LEHRER: All right. The question's is for President Clinton. Does anybody have a foreign affairs question in this section? Yes, sir.

MR. SMITH: Good evening. I'm Michael Smith. I'm an electronics technician in the Navy. My question was how you plan to deal with the trade deficit with Japan.

CLINTON: Let me tell you what we have done. We have concluded with Japan 21 -- about to be 22 -- trade agreements now. And since we did that, in the areas where we concluded, trade agreements or exports to Japan have gone up by 85 percent in the last four years and our trade deficit with Japan has gone down. Until about five months ago the Japanese economy was in a deep recession. It's coming back now, so they can buy even more American products, and I think it will go down more. But I'm very -- that's one of the real success stories here of the work we've done. We're selling Japanese rice from California for the first time. I visited a Chrysler dealership in Tokyo. I visited a Jeep plant, a plant in Toledo, Ohio, where they're going to export 41,000 right hand drive Jeeps this year, and they've got 700 new jobs because of it. There's no easy way to do this when you're dealing with an economy that's traditionally been more closed than one that's traditionally been more open. You have to gut it out, issue by issue by issue. We agreed in principle on an insurance agreement, and we're working on three or four other areas now, but the way you have to do it is make sure you're competitive. We're the most competitive country in the world now, and then just fight to open those markets and go try to make the sale, and that's what our trade ambassador our commerce secretary and all the other people in our administration are trying to do.

DOLE: Well, the bottom line is we have to stop exporting jobs here. There are357, 000 good jobs -- manufacturing jobs, which are lost. And I assume some of those are because of our trading partners. We didn't have access to their markets. We ought to insist on access. If we don't have access to their markets the same way they've access our markets, we ought to say, "Wait, that's enough. Time out. When you give us access, we'll give you access." It's very hard to get into the Japan market, as everybody knows. They want to get into our market. They sell a lot of automobiles here, create a lot of jobs -- those who sell exports. And that's very important to the economy, but I think we want to make certain. I supported the President's trade policy. But we got to be more aggressive. Once you have a policy, then you have to go out and be aggressive and enforce that policy. There are American jobs that are being lost. This is what Ross Perot complains about. And I'd say to the Reform party, take a look at the Republican party. We're the reform party, and we're going to make things better, and one of the things we're going to do is stop exporting jobs in America.

CLINTON: Let me say again, we've had over 200 separate trade agreements in the last four years. By far, the largest number in American history -- not just the big ones you read about, but a lot of smaller ones. And now what we have to do is to focus on those things we're real good at and make sure we're getting a fair deal. We just had a pretty serious dispute with China because they were copying our CDs, and costing thousands of jobs in places like California. So we have -- as we said, if you want to keep doing business and selling your products over here, you're going to have to quit pirating our CDs, and they agreed to do things and verify that they had done it, which will make the problem much better. There is not a simple answer. You have to work on this day in and day out, every month ,every year, every issue, to make sure that we have not only free trade but fair trade. I'm proud that we're better off on that than we were four years ago.

LEHRER: The next question is for Senator Dole -- in this section. Yes, sir?

MR. KITE: Rod Kite, minister.

DOLE: Hi, Rod.

MR. KITE: This great nation has been established by the founding fathers who possessed a very strong Christian belief in godly principles. If elected president of the United States, what could you do to return this nation to these basic principles? And also, do you feel that the president -- the office of president has the responsibility to set the role example to inspire our young people?

DOLE: Well no doubt about it, our founding fathers had a great deal of wisdom. In addition to what you mentioned, they also were concerned about this all-powerful central government in Washington, D.C., that'd in effect confiscate your property, so -- I carry it in my pocket -- I can't pull it out or I'd violate the rules -- a copy of the Tenth Amendment which says we ought to return power to the states and the people, the people here. You ought to make more decisions. Honor, duty, and country, that's what America is all about. Certainly the President of the United States, the highest office in the world, the most important office in the world, has a responsibility to young people, as we talked about earlier. To everyone. By example. And when it comes to public ethics, he has a responsibility. And you have 30-some in your administration, either left or being investigated or in jail or whatever, then you've got an ethical problem. This is public ethics; I'm not talking about private. Public ethics. When you have 900 files gathered up by some guy who is a bouncer in a bar and hired a security officer to collect files, in Watergate -- I know a person who went to jail for looking at one file, one FBI file. There are 900 sequestered in the White House. . People like you. Why should they be rifling through your files? The president has a great responsibility. That's one that I understand and certainly will carry out.

CLINTON: This is the most religious, great country in history. And yet, interestingly enough, we have the most religious freedom of any country in the world, including the freedom not to believe. And now we have all these people just up the road in Los Angeles County, we have people from 150 different racial and ethnic groups and tons of different religions, but the fundamental tenets of virtually every religion are the same, and what I try to do is to support policies that would respect religion and then help parents inculcate those values to their children. Let me very briefly give you some examples. One of my proudest moments was signing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, that says the government has got to bend over backwards before we interfere with religious practice. So I changed the Justice Department's effort to get a church to pay back a man tide, because he was bancrupt when he gave it. I have supported character education programs in our schools, drug-free schools programs. I supported giving parents a V chip on their television so if they don't want their young kids to watch things they shouldn't watch, they wouldn't have to. That is the kind of thing we have to do, give people like you and our families the power to give those values to our children.

DOLE: I think it's -- before I came in, my wife and daughter and I had a prayer. Because it's God's will, whatever happens. It's God's will, it'll happen. The constitutional amendment for voluntary prayer in school, in my view would be a great idea. I support it; the president opposes it. It seems to me the president, whoever the president may be, this is one of his highest responsibilities. People look to the President of the United States more than any other person in America. And that's the way it's always been, and that's the way it always will be.

LEHRER: All right. This is our last question. It goes to President Clinton and it's from this section. Yes, ma'am.

MS. DUBE: My name is Yvette Dube and I too am a minister. I'm with the Universal Metropolitan Community Churches. President Clinton, perhaps you can help me with something tonight. I heard Mr. Dole say several times "all of us together," and when he was asked if he would support equal rights and employment for gay and lesbian people, you said that you favored that, and he said that he did not believe in special rights. And I thought the question was equal rights for all people. And I don't understand why people are using the term "special rights" when the question is "equal rights." Could you help me in understanding that?

CLINTON: I want to answer your question, but let me say one other thing. We don't need a constitutional amendment for kids to pray, and what I did was to have the justice department and the education department for the first time ever issue a set of guidelines that we gave to every school in America, saying that children could not be interfered with in religious advocacy when they were praying, when they were doing whatever they could do under the constitution, just because they were on a public school ground, and I think anyone who's experienced this will tell you that our administration has done more than any in years to clarify the freedom of religion in the public square, including in the public schools. Now, I think I have to let Senator Dole speak for himself. It wouldn't be fair for me to do that. I would wind up -- I mean, it's the last question and I would mischaracterize it to try to make you happy. Let me tell you what I feel. We have a lot of differences in our country, and some of us feel that other people's decisions are wrong, even immoral. But under our constitution, if you show up tomorrow and obey the law, and you work hard and you do what you're supposed to do, you are entitled to equal treatment. That's the way the system works. All over the world, people are being torn apart -- Bosnia, the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Ruwanda, Burundi -- you name it -- because of all their differences. We still have some of that hatred inside us. You see it in the church burnings. And one of the things I've tried hardest to do is to tell the American people that we have to get beyond that, we have to understand that we're stronger when we unite around shared values instead of being divided by our differences.

LEHRER: Senator Dole.

DOLE: Well, I hope I made my answer clear. I said I'm opposed to discrimination. You kno we've suffered discrimination in the disability community. There are 43 million of us. And I can recall cases where people would cross the street rather than meet somebody in a wheelchair. So we want to end discrimination. I think that answers itself. No discrimination in America. We've made that clear. And I would just say that it seems to me that that's the way it ought to be. We shouldn't discriminate -- race, color, whatever -- life-style, disability. This is America. And we're all proud of it. But we're not there yet. What we need is good, strong leadership going in the next century. I'm sorry we didn't have a foreign policy question, because just this week Secretary Christopher said, "Well, we really didn't know much the first couple of years about foreign policy." Now that was quite an admission. It underscores what I had to say in the Hartford debate, that there is really no foreign policy in this administration. It's sort of ad hoc, just whatever comes up, we'll deal with it. Unfortunately, we didn't have more questions on that.

CLINTON: Let me say again, there is no more important responsibility for the president than to say if you believe in the constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence, that's all we need to know. And you can be part of our America and you can walk across that bridge to the 21st century with us. And we are not well served when we attack each other in a kind of ad hominem way. It doesn't create jobs. It doesn't educate children. It doesn't solve problems. We need to be disagreeing on ideas, honestly, and talking about the future. The future will be the greatest time in this country's history if we can beat this division that is bedeviling the whole rest of the world.

LEHRER: All right. Now we go to the closing statement. Senator Dole, you're first. Two minutes, sir.

DOLE: Well, let me thank everybody here at the University and, Jim, thank you. All the people who may still be watching or viewing. This is what it's all about. It's not about me. It's not about President Clinton. It's about the process. It's about selecting a president of the United States. So we have our differences. We should have our differences. Mentioned other parties. They have their differences. We all agreed it would be a pretty dull place. We should have more debates. Maybe we will have another debate on the economy. But I would just say this. This is the highest honor that I have ever had in my life, to think that somebody from Russell, Kansas, somebody who grew up living in a basement apartment, someone whose parents didn't finish high school, somebody who spent about 39 months in hospitals after World War II, someone who uses a buttonhook every day to get dressed. Somebody who understands that there're real Americans out there with real problems, whether soccer moms, or the single parents, the families or the seniors, or people with disabilities, whoever it may be. There are some very fundamental differences in this campaign. President Clinton opposes term limits, opposes a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. President Clinton opposes voluntary prayer amendment. Opposes an amendment to protect the flag of the United States of America. People give their lives. Couple of service men here. They sacrifice, give everything for America. We ought to protect the American flag with a constitutional amendment. But beyond that we need to address the economy. I will just say my time is running out here. It's a very proud moment for me. What I want the voters to do is to make a decision. And I want them to be proud of their vote in the years ahead. Proud that they voted for the right candidate. Proud that they voted hopefully for me. And I'll just make you one promise, my word is good. Democrats and Republicans said Bob Dole's word is good. I keep my word. I promise you the economy is going to get better. We're going to have a good economic plan. We're going into the next century a better America. Thank you.

CLINTON: Thank you, Jim. And thank you, ladies and gentlemen, and all the people who are watching. One thing I would like to say is I agree with what Senator Dole said. It's a remarkable thing in a country like ours, a man who grew up in Russell, Kansas, and one who was born to a widowed mother in Hope, Arkansas, could wind up running president. Could have a chance to serve as president. First thing I want to say is thank you for giving me the chance to be president. This election is about two different visions about how we should go into the 21st Century. Would we be better off as I believe, working together to give each other the tools we need to make the most of our God-given potential, or are we better off saying, you're on your own? Would we be better off building that bridge to the future together so we can all walk across it or saying you can get across yourself? If you don't agree -- leave this room with anything else tonight and if the people watching us don't leave with anything else, I hope you will leave with this. This is a real important election. The world is changing dramatically in how we work and how we live, how we relate to each other, huge changes. And the decisions we make will have enormous practical consequences. So we've talked about our responsibility tonight. I want to talk about your responsibility, and your responsibility. Your responsibility is to show up on November the 5th. Because you're going to decide whether we're going to balance the budget now, but protect Medicare, Medicaid, education and the environment. You will decide whether we're going to keep fighting crime with a Brady Bill, assault weapons and finish putting those 100,000 police. Whether we're going to move a million people from welfare to work. Whether we're going to give our families more protection for their kids against drugs and tobacco and gangs and guns. Whether we're going to give our children a world-class education. Where every eight-year-old can read. Every 12-year-old can log in on the Internet. Every 18-year-old can go to college. If we do those things we will build that bridge to the 21st Century and the greatest country in history will be even greater. Thank you.

LEHRER: Thank you, Senator. Thank you, Mr. President. This concludes -- this is the last of the three 1996 presidential and vice-presidential debates.