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From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com
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Subject: President-elect Clinton
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 92 11:28:29 EST
Message-ID: <comment20.1992Nov6.112829@AmeriCast.com>

\SE G;COMMENTARY;EDITORIAL
\HD President-elect Clinton

The Democrats ran a superb campaign, the Republicans suffered from an
incumbent candidate whose actions and inaction inflicted severe damage on
himself, the people spoke, and congratulations are in order for
President-elect Bill Clinton and his running mate, Al Gore.

Mr.  Clinton's tenacity borders on Terminatorhood.  He absorbed blow
after seemingly devastating blow but reconstituted himself quickly and
completely.  He looked unshakeably confident throughout.  Perhaps when he
made the decision to seek his party's nomination more than a year ago, when
George Bush's approval ratings were still high and his re-election appeared
to be a cinch, Mr.  Clinton was merely positioning himself for a second run
in 1996. But he quickly seized on the president's mounting weakness, and he
never let go.

To be sure, he eventually got some substantial help from a press corps
most of which, despite its insistence on its impartiality, clearly wanted
him to win.  The decisions about what was and what was not an issue, what
was and what was not a story, reflected that desire.  There are, however,
two things that people who would like to blame the media for Mr.  Clinton's
success should note.  In the first place, during the primary campaign, Mr.
Clinton by no means got a free pass from the press.  In fact, his way of
responding to charges that surfaced in the media during the primary might
offer some lessons to Republicans who find themselves enmeshed in scandals,
real or manufactured.  In the second place, if the inclinations of the
elite media actually determined electoral outcomes, the results of
elections in 1980, 1984 and 1988 would have been possible.  The media do
not dictate the outcome of presidential elections.  Voters do, based on
their assessment of the candidate and his message.

And what was that assessment?  Well, it will take time to study the
exit polls.  But a few preliminary observations:

Mr.  Bush's attacks on Mr.  Clinton's character and candor took a toll.
Few were the voters who said that the quality they most admired in Mr.
Clinton was his honesty.  On the other hand, Mr.  Bush was himself badly
damaged by the betrayal of his tax pledge.  And the attacks on him for
neither knowing nor caring much about domestic matters - a portrait of a
callous ignoramus - were barbed enough to sting badly.  In the end, neither
man was much liked.

On to the message, then.  Mr.  Bush was naturally vulnerable to attacks
on his credibility, and the Democrats did not hesitate to exploit that
vulnerability.  One of the most effective scenes from the Clinton cmapaign
was the candidate's appearance at the Astrodome in Houston, scene of "Read
my lips."  It mattered little, it seems, what Mr.  Bush had to offer.  Many
voters never even got to that question.  They were willing to take their
leave on credibility alone.

Whatever Mr.  Clinton's credibility problems, they were no worse.  As
for the substance of his message, here, too, many voters found little to
worry them.  Clearly, Mr.  Clinton was going to do something; to the extent
that inaction itself was a problem, he offered a solution.  And he was
careful to distinguish himself from past nominees of his party.  He was no
old-style Democrat.  He seemed to accept the notion that "tax-and-spend"
and "liberal" were fair labels to apply to other Democrats, but he insisted
that they did not apply to him.  And he even offered a sort of tax pledge
of his own, saying that while those who profited most from the tax cuts of
the Reagan years - those earning $200,000 a year or more - would have to
pay more, he would not raise taxes on the middle class to pay for his
programs.

In all of this, Mr.  Clinton may think he allowed himself wiggle room.
But voters heard his description of a moderate - almost conservative -
Democrat.  And that is what they are expecting.

If Mr.  Clinton is actually something else, he is in for serious
trouble with the public.  And if he is as moderate as he says, he is in for
serious trouble with the more liberal Democrats who rule Capitol Hill.
Politics will be fascinating during the Clinton administration.


This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to
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