But that does not really matter. What matters, senior campaign officials say, is that Mr. Clinton's unexpectedly wide strength this late in the race allows the Democrats to play a highly offensive game, spending an extraordinary amount of time in theoretically Republican states, picking and choosing targets from New England to the Deep South.

"People tend to think of a Presidential campaign as one national effort, but internally, at this point, all we think about every day is about separate states, putting the 270 electoral votes we need together state by state," said George Stephanopoulos, the campaign's communications director.

"And every time we go to a Bush state, we pin Bush down another day in his own bunker," he said. "Look at the places where Bush is spending his time now: Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee. We are forcing him to spend great amounts of time defending his own turf. And any of these states that we actually carry is a state right out of George Bush's hide." Recalls Dukakis's Plight

In the Clinton camp's view, Mr. Bush finds himself in a position very similar to that Michael S. Dukakis enjoyed at about this time in 1988.

"In 1988, Dukakis was the one trying to thread the needle, looking desperately for a way to put together enough states to hit 270," said Craig Smith, the campaign's national field director. "That puts you automatically on the defensive. Dukakis spent all his time playing between his own goal line and their 20-yard line. This year we are playing the entire field, and it's the Republicans who are stuck between their goal and the 20."

Even if Mr. Clinton ultimately fails to carry many of the Republican states, his strategists figure they win by their current strategy of targeting these states because it all goes to keep the Bush campaign managers off balance, running around the country answering Mr. Clinton's attacks. "It plays with their minds," as Mr. Stephanopoulos put it.

It does more than that. It works to dominate state-by-state news , producing daily reports favorable to Mr. Clinton and unfavorable to Mr. Bush. That would be important in any campaign strategy, but it is crucial in the Clinton operation. 'Get-on-TV' Strategy