THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: Monday, August 26, 1996 TAG: 9608260224 SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL TYPE: Editorial LENGTH: 50 lines
The Democratic convention to renominate Bill Clinton for president kicks off today in Chicago. The situation is strange in several ways.
The Democrats ought to be united and upbeat. They've got an incumbent in the White House with a 10-point lead, a healthy economy and no trouble abroad. That's generally a prescription for Election Day success.
But Clinton has sidled to the right throughtout his term, an evolution capped by his signing of an essentially Republican welfare-reform measure last Thursday. The liberal wing of his party regards him as a turncoat.
Also on his watch both houses of Congress were captured by the Republicans in a humiliating end to decades of Democratic dominance. So Clinton may arrive at this convention more popular with the country at large than with fellow Democrats.
There's also the character issue to contend with. Republicans can be counted on to make much of the fact that Clinton's term has been one damning thing after another - accusations, fumbles and revelations. The list is long and familiar. The draft and marijuana in college; Whitewater, cattle futures and bimbo eruptions in Arkansas; travelgate, filegate and other assorted missteps and allegations in the White House.
With Clinton there's always the feeling that the next disastrous revelation is just around the corner. He's a sword-of-Damocles candidate, but he's also a relentless and tireless campaigner. In 1992 his own awed staff named him Robocandidate. Reagan was dubbed the Teflon president because nothing stuck to him. By contrast, everything stuck to Clinton but he just kept coming. He can be counted on for the same tenacity this time around.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Clinton (really about the rest of us) has been that the same voters who admit they don't find him trustworthy nevertheless approve of his policies and intend to vote for him.
He's also a lucky candidate. He might not have been able to beat George Bush in the electoral college one-on-one, but he didn't have to: Ross Perot rode to his rescue. And here Ross comes again to siphon votes from Dole. Also, though the president's party lost Congress, it gained Newt Gingrich whose overreaching agenda and slashing rhetoric caused a backlash.
The Republican convention seemed to indicate that Dole will run on good character and the promise of tax breaks. Clinton can be expected to counter by warning that a Republican Congress makes him the last bulwark against ruinous assaults on education, the environment, Medicare and Social Security.
Paradoxically, a Democrat will run as the fiscal conservative against free-lunch Republicanism. That's one more indication that the parties are still engaged in an ongoing post-Cold War process of reinventing themselves. In November, voters will tell them how well they're doing. by CNB