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- <text id=92TT0212>
- <title>
- Jan. 27, 1992: From The Publisher
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Jan. 27, 1992 Is Bill Clinton For Real?
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- FROM THE PUBLISHER, Page 5
- </hdr><body>
- <p> When we decided to put Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton on
- TIME's cover this week, one important ingredient of the effort
- was already in place. National political correspondent Larry
- Barrett was right where he is every fourth January: ankle-deep
- in snow and knee-deep in politics in New Hampshire. Larry
- actually received three assignments on Wednesday: he contributed
- to the main story analyzing Clinton as this year's Democratic
- front runner and to a piece on George Bush; he also wrote our
- story on the four other candidates working toward next month's
- primary.
- </p>
- <p> A self-described "political junkie," Larry is used to the
- sudden twists and demands of political coverage. He is on his
- eighth presidential race and has been following politics for 30
- years, sometimes as a campaign reporter, a New York City-based
- writer or a White House correspondent. This year--as every
- other year--his practiced eye spots some important
- differences. "All the contenders are relatively little known in
- national terms," says Barrett. "This fact, together with the
- short preseason competition, means a candidate has very little
- opportunity to recover from a stumble." Because Iowa's favorite
- son Senator Tom Harkin has that state's caucuses in the bag,
- Barrett feels the New Hampshire primary is "even more important
- than ever." In addition, it seems that each year polling and
- television commercials play an ever larger role. But in January
- of an election year, a political junkie's proper place is
- shivering at the candidates' side. TIME's chief of
- correspondents John Stacks knows such coverage requires special
- qualities. During the early 1980s, he substituted for Barrett
- on the national political circuit. "Larry resists getting swept
- along by the fashionable opinion of the day by being skeptical,
- by bringing his experience to bear and by a kind of demonic
- reporting. He bores in and doesn't accept glibness." Of course,
- we wouldn't suggest that any of this year's crop of politicians
- tend toward glibness, but here's fair warning: Larry Barrett is
- back on the campaign bus.
- </p>
- <p>-- Elizabeth P. Valk
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-