A NEW poll shows that President Clinton remains unaffected by the recent conviction of his former business colleagues in the Whitewater affair. But the poll is bad news for Senator Bob Dole whose approval ratings have fallen sharply in spite of his decision to quit the Senate to concentrate on the presidential" campaign.
Another boost for the White House has come from the release an FBI investigation into finger prints on Mrs Hillary Clinton's billing records for legal work which had disappeared for two years. They turned up last January on a table in a reading room in the White House.
A Senate committee investigating Whitewater asked the FBI to investigate whose fingerprints were on the records. Republican opponents of the Clintons were hoping that this would show that the records had been handled by other White House aides and thus prove that they were being hidden from the committee rather than missing as Mrs Clinton has claimed.
But the FBI report shows only fingerprints from Mrs Clinton herself and five other named persons, including Mr Vince Foster, a White House lawyer who committed suicide in July 1993, and who had been asked to review the billing records before they disappeared.
The White House has hailed the FBI findings as "completely undermining" the Republican charges that the documents had been moved from Mr Foster's office the night of his death and deliberately concealed.
As expected, the President has been ordered to testify by videotape in the trial of two Arkansas bankers accused of fraudulently using funds to contribute to the 1990 campaign by Mr Clinton to be re-elected governor.
Mr Clinton appointed both men to prestigious posts after he was re-elected governor but strongly denies that this was in return for a $7,000 contribution to his campaign.
The poll taken last weekend the New York Times and shows that 54 per cent say they would vote for Mr Clinton for President and 35 per cent would vote for Senator Dole who has to be formally nominated as Republican candidate. This takes account of the bad publicity for the President over the Whitewater trials and of Mr Dole's dramatic announcement that he was quitting the Senate.
Even more worrying for Mr Dole is that the figure of those.a who have a "favourable" opinion, of him has fallen from 37 to 29 per cent while his "unfavourable" rating is steady at 35 per cent.
In answer to a question about how both men are doing their job, the President's approval rating remains steady at 51 per cent while Mr Dole's at 42 per cent has fallen 10 points since April.
While the findings are depressing for the Republicans, much hope is being pinned on Mr Dole's plan to announce a substantial tax cut.
As has frequently happened, the President has stolen the Republicans clothes. This week he proposed a new $1,500 tax credit to finance the first two years of, higher education on condition that the students get a B average grade and avoid a drugs conviction. This is in addition to a proposal which would allow parents to deduct $10,000 from taxable income to help pay college fees which are as high as $30,000 a year at Princeton where the President made his latest proposal during a graduation address.
There is one snag. Both proposals would have to be approved by a Republican controlled Congress which will be unwilling to give the President this boost in an election year. But he will get good marks for trying.