European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 25, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday october 25, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 17 Clinton s troubles reflect distrust of system. V. a the democratic machine is going nuts trying to Cope with the election. We were Given Only two Short years ago the Maxim it s the Economy stupid As if it came from mount Sinai the definitive explanation for lagging political popularity. But the commentators Point out breathlessly the Economy is on a significant upswing unemployment is Down inflation is of profits Are up the National deficit is creeping Down so what s the mat Ter with the voters other than that they Are stupid the question is approached on several Levels. Serious analysts Are capable of saying yes the Economy is up. So what did you expect stupid at the end of a business Cycle there have been 32 of these Over the past 140 years and always the Economy has turned better at the end of the bad end of the Cycle. / a " / when the Economy revives unemployment diminishes so Why would you expect otherwise inflation is hot steaming because the Federal re serve Board has followed a prudent course of action arguably too prudent. The head of that Board by the Way is someone named to that position by Republican George Bush. Yes the deficit is lowering but the principal Rea sons for this Are a a drastic reduction in defense spending made possible by the foreign policy successes of Republican presidents and by the Way it is altogether possible that we Are overdoing our defense reductions b the huge sums of Money we lost in Pur savings and loan debacle Are tapering off and c the Down Side of the Clinton budget Bill of 1994 has yet fully to be experienced it will be another year or two be fore we measure the results of a William f. Buckley capital flight from the Rise in the marginal tax rate. Of that s what the schooled economist would say. But we Aren t dealing with schooled economists we Are dealing with the kind of people who in califor Nia Are looking hospitably at Michael Huffington in preference to Dianne Feinstein in Tennessee Are doubting whether it makes sense to return Jim Sasser to the . Senate even though he would probably be the majority Leader and in Washington Are thinking of dumping Thomas Foley the speaker of the House no less. And All Over the country there is the democratic phenomenon of democratic incumbents not wishing to associate their names with the Man they Laboured to make the president of the United states their Leader Bill Clinton " ,. ,. Now the next level of analysis jumps in at this Point with the observation that Clinton is personally discredited. Why Well he has lost the Confidence of the american people. He is the Man who told us he managed to smoke marijuana without inhaling and managed to Man Euver around the Vietnam draft in such a Way As to avoid service in the military he now serves As commander in chief. He is the foreign policy advocate who promised to do something about Bosnia did to promised to do something else did to screwed up in Somalia gave in to the congressional Black caucus on the Haiti ques Tion got stuck in a welter of misrepresentations involving his financial affairs before he came to Washington and has to hire a $500-per-hour lawyer and raise a col Lection to keep him from confronting a working girl be fore whom he allegedly dropped his pants while Gover nor. That is analysis at another level it does not in the judgment of this analyst get to the heart of the problem. The personal weaknesses of the president Are Manifest. But this View of the matter is that politicians personal weaknesses Don t really seem to matter All that much anymore. Who doubts that Dan Rostenkowski will be re elected who cares that Barney Frank it Al. Are militant Gays so what that John Kennedy had Intercourse with everyone Between age 18 and 38 who was game Haven t we just heard a documentary on Franklin Roosevelt reaffirming that his married life ended when Eleanor found the love letters even before for was nominated for vice president let alone made president for Lifet a in t Lyndon Johnson get Rich by exploiting his Powers to regulate the issuance of to licenses in t every other politician in town the sponsor of some pork program unrelated to the National welfare in t Rudolph Giuliani mayor of new York the most recent Bard of truth telling in Commerce and in politics the Man who came out for a i Irne Bill for the single reason that it would Send $800 million to new York Riever mind that to raise that $800 million new yorkers would be taxed $1.1 billion that analysis of the general discontent focuses on a widespread feeling that the whole shooting match is not working. That disillusionment fuels a desire to Root but incumbents yes. But it goes also one step fur ther any asks what really does it matter who is elected the virus is to this order of scepticism there Are those who need to say a we understand your frustration. But there is a c Universal press synd Cato Florida governor a at sour he had opened the debate in Lake Buena Vista fla., by accusing his Young challenger Jeb Bush of having maligned and distorted my record by your fabrications and in turn he had heard Bush ask withering by Don t you feel a sense of shame about the negativism of your Campaign when their Tough personal 60-minute slug est was Over Florida gov. Lawton Chiles a Democrat 64, unwound at a restaurant in the Disney world Complex mulling what had happened to politics in the 34 years since his first legislative race. I have never seen the Public like this he said. So impatient so unwilling to listen. The gridlock in Washington is raising such negative feelings. Of course politicians have been running against the system for a Long time but it has finally caught on. People really think it s beyond fixing. Rush Limbaugh mocks everyone. There Are no heroes out has never lost a political race and he May survive the. Toug Challenge the second son of former presi Dent Bush is throwing at him. But if he does it will be at the Cost of the kind of politics he has tried to practice All his life. And he like others in both parties is miserable about being sucked into the muck of the 1994 political swamp. A reformer for his 12 years in the Flor Ida legislature Chiles became a kind of Folk hero for the Way he won a . Sen ate seat in 1970 strapping on hiking boots and setting out on foot to meet the voters across the state. Walkin Lawton stayed in the Senate for 18 years retiring in 1988 be cause of the Bur nout he experienced As chairman of the Senate budget committee smashing his head against the Wall of rising Federal deficits. Revived by his move Back Home he beat the incumbent re David s. Broder publican governor in 1990 and set out to do in Tallahassee what his Friend Bill Clinton would try to do in Washington two years later redefine activist progressive government for the fiscally strapped 1990s. Chiles Effort gave almost equal emphasis to restructuring government agencies and restraining budgets and to investing funds in programs aimed at pre venting teen age pregnancies and school dropouts moving women off welfare and reducing crime like Clinton he has had mixed Suc Cess. The legislature approved some of his plans thwarted others and left room for critics to say that despite his rhetoric he was a tax raising career politician out of touch with a conservative and increasingly Republican electorate. All of this Bush has said in an effective aggressive Campaign in which he has also tried to outline his own version of a different kind of government one putting far More Trust in the private sector and voluntary groups to meet social needs. The two men Are actually quite Artic ulate apostles of sharply contrasting poli cies. But you would t know it from their campaigns. The ads Are increasingly negative and personal. The latest Chiles and the one that brought the rebuke from Bush in their debate rakes Over disputed allegations about Bush s business career and concludes that s Why we just can t Trust Jeb Bush with our Chiles said he wanted to counter Jeb Bush s criticism of his record by citing some of his accomplishments especially the creation of a network of voluntary health insurance purchasing cooperatives already bringing lower Cost insurance to workers at 3,500 businesses. But my people say quit talking about health care it does t raise a Blip in the polls Chiles comments reminded me of a similar conversation i d had with re publican sen. John Danforth of Missouri a dozen years ago when he was in a Tough Campaign for re election. His advisers Danforth said told him three weeks before the election you can stay positive in your ads if you want to sen Ator it s your decision. But it s our responsibility to Tell you that if you do you will lose Danforth said he thought about All the people who had contributed to his Campaign and who were out working for him and i decided i could not throw the election to satisfy my own Chiles who has a similar distaste for these tactics has come to the same conclusion. is fashionable these Days to blame the politicians for everything. But cynicism is a social disease that makes poli tics More tawdry for the people in it and governing Ever More difficult. Somehow we have to hit the brakes on this downhill plunge and soon. C Washngton pos
