European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 2, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday february 2, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary what newspapers Are saying at Home the following editorial excerpts Are selected from a Cross Section of newspapers throughout the United states. The editorials Are provided to the stars and stripes by the associated press and United press  Miami Herald Bill Clinton is not Gary Hart Dejavu. Voters can and should distinguish this years Flap Over unsubstantiated allegations of past infidelity with 1987�?Ts exposure of that years front running Democrat. Governor and mrs Clinton have been forthright in acknowledging past rough spots in their marriage and admirable in defending marital privacy on network television and in countless personal appearances. Enough is enough. It is rude nonsense to ask a candidate a have you Ever a questions about intimate relations. Every mature person has private aspects of his or her past that Are properly kept Between the marriage partners. Detroit free press a the character of Bill Clinton or anyone else aspiring to the presidency is an appropriate area of concern for the american people. This is not a Gary Hart Case in which the candidate almost dared the Media to try to catch him and then acted in a Way that assured they would. Clinton has conceded that he is not a perfect Man. But he and his wife seem to have sorted out their relationship and he is entitled to a serious hearing on the basis of who and what he and his wife Are As humans just like the rest of  Philadelphia inquirer we done to care if Bill Clinton had an affair with Gennifer Flowers the Little Rock entertainer who is currently reaping her 15 minutes of Fame. Not if As his immensely appealing wife insists the couple is Back on an even keel and that there is love and respect on the Domestic front. We can to help thinking of the Joy and Hope that John f. Kennedy brought to the presidency while indulging apparently in a a daily illicit sex in the White House. Had he worn the Scarlet letter would America have been better off will if if Clinton does the times Union Albany . The question of How to judge a candidates private life Isnit easy to answer. Much depends on circumstances. Gennifer Flowers charges have their own set of contradictions and the incident May soon be forgotten. Yet the larger question remains does a past indiscretion expose a serious character flaw that would disqualify the candidate. Flowers paints gov. Bill Clinton As a selfish and weak Man who instructed her to cover up their past a including one sexual encounter in the menus room of the governors mansion. Hillary Clinton paints him As a mature partner in a marriage that has weathered Rocky times. For All the issues surrounding the governor in this Campaign it will come Down to which woman the Public believes a and rightly  Democrat Fazatte Little Rock Ark. Perhaps 100 million americans saw and heard gov. Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary interviewed on cd so 60 minutes. The subject was Little Rock Singer Gennifer Flowers allegations that she had a 12-year affair with Clinton. If Clinton really did As governor engage in a 12-year affair or in multiple affairs that should disqualify him for the presidency a almost regardless of his regrets or his wife a forgiveness. A pattern of ongoing infidelities would show a terrible Lack of judgment. Anyone who risks his career his marriage and his family by endless womanizing is not the Man to whom we would entrust our  Blade Toledo Ohio it Isnit news that Media coverage of the War in the persian Gulf was manipulated by the Pentagon. For All of the shots of news reporters speaking to cameras while jets flew overhead or the dramatic pictures of missiles exploding coverage was constrained by military guidelines. President Bush reaped enormous Benefit from his handling of the Gulf War. His approval ratings were impressive. No doubt his Campaign managers hoped this would carry through to november despite his lacklustre management of the Economy. But with each passing month the Post Gulf euphoria fades. Assertions that some coverage of the War was tainted will do nothing to reverse that  Orange county Calif Register now the real scandal begins. Demagogues leapt from every Bush to beat their breasts when the los Angeles county transportation commission chose a japanese company to provide automatic trains for a spoke in los Angeles Light rail system. Never mind that Sumitomo corp. Had a record of competence and accomplishment in mass transit systems that the american competitors  match. So now the transportation commission has seen the Light a or Felt the heat a and backed out of the agreement with Sumitomo. The extraordinary episode bad news not just for Sumitomo but for All taxpayers in general comes Courtesy of the America first mania that a both pressuring and being stirred up by those politicians longer on expediency than principle. Fort Worth Texas Star Telegram the action of the los Angeles county transportation commission in cancelling a contract for a japanese firm to build rail cars for a commuter line is understandable and perhaps laudable but the Lon term Benefit of such actions is that they will put greater pressure on . Companies to be truly competitive in design and Quality of manufacture. In these perilous economic times it is hard to oppose such ideas. Where possible a buying american would be Good for the nation. But it also puts the onus on american Industry to make it a More possible by Matching the Best of any foreign competitor. Nothing you see is  wis Eagle Star thumbs Down to american businesses that cry foul on one hand because of Trade imbalances with Japan and other foreign countries but on the other hand conduct business with foreign nations. The associated press recently moved a photo of a Conoho Tanker being constructed at a Kobe Island shipyard in South Korea. The Tanker will transport crude Oil from Venezuela and Mexico to conc of a Lake Charles la., refinery. What is wrong with shipyards in the United states Kearney neb Hub the foundation of Japan bashing is the general frustration americans feel with poor economic conditions and the nations inability to balance Trade with Japan. For the first time in Many years americans fear that the next generation May suffer a lower Standard of living than its  Dally Gazette Schenectady . Amid the growing Din of a a America first rhetoric Many americans Are not too favourably inclined toward the $645 million Aid package president Bush recently pledged to the sex soviet republics. Some economists too Nave questioned whether monetary Aid is the Best Way to achieve Market Reform in these countries. Shredding the extensive safety net that people grew up with under communism runs the risk of a backlash against markets and a nationalistic reaction against foreign  san Francisco the image of the United states abroad As an advanced nation with life saving Medicine and technology is being tarnished by its image As a merchant of cancer in Asia. There is something disturbing about a . Health policy that urges americans not to smoke coupled with a Trade policy that tells foreigners to smoke . Cigarettes. Tho Parkersburg . News like the bourbons of pre revolutionary France congressional leaders Are fond of constructing ostentatious quarters for themselves at taxpayers expense. Their latest display of gluttonous behaviour can be found in elevators serving the House of representatives Side of the Capitol. While most members of the House headed for their Home districts Over the holidays House speaker Tom Foley ordered Marble floors installed in inc elevators. Not just any old Marble either. This stuff Cost $250 per Square foot. Total Bill $26,000. Term limits anyone Dally press Newport news Hampton a. This is the kind of thing president Bush should have been doing More of Over the past four years visiting head Start centers. The president dropped in on one in Maryland. To announce a proposed increase in funding for the program that prepares poor children for school and for life. People know it works so lets give it a Chance to  Mountain nows donor watching George Bush Golly gee Whiz his Way across new Hampshire snowfields recently it struck us that there Are certain mantles of character even grossly imperfect mantles of character that Wear better than others across the presidential shoulders. Incline to melancholy like Lincoln. Be aloof like Wilson. Wheel and Deal like Johnson even Dally like Kennedy. But never Ever Grovel and whine. That however has apparently become the behavioural cloak of our current commander in chief who behaved in january like a Cross Between a penitent Monk and a victorian spinster. The Ann Arbor Mich nows with the pundits taking regular potshots at vice president Dan Quayle since 1988, you would think that he would have Learned to hold the and Libs. Alas he has not which keeps watching Quayle entertaining if not enlightening. Quayle has not been tempered by his propensity for Faux Pas in and Libbing. Recently while visiting a Burger King in Norco calif., he remarked that a a now hiring sign in the window Means that a things Are beginning to turn around in  recovery Quayle style that a a whopper. If his circuits Are so overloaded As vice president the thought that he relishes becoming president is frightening