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The Jury Is Still Out
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# : |
11697 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1994 |
2,222 Words |
| Author
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Lee Edwards
Lee Edwards is senior editor for the Current Issues section
of THE WORLD & I. His latest book is The Power of Ideas: The
Heritage Foundation at Twenty-five. |
How would you describe a president who:
*Must work around the clock to persuade a Congress dominated by his own party to pass by just one vote his $496 billion deficit reduction program?
*Sees his $16 billion stimulus spending package fall to a Republican filibuster but wins a tough North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) battle with strong GOP backing?
*Pledges to lift the ban on homosexuals in the military but accepts a compromise approach in the face of widespread opposition?
*Widens significantly U.S. operations in Somalia but quickly sets a withdrawal date after the deaths of 18 American servicemen?
*Receives the lowest approval ratings at the end of his first year in office (around 50 percent) of any modern president?
What is President Bill Clinton? A Carter clone, off balance and uncertain in his dealings with Capitol Hill, or an LBJ lookalike, confident in his ability to master Congress and get things done? A new FDR, determined to remake America through health-care reform and other revolutionary programs?
In fact, all three comparisons have been used by analysts trying to sum up what Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell called "the most productive first year . . . since President Eisenhower's first term." What Mitchell did not say was that the year was most "productive" for the liberal majority in Congress whose statist agenda President Clinton adopted, rather than the reverse.
Steve Hess of the Brookings Institution has described the Clinton governing style as "mountain-goat government." The president "keeps jumping from one crag to the next," says Hess, "and you wonder if he's going to make it every time."
The president's chief counsel and spin master, David Gergen, argues that "a new era of floating coalitions" has been ushered in by Clinton. Under the new rules, says Gergen, "today's adversary will be tomorrow's friend, and vice versa."
Gergen may be right. House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt was adamantly opposed to NAFTA but will be a key leader
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