Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post
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Subject: President Clinton
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 92 16:16:30 EST
Message-ID: <news37.1992Nov4.161630@AmeriCast.com>

\SE A
\HD President Clinton
\SH Bush ousted in Electoral College landslide
\BY Paul Bedard
\CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Bill Clinton of Arkansas, whose idolization of John F.  Kennedy guided
a lifelong pursuit of the presidency, defeated President Bush yesterday to
win election as the 42nd president of the United States.

The 46-year-old governor struggled to win 44 percent of the popular
vote, but his triumph was a blowout in the Electoral College: He was
projected to win at least 363 electoral votes to Mr.  Bush's 118, with 57
up for grabs.  It takes 270 to win.

With 70 percent of the popular vote counted early this morning, Mr.
Clinton had 44 percent, Mr.  Bush 39 percent and independent Ross Perot,
the Dallas billionaire, 17 percent.  He won no electoral votes.

CNN declared Mr.  Clinton and Sen.  Al Gore of Tennessee the winners at
10:38 p.m.

In other national contests:

* Voters sent five Democratic women to the Senate, including Carol
Moseley Braun of Illinois, the first black woman elected to the chamber.
Colorado Democratic Rep.  Ben Nighthorse Campbell became the first American
Indian elected to the Senate.

* Twenty Democratic seats and 15 Republican seats were at stake this
year in the Senate.  In early returns, 19 Democrats and 11 Republicans were
projected winners.  One Democratic and two Republican senators were
defeated.  Democrats appeared certain to increase their 57-43 majority.

* But the Republicans seemed likely to increase their minority
delegation in the House by picking up at least 23 seats.

* The 103rd Congress should have at least 122 new representatives - the
largest new group since World War II.  The number of defeated incumbents
yesterday rivals that of 1981, the last time the White House changed
parties, when 31 incumbents lost.

The election was a reversal of Mr.  Bush's crushing victory over
Democrat Michael Dukakis four years ago, when Mr.  Bush took 426 electoral
votes, and made the president the ninth incumbent to be refused a second
term.

The stunning victory of what many saw as the nation's first baby boomer
to reach the White House was the result of a remarkable coalition of states
in the West, New England and Midwest that had recently voted Republican but
this time embraced the Rhodes scholar's message of change and activist
Democratic government.

Mr.  Perot's placement on all 50 state ballots and the $60 million he
spent to take his anti-Washington, anti-deficit campaign to Americans via
television proved to be the most potent independent challenge since George
Wallace took 13.5 percent of the vote in 1968. A Democratic official said
last night party polls indicated that much of Mr.  Perot's support came
from Mr.  Bush's base.

At a raucous rally in Little Rock, Ark., Mr.  Clinton, the 14th
Democrat elected to the White House, appeared with his lawyer wife,
Hillary, and daughter, Chelsea, to accept the cheers of the crowd.

Nearly two hours after he was declared the winner, Mr.  Clinton
appeared a flag-bedecked stage at the Old State House and said, "The
American people have voted to make a new beginning."  He called the
election "a clarion call for our country to face the challenges of the end
of the Cold War and the beginning of the next century."

Called "a new Democrat" by Mr.  Gore, Mr.  Clinton held out his hand to
congressional Republicans to "be a part of a new partnership" in
Washington.

Mr.  Gore, dubbed "Mr.  Ozone" by the Republicans in the final days of
an ugly campaign, told thousands in Little Rock: "Welcome aboard the Good
Ship USA."

Mr.  Bush, who undertook the campaign late and whose re-election was
saddled with a yearlong recession and last-minute charges linking him anew
to the Iran-Contra scandal, conceded in Houston at 11 p.m.

A relieved Mr.  Bush said: "We have fought the good fight, and we kept
the faith.  . . . I ask that we stand behind our new president."

Mr.  Bush offered to work with the Clinton team to "ensure the smooth
transition of power," and he pledged in retirement to "get very active in
the grandchild business and in finding ways to help others."

The scene in Indiana, home of Vice President Dan Quayle, was slightly
different.  Supporters in Indianapolis greeted the loss with cheers of
"Quayle in '96."

Mr.  Perot, who watched the returns from his home in Dallas, suggested
that he is prepared to stay in presidential politics.

"We'll keep on going as long as you want to keep on going," he said in
a concession speech.  "We've got work to do starting right away."

Mr.  Perot said he is prepared to cooperate with Mr.  Clinton to cut
the deficit.  "I'm available," he said.

Huge voter turnout helped propel the Clinton electoral landslide,
political analysts said.  In Maryland, Virginia and the District, voters
reported unusually long lines.

Sensational state races and ballot questions throughout the nation
brought out usually apathetic people to the polls, analysts said.

The message of the election: change.

The results of key races around the nation:

Illinois Democrat Carol Moseley Braun overcame a scandal to beat
challenger Rich Williamson to become the first black woman elected to the
Senate.

North Carolina Republican Loch Faircloth beat Sen.  Terry Sanford.

Wisconsin Democrat Russell Feingold unseated Republican Sen.  Robert
Kasten Jr.

The most controversial ballot measure in the nation, setting term
limits on lawmakers, won overwhelmingly despite the re-election of most
incumbents to the House and Senate.

Mr.  Clinton's whopping Electoral College win was notable because he
took states that usually have voted Republican, including New Hampshire,
Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey and California.  And Mr.  Bush lost such crucial
states as his home states of Maine and Texas.

Republicans were quick to charge that Mr.  Clinton didn't get a mandate
and that the vote was not a repudiation of conservative politics.  "There's
not a clear mandate there," Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole said of Mr.
Clinton's slimmer popular vote win.  Mr.  Dole, of Kansas, won re-election
last night.

The election of Mr.  Clinton and the swelling number of liberals in the
Senate and House are expected to shift Washington politics to the left for
the first time since 1978, when President Carter lost the support of
Congress.

The 1992 presidential race was wacky and unconventional.  Mr.  Clinton
was the first to play the new game, taking to morning, afternoon and
late-night talk shows, even MTV.

Mr.  Bush was a late comer to the new style of campaigning, and Mr.
Perot elbowed his way in by buying hours of TV time for his ads after he
joined the race he quit on the last day of the Democratic National
Convention in July.

Written off by media and political pundits during the winter after he
faced charges of womanizing and draft dodging, the four-term Arkansas
governor showed his durability and cemented his reputation as a politician
who can wiggle out of any crisis: "Mr.  Slick," according to his critics.

The final surge to victory for the 46-year-old governor, despite a
slight dip in opinion polls late last week, was carefully crafted by the
Democratic National Committee under Chairman Ron Brown.  Four years ago,
the DNC redesigned its presidential election machine so that the winner of
the party nomination could rely on it effectively in the general campaign.

Mr.  Clinton's election ended Mr.  Bush's 26-year career, which started
in 1966 when he was elected to represent Houston in Congress.  The former
ambassador to China and CIA director ran for the presidency in 1980 and was
chosen to be Ronald Reagan's vice presidential candidate.

But the coalition of states that put Mr.  Bush in office fell apart
this year because of the recession, the perception that Mr.  Bush was out
of touch with typical Americans, and the diminished importance of foreign
policy experience after the collapse of the Soviet Union.  And the Southern
style of Mr.  Clinton and Mr.  Gore grabbed a large slice of the
evangelical vote.

In a prophetic moment, Mr.  Bush, 68, bought a hunting license and a
fishing reel in Houston yesterday after voting.  The president, who is to
return to the White House today for a final rally, has talked about his
retirement plans during the past two months.

But the White House had wanted to face Mr.  Clinton in the general
election.  A senior campaign political aide said that even before the New
Hampshire primary in February the GOP thought Mr.  Clinton would be easy to
knock off because he has little international experience, runs a state that
ranks near the bottom in most key social-policy areas and has come under
attack for character flaws.

But in every case, Mr.  Clinton wrestled himself free from controversy.
First there were charges of womanizing by Gennifer Flowers.  Then there
were charges of draft evasion.  Mr.  Bush accused Mr.  Clinton of
flip-flopping on major issues: the so-called "Waffle House" charge.  And
finally the Bush-Quayle campaign tried to paint Arkansas under Mr.  Clinton
as a tiny backwater that even hound dogs refuse to live in.

Nothing stuck as Mr.  Clinton made passionate defenses of his character
and turned the GOP attacks on Mr.  Bush.  With every attack, Mr.  Clinton
called the Republicans pathetic and noted Mr.  Bush's statement that he
would do "anything" to win re-election.

Under the belated guidance of former Secretary of State James A.  Baker
III, Mr.  Bush ran a campaign that was a copy of his highly negative 1988
defeat of Mr.  Dukakis.  In that election, Mr.  Bush received 47,946,422
votes, or 54 percent, to Mr.  Dukakis' 41,016,429, or 46 percent.

But this year, the voters seemed more annoyed with the negative
campaigning of Mr.  Bush, who called Mr.  Gore "Ozone Man" for his
environmental passion and repeatedly accused Mr.  Clinton of lacking the
necessary character to man the Oval Office.

From the start, the president didn't appear to take his re-election
seriously.  In the New Hampshire primary, for example, he only visited the
state at the last minute and only after conservative columnist and
challenger Pat Buchanan threatened to surprise the president.

By then, Mr.  Bush's 91 percent popularity after the Gulf war had
receded, and the recession was in full swing.  Mr.  Bush was slow to come
up with an economic fix-it plan, which then failed to pass in Congress.

Mr.  Clinton, meanwhile, rolled through a highly successful Democratic
convention in New York City and had his campaign in full gear.

His campaign took off just after the convention, when he and Mr.  Gore
set off to tour key Midwest cities in an unconventional bus tour.

While he also played the attack game, Mr.  Clinton laid out mountains
of promises, offering to provide health care to the poor, cut taxes on the
middle class and expand government social programs.  He was dubbed a
"policy wonk" for his lust of debating activist policies.

Mr.  Clinton has told supporters that his image of public service began
when he met Mr.  Kennedy at the White House when he was a 16-year-old
delegate to Boy's Nation.

He also claimed to be closer to middle-class Americans than Mr.  Bush,
who grew up the son of an affluent Connecticut senator and banker.  Unlike
the president's cloistered childhood, Mr.  Clinton was the stepson of an
abusive alcoholic and was raised from a toddler by his grandparents after
his widowed mother returned to nursing school.

Mr.  Clinton pledged in his announcement speech given Oct.  3, 1991, in
Little Rock to take a middle road on many controversial issues and adopted
many positions pushed by Republicans, such as "workfare" and empowerment.


This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to
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