European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 18, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday february 18, 1992 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary James j. Kilpatric democrats feeble five add up to Hullsville a Universal tendency crops up in every age a the tendency of humanity to exalt the past and to deprecate the present. It has cropped up again in new Hampshire As veterans of political wars observe the passing scene. Allowing for this Mote in our aging eyes it still May be said with Confidence of the democratic candidates this is a feeble Field. Not one of the five has shown anything approaching the stature of a potential president of the United states. Weekend polls had Paul Tsongas comfortably ahead of Bill Clinton. Tom Harkin was behind Clinton. Bob Kerrey and Jerry Brown were Down among the also rans. That was the lot. The polls reflect the intelligence of the new Hampshire voters. Tsongas is the least known nationally but he makes the most sense. The gentleman served two terms in the House one term in the Senate and then dropped out because of illness. He is making the fewest promises. Alas he has the personality of a Cherrystone Clam and personality is one key to leadership. Clinton the governor of Arkansas might be governor of rotary. He has an affable soul. To my knowledge he has not intentionally said anything that might offend anybody. His unwritten slogan is we aim to please. He did offend Mario Cuomo of course but any child of 5 could do that and it Wasny to on purpose. He did no to mean it. He took it Back. Harkin the Junior senator from Iowa is Busy Busy Busy. In the past three weeks he has shaken half the hands in new Hampshire. He has trekked gamely All the Way from Nashua to Berlin and Back again hitting every truck Stop along routes 16 and 1-93, and he has 11 percent of the vote. Personality is not harking a problem. He has the personality of a Distant Tornado a All wind far off the ground. Nothing much can be said of Bob Kerrey the Junior senator from Nebraska because there seems to be nothing much there. The gentleman won the medal of Honor for valor in Vietnam. We might have expected some fire and fight but he is emerging As the dormouse at this Tea party. His ideas Are thoroughly pedestrian. He outscored Clinton in the sensitivity league. Two months ago he heard a dirty joke about lesbians. He had the ill Grace to chuckle faintly it was a Lousy joke and still he is filled with Rue. Who a left Jerry Brown sex governor sex Flake. Brown was much More interesting As a California wacko. Now that he a deadly serious he a deadly. He a against corruption. There a a platform for you that a the feeble five. Its too late for a Democrat of real stature to get into the race. Surely Many dispirited democrats must dream of sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas or sen. Ernest f. Hollings of South Carolina or sen. Albert Gore or. Of Tennessee. Any one of them has More ability than the feeble five combined. Dreams dissolve in the acid of reality. By feb. 20, filing deadlines will have passed in 25 states including such biggies As Texas new York Ohio Illinois Michigan and Massachusetts. No democratic candidate has been drafted by a party convention since Adlai Stevenson in 1952. Mario Cuomo might yet Knock the delegates out of their socks with a slam bang Welcome at Madison Square Garden in july. Could be. A me. The old Days look better All the time. �?T72 was a Vintage year. Maine sed Muskie won big in new Hampshire. The following week George Wallace the big wave from Alabama swamped everyone in Florida. George Mcgovern proved to be the Tortoise that overtook the hares. Shirley Chisholm of Texas bless her was in the scramble. Even Sam Yorty of California provided some laughs. A journalist is bound to remember �?T76 with real nos Talgia Jimmy Carter Birch Bayh Fred Harris of Oklahoma George Wallace again. To Udall of Arizona a real sweetheart was running that year. The late Henry a a scoop Jackson also added some class to that primary Campaign. Walter Mondale a year was 1984. A Good Man. He might have made a Fine candidate against anyone but Ronald Reagan. Well the primary season is still Young and Hope Springs eternal in a newsman a breast. New Hampshire As we have to keep reminding ourselves is really immaterial. Democratic voters will choose Only 24ldclegatcs out of the 4,282 who will whoop it up in new York. Things will get More exciting with super tuesday on March 10. Until then to hum. The olympic games at Albertville attract the jaded Eye. C unlvof8al press Syndicate Anthony Lewis Bush s cold shoulder puts Cis Hopes at risk it May have been the greatest failure of american political imagination since world War ii the costliest abdication of leadership president Bush a failure to join promptly in helping to build new societies in what had been the soviet Union. So we must begin to think As we see what is happening in the former soviet republics today devastating inflation and economic distress social tension political menace. People Are asking whether Boris n. Yeltsin can survive in Russia or May be overthrown by a new authoritarianism of the right. The stakes Are enormous not just for them but for us a Europe,.the United states the developed world. Collapse of the democratic Experiment in the former republics would create a refugee crisis of Large proportions. It could destabilize the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. It would turn a potential Opportunity for world Trade and investment into threatening uncertainty. Weimar is the grisly example in history the German democracy whose collapse led to War and the holocaust. It was brought forcefully to mind when anti Yeltsin marchers in Moscow shouted against jews and called for the return of communism. The transition from the soviet system to Market democracy was inevitably going to be difficult. And of course it could not be an american responsibility. But what a difference . Help a and As important a visibly sympathetic american attitude a could have made. What Bush has offered instead Over the last year has been disregard. When Germany proposed a collaborative Effort by the Industrial Powers to help economically Bush said no. He would not even move last summer on emergency assistance leaving it to Congress to come up with a $500 million plan to transport food and help disable nuclear weapons. Political fear was no doubt the explanation for Bush a performance. He was being criticized for neglecting Domestic affairs and polls showed that americans were increasingly sceptical about foreign Aid when they themselves were suffering economically. But a Leader would have explained to the american people How Large the stakes were How great the Opportunity. That is what Harry Truman did with greek turkish Aid the Marshall plan the North Atlantic treaty. And americans responded taking on those burdens. The key to the Marshall plans Success was not Only or mainly american Money. It was the political and psychological effect of the american commitment and of the requirement imposed by the United states that the recipient countries of Western Europe draw up their own recovery plan. It would not have taken a it would not take a huge amounts of . Money to help the former soviet republics significantly. A favourable american response would have brought in the other developed countries. Economists say that $25 billion a year would make a great difference and not much of that would have to come from the United states. The United states spent upward of $100 billion a year in 1992 dollars on the defense of Europe during the decades of the cold War. Now for want of comparatively trivial sums we May lose the nope that the end of the cold War brought Hope of the old soviet republics becoming productive and democratic participants in the world Economy. And the Hope of the former soviet satellites is at risk too. President Voclav Havel of Czechoslovakia when he spoke to Congress two years ago said Quot you can help us most of All if you help the soviet Union on its irreversible but immensely complicated Road to  his foreign minister Jiri Dienstbier proposed a modest sensible financial plan for the .s.r. And its former satellites. But it got nowhere in the Bush administration. Prof. Richard Neustadt the Harvard chronicler of presidential Power and its uses expressed anguish the other Day at this presidential episode. A it just seems to me terrible Quot he said. A i fear for what is going to happen in Prague and Warsaw and All the soviet capitals. If there had been just some show of american  if things go wrong Bush will go Down As the american president who saved the Emir of Kuwait and lost for democracy the great land mass Between the Vistula and Vladivostok. C the new Yorm times the opinion expressed in the columns end cartoons on thle poo represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to do considered a representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government