rita Braver he has “heard no reporters trying to ask the President any question” on the campaign trail. “[T]here seems to be a change in attitude toward covering the President. I’m not being critical. I’m just saying it has changed. Maybe they’ve figured out a better way.” … A new Dole ad features footage of Clinton telling an MTV audience that he would have inhaled if he had it to do over again. Asked by Barbara Walters about the MTV comment, Clinton responds: “I was trying to say that I actually tried. I was not trying to exonerate myself when I said I didn’t inhale. . . . The important message is that these things are dangerous, that I wish I’d never done any of that, although I did such a little bit.” . . . Clinton, triangulating away, is signing bills in defiance of his instincts, but visibly keeping his distance. He signs Defense of Marriage Act at 12:50 in the morning, on a plane. On welfare reform, he signs bill but says Hillary will have a role in fixing it in second term: “When I signed the bill, I said it was the beginning, not the end. And I think the real advocates of children, including the First Lady, have to weigh in here.” . . . Liberal Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen recants his support for partialbirth abortion after reading report in his own paper that perhaps the majority of late-term abortions are not for medical reasons: “If, in fact, most women seeking late-term abortions have just come to grips a bit late with their pregnancy, then the word ‘choice’ has been stretched beyond a reasonable point. . . . President Clinton, apparently as misinformed as I was about late-term abortions, now ought to look at the new data.”