Video: 'Oct 6, 1996 - 1st Presidential Debate Clinton & Dole'

(Sunday, October 6, 1996, 9:00 p.m. EDT; during the 1996 presidential election campaign) — U.S. President Bill Clinton briskly defended his stewardship tonight as improving the lives of ordinary Americans while former Senator Bob Dole tried to chip at his record by saying that average people had become worse off in the last four years and would prosper with Dole’s proposal for a major tax cut.

The Republican challenger also repeatedly raised questions about the President’s character in the first debate of the 1996 presidential general election campaign.