European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 23, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday november 23,1993 commentary the stars and stripes Pago 13 i Clinton buckling Down to role of president Anthony Lewis last week May have been the turn ing Point for a flagging presidency. It can be if Bill Clinton acts on the lessons of his two triumphs in that Naftal vote in the House was the second. President Clinton showed that he could work the political system to overcome the Odds and win a Tough one win big. He trounce the strange code Tion of yester Day s men who thought they had him beat Ross Perot Lane Kirk land Pat Buchan an Ralph Nader Etal. Clinton s first Triumph was a speech last saturday at the Church of god in Christ in Memphis Tenn. What he did there was in its Way As surprising As the winning Effort on Naftal. From the pulpit where or. Martin Luther King or. Spoke the night before hews assassinated in 1968, Clinton gave passionate voice to americans concerns about crime. He imagined what King would say if he could Sec his Community today i did not live and die to see the american family destroyed. I fought to Stop White people being so filled with hate that they would wreak violence on Black people. I did not fight for the right of Black people to murder other Black Memphis Clinton broke out of the pattern of political speeches of the expected and the calculated. He spoke As if from inside himself responding in emotional terms to the appalling reality in this country today. The response he got shows that one thing americans want a president to do is to speak out about wrongs not Al ways to have a 10-Point plan a graph but to speak. No one person can solve our problem of social decay but the presi Dent can make us face it. That is Teddy Roosevelt s bully pulpit. The Naftal Saga has another lesson. To be effective a president must focus of objectives crucial to him and the country. And then he must be Resolute in Pursuit of those objectives. Clinton was slow to focus on the North american free Trade agreement. While he delayed opponents got commitments from a lot of House democrats who could have been won for the treaty. The opposition got so far ahead that Many expected the president to Back away from Naftal. Instead he went All out and won. Too often before now Clinton has backed away from declared positions. There was a widespread belief in Washington that if you made something difficult for him he would Cave. In politics that perception is disabling. Clinton will have dispelled it if he follows up his Naftal performance with resolve on other issues. Not just Congress but the world is ready for Resolute american presidential leadership. Many issues await it Gatt. Only a few weeks remain to conclude the Uruguay round of world Trade negotiations far More important economically than Naftal. The negotiations will not succeed without a real push from the president. Haiti. Clinton has allowed America to be pushed around by a few Hundred goons. Does he mean it when he says he is committed to dislodging the coup Lead ers if so it is time to take More deter mined action not excluding the use of military Force. It is past time to Stop the Cia from undermining his haitian policy. The Agency has been pushing vicious descriptions of president Jean Bertrand Aristide base Doh interviews with the very men who Over threw him. Who does the Cia think is the president Bill Clinton or Jesse Helms Bosnia. Without going Back Over the question of stopping serbian aggression Linton can do much to prevent the trag Edy from becoming worse. Indeed he May be the Only person who can prevent human disaster from occurring in Bosnia this Winter on a massive scale. The first Snow has fallen in Sarajevo. Supplies of food Are inadequate and the serbs have again Cut the flow of natural Gas. They continue to Block Relief shipments and they Are shelling other Muslim enclaves that Are supposedly Safe havens. Clinton can at least speak out about the need to get Relief through focusing the world s attention on the prob Lem. He can launch an Airlift to Sarajevo and Gorade airports Parachute drops Are inadequate especially in Winter. He can warn Serbia to Stop blocking the Gas Supply or see its own Cut off. Clinton in Short should be the presi Dent. He knows How. C to nor Yorac Tom to mythology does t define who the real Juk was thirty years after his death John f. Kennedy has left the realm of mythology and become a figure in s a Good thing for him and for his country. For the dwindling band of journalists who covered president Kennedy it is hard to accept that his Brief tenure is As Distant from the Clinton presidency As Lincoln s was from Cleveland Clinton has played tricks on the National consciousness by presenting himself As Kennedy s heir exploiting the famous handshake picture of a High school version of himself and the smiling architect of the new Frontier. But they Are creatures of different times and very different mythologized Kennedy was the architect of a political and generational revolution dazzling in his intellect and personality bold in breaking from the weary policies of the past. Had he not been untimely murdered the myth goes he would have spared the Young people of America the agony of Vietnam supplied them with a thriving Economy and a sense of Public service and inspired them to break the Bonds of racism that had marred the nation s past. Like All enduring myths this one is rooted m elements that were genuinely present in the Man who inspired the taken together the mythic elements do not come close to defining the Kennedy of closer approximation can be gained from Many of the books on Kennedy that have appeared in the past decade most recently and notably president Kennedy profile of Power by Veteran journalist Rich Ard Kennedy who emerges from Reeves detailed reconstruction of his White House years is a capable but seriously flawed politician and person often Uncer Tain and Overly cautious occasionally heedless of per Sonal and National risk but also a president capable of taking on challenges and not infrequently meeting them with gumption and own summation is phrased this Way the Man at the Center was a gifted professional politician reacting to events he often neither foresaw nor understood handling some Well others badly but Al ways with plausible was intelligent detached curious candid if not always honest and he was carelessly and dangerously was also very impatient addicted to excitement living his life As if it were a race against boredom. He was a Man of soaring Charm who believed that one on one he would always prevail a notion that betrayed him when he first confronted the Premier of the soviet Union. Kennedy was decisive though he never made a Deci Sion until he had to and then invariably he chose the most moderate of available options. His most consistent mistake in governing As opposed to politics was thinking that Power could be hoarded for use at the right moment but moments and conditions defied reason. He had Little ideology beyond anti communism and Faith in Active pragmatic government. And he had less emotion. What he had was an attitude a Way of the world substituting intelligence for ideas or idealism questions for answers. What convictions he did have on nuclear pro David s. Broder liberation or civil rights or the use of military Power he was often willing to suspend particularly if that avoided confrontation with Congress or the risk of being called soft. If some would Ca l that cynicism he would see it As irony. " life is unfair he said in the Way the French said c est la vie irony was As close As he came to a View of life things Are never what they those who prefer to keep an image of Kennedy As a mythological figure will be distressed by this portrayal As they have been by other historians efforts to de mythologized the Man who inspired such loyalty affection and admiration in them. But Kennedy never sought adulation As Mary me glory noted at the time his instinctive response to the rapture of his audiences was to extend his Arm Forward with the hand upraised As if to hold them at some Dis a country which now loves to despise politicians As much As it once loved John f. Kennedy it is a hard thing to be told that he was nothing if not a politician. But it is the truth. Political calculus was Kennedy s great skill and Delight. Perhaps if americans can accept that historical reality about their favorite modern president we could learn to appreciate that same Quality in our current generation of leaders. To portray Kennedy As a politician need not be a Way of denigrating him it can be a Way of elevating the profession he was proud to Call his own. In any event we show his memory greater respect by confronting him As he was not As we would wish him to have been. C the poll
