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- <text id=92TT0654>
- <title>
- Mar. 23, 1992: From The Publisher
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Mar. 23, 1992 Clinton vs. Tsongas
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- FROM THE PUBLISHER, Page 4
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Last week I reported associate publisher Ed McCarrick's view
- of TIME's role in the media environment of the '90s: "We help make
- the country's perceptions happen." This week we have an example.
- During a campaign in which the voters are giving every sign of
- being sick of sound bites and slogans, we persuaded the two
- leading Democratic contenders for the presidency to pause for
- an hour between their finger pointing and photo opportunities
- and sit down for an exclusive sleeves-up, statistics-rich duel
- over their economic prescriptions for the country.
- </p>
- <p> Getting both Democrats to the table at the Butler Aviation
- facility in Chicago took the political sophistication of a
- campaign-trail veteran like columnist Michael Kramer. The result
- was a summit that chief of correspondents John Stacks believes
- is unprecedented in the age of television. "I cannot think of
- a comparable situation where two leading candidates agreed to
- devote this much time and depth debating each other for print,"
- says Stacks.
- </p>
- <p> The debate was moderated by Kramer and Stacks and was
- attended by editor in chief Jason McManus, Washington bureau
- chief Stan Cloud, Nation-section editor Jack White, contributor
- Larry Barrett and senior writer Walter Shapiro. With the help
- of editorial assistant Lina Lofaro, who gathered the material,
- Kramer reviewed the candidates' positions.
- </p>
- <p> "We arranged it so that our role was minimal," he says,
- "allowing them to really go after each other on the issues." The
- two men rarely locked eyes until the last two minutes, when
- Tsongas challenged Clinton to pull his negative ads.
- </p>
- <p> Afterward, both Democrats agreed to pose for the cover
- picture by portraitist Gregory Heisler. But even then the
- competition was calling. As the camera clicked, a Tsongas aide
- could be heard outside yelling, "You may be making art in there,
- but we got to make some politics out there."
- </p>
- <p>-- Elizabeth P. Valk
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-