European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 7, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday april 7,1992 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary Sydney h. Schanber Trust is underlying Issue for undecided voters in a 58 and i think this is probably the most important presidential election in my lifetime. Yet in a in a condition that no one in the columnists Trade is supposed to admit to a in a undecided. The new York primary is today and in a expected to have an opinion about who is the Best person to be president of the United states at a time when our ship of state is rocking badly and the world beyond our Borders is even More unsteady its shape changing almost kaleidoscopic ally. But my Only Clear and a blurred opinion is a negative one the person to Lead us is not George Bush a lost political creation who is living on empty platitudes of the past and cannot grasp even the present let alone Deal with the future. Of those who Are left Bill Clinton governor of Arkansas for the past decade has won More primaries than his democratic rivals and is thus ahead in the Delegate count. His party a political professionals parched for a Winner after a 12-year drought desperately want to believe he has the right stuff a which in presidential campaigns is called  in the states of the deep South he stands out As a progressive on race and other social issues though his history seems much less impressive to liberals in other regions. As governor he had played Golf several times a year at an Allwhite country club in Little Rock a and did so again last month in the full Glare of Campaign scrutiny. His lame explanation a spokesman said a no one Ever complained about it before hardly allayed the anxieties of those who see Nim As a viable candidate but find him evasive and All too smooth. The question that must be asked is not so much about his character As about his ambition. Is it so overweening has it consumed him for so Long that now that the brass ring is almost within reach he cannot bring himself to Tell the whole truth about Bill Clinton or even the majority of truth for fear of losing his big Chance Clinton says he has been hammered by the press examined with a laser Microscope. He is not wrong. The press pokes Ana picks at presidential candidates these Days with an intrusiveness that did no to exist 10 or 15 years ago. The press does no to explain itself much either saying merely that times have changed and the Public wants to know everything. As thoughtful explanations go this is major baloney. In part the new invasive Ness reflects the Media a sensitivity to criticism that it had played Lap dog to its favourites such As John Kennedy and failed to examine carefully either their Public pasts or private lives. So now we be swung to the other extreme. Quot but this alone does no to explain Clinton a problem which is much of his own doing. Every time he is asked questions about this or that potential conflict of interest in his record As governor he slips and slides gives half answers says its a old news a uses circumlocution a but almost never responds with a Clear full and direct explanation. This is Why voters express unease about him. He is clearly intelligent focused a fighter and a Superb politician and campaigner a but people Are still asking what a really in his gut aside from that ambition. Trust is the Issue. Is he someone to Trust of course All seekers of the presidency Are fiercely ambitious. Without ambition no Public person would be Able to tolerate or withstand the inhuman demands and stresses of such a Campaign. Jerry Brown Clinton a chief rival at the moment is also no stranger to ambition. There seven a bit of the demagogue in him campaigning now As a a battering ram for the people against the status quo of a entrenched interests and a corrupt  but shrill and non mainstream though it May be his message calling on voters to a take Back Quot their government has tapped into a wide vein of disillusionment in this recession wounded country. Many people Are listening As Brown Speaks of the need for a political revolution one to be achieved constitutionally without arms. Brainy eccentric and unpredictable the former California governor says not without considerable pragmatic evidence that the National government and the political parties have become dysfunctional because they Are out of touch with Ordinary people and Beholden instead to the Fortune 500. But Brown himself has been Beholden to such interests at various times in his political life. In explanation he says he has evolved seen the corrupt Ness of it All and changed. His critics say he a a Chameleon who can alter his coloration to suit any circumstance. Again the Issue of Trust arises. Can you rely on Jerry Brown to remain constant to the Clarion Calls for social change he is sounding now there is on the ballot a Man whose character and constancy Are not at Issue a Paul Tsongas. But Tsongas a a suspended his Campaign after he lost to Clinton in Michigan and Illinois and his flow of Campaign donations dried up. Some liberals saw Tsongas economic positions As too pro business and he did not draw wide support from working class voters. But his fairness honesty and strength of purpose were never in question. He could be trusted. Might Tsongas be the answer for the unease about both Clinton and Brown would he take his Campaign out of suspension if say 15 or 20 percent of new Yorkus democrats vote for him on tuesday this is my thinking process today for what its Worth As i wrestle with my quandary As a voter. But it deserves a lot of thought. This election is an important one. C nowadays David s. Broke candidates Aren t meeting society s challenges since the presidential Campaign came to new York City the candidates have been talking about crime drugs homelessness and unemployment a the four most visible symptoms of Urban decline across America. Arkansas gov. Bill Clinton also has spoken openly and honestly about the problem of race which underlies and exacerbates All of these other conditions. But there is a ritualistic character to the speeches Clinton and former California gov. Jerry Brown have been giving a and to the 45-second, or 1-minute responses they punch out at their almost daily debates. As candidates they Are almost bound to talk As if their election would by itself change the economic and social forces that have left so Many neighbourhoods devastated and dangerous encampments of people without Hope. President Bush spoke to the mayors who visited him at the White House last Winter about encouraging Volunteer programs and creating a commission on the Urban family As if such gestures would be sufficient. Likewise Clinton and Brown Are forced to hype the effects of what they know to be half measures. The reality is both better and worse than the candidates Republican and democratic Are prepared to suggest. Better because not All cities Are in decline. Many Small and Middle sized cities Are becoming More liable places. Some Large cities Are Riding out the recession in far better shape than new York. Even in new York there Are neighbourhoods that Are renovating themselves. And even in the slums some families by dint of extraordinary Effort survive and see that their children Are educated Well enough to make the american dream of a better future a realistic  the reality is worse also because without a commitment to make the massive investment in reversing the decline of vast areas of cities like new York their future is Bleak no matter who sits in the White House. That Point was made starkly in recent speeches by two democrats who Are not running for president and who May therefore be Able to speak with More Candor than the candidates. Sen. Bill Bradley of new Jersey spoke on the Senate floor returning for the second year in a Row to his Effort to focus his colleagues attention on race and the cities. Four Days later at Yale sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts addressed the same theme. Neither minced words. Kerry asked the Yale students a to consider a different part of the reality of America today a violent drug Riaden rat infested reality a reality in which the institutions of civilized social life have broken Down of disintegrated families boarded up storefronts schools that have become armed Camps and crack houses replacing Community centers As the focus of neighbourhood life. A i ask you to consider a reality where More than 80 percent of babies Are born to single mothers where Young men die violently at a rate exceeding that of any american War where Only one child in three finishes High school and even then too often can barely read where the spread of aids and homelessness rips so visibly at the fabric of Community where far too Many families Are on welfare for far too Long and where far too Many children carry guns instead of lunch boxes to school.�?�. After a similar description of today a slum neighbourhoods Bradley told his Senate colleagues that the future of the cities would a take one of three paths abandonment encirclement or  abandonment he said Means that All who Are Able to escape will flee the old cities for the corporate Parks and shopping centers in the a Edge cities where economic activity now has shifted leaving those who cannot move a the poor the aged the uneducated a to fend for themselves. Encirclement said Bradley Means living in enclaves building a the racial and ethnic Walls. Higher. It will be a clockwork Orange society in which the Rich will pay for their Security the Middle class will continue to flee As they confront violence and the poor will be preyed upon at will or will join the army of violent  a conversion a in Bradley a terminology requires nothing less than a comprehensive Effort to reverse All the forces that fuel the downward spiral starting with intervention in the first year of a child a life. Bradley Calls for the provision of sheltered nurturing stimulating environments for the countless infants whose parents can offer none of these qualities at Home. He also would have this country make massive investments in Law enforcement drug education and treatment and economic development in the neighbourhoods that now Are being abandoned. None of this Bradley says with Bleak realism will happen without much stronger leadership at the National level a and just As important much stronger leadership in each neighbourhood and Community. Is there a will to face this Challenge it will take More than the speeches the candidates Are making in new York to convince americans that the answer is yes. C the Washington poet