home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- THE WEEK, Page 16NATIONAnd Then There Were Two
-
-
- With Perot folding, Clinton and Bush gird for a head-to-head
- fight
-
-
- Even if machine politics is mostly a relic of the past, the
- Democratic National Convention last week managed to resemble
- something well oiled and humming. When the delegates arrived in
- New York City, the primaries had already made Bill Clinton the
- party's nominee and Clinton had already made Al Gore his running
- mate. Jubilant at the thought that this, at last, might be a
- winning team, the Democrats in Madison Square Garden cheered
- like paid extras.
-
- Most of them, that is. Jesse Jackson, who had to be
- wrestled into line at the 1988 convention, where he controlled
- 30% of the delegates, came to this one with just his
- (considerable) powers of speech -- which he couldn't exercise
- until he reluctantly agreed to endorse the Clinton ticket. Mario
- Cuomo, who for months had sniped at Clinton from the sidelines,
- preached some old-time Democratic religion while blessing a
- ticket with postliberal views on welfare (too generous) and
- government spending (ditto). Even Jerry Brown couldn't throw a
- wrench into the works, though he and his cantankerous supporters
- tried. When he finally spoke on Wednesday night, his sulfurous
- podium performance included no endorsement of his party's
- ticket. Maybe it was resentful party regulars who arranged to
- have Brown leave the stage to the music of a Sousa march known
- to most people as the theme from Monty Python's Flying Circus.
-
- It was supposed to be Clinton's week, and in most respects
- it was -- but for the stunner that would reduce his acceptance
- speech to a secondary headline in Friday's papers. Ross Perot's
- sudden withdrawal from the race he had never officially entered
- left many supporters across the country feeling betrayed. Their
- grand, impractical crusade seemed to fall victim to the most
- grimy practical considerations: Perot's inability to rev up his
- stalled candidacy. Hamilton Jordan and Ed Rollins, his
- odd-couple team of political handlers, were frustrated by the
- candidate's unwillingness to be handled. First Jordan was said
- to be heading for the door, but at midweek it was Rollins who
- actually left, thwarted by Perot's rejection of a pricey ad
- campaign. Then, suddenly, Perot himself was gone, stepping
- aside, he said, because he had concluded that he could not win
- in November. Or was he gone? In TV appearances Friday, he talked
- about helping to form an ill-defined third force to endorse
- congressional candidates.
-
- That still left an army of volunteers in political limbo,
- while both parties scrambled to make them feel welcome. Would
- his supporters turn out to be "basically conservative," as
- George Bush was quick to characterize them? Or were they issuing
- a "call to change," as Clinton rushed to claim? Early polls
- showed more of Perot's supporters opting for Clinton, but many
- were still too deep in shock to reconsider their options. Some
- were insisting that they would still cast a protest vote for
- Perot, whose name will remain on the ballot in half the states
- or more. In time, many of them will begin warily examining the
- candidates of the two shopworn parties they abandoned just a few
- months ago.
-
- Perot did seem to send his followers a signal about what
- direction they might take. He spoke about having been impressed
- in recent weeks by a "revitalized" Democratic Party. And that
- was even before Clinton's acceptance speech, which adroitly
- pitched the Democratic tent in the middle-class backyard. The
- President appears to have noticed too; he spent the week fishing
- -- but at the Wyoming ranch of Secretary of State James Baker,
- the Bush campaign chairman in 1988 who may sign on for a repeat
- engagement.
-
- As usually happens after a prime-time political lovefest,
- the challengers bounced out of the convention way above the
- incumbents: a TIME/CNN poll conducted on the day Perot quit the
- race had Clinton-Gore topping Bush-Quayle by 20%. That lead was
- 3 points larger than the one that Michael Dukakis enjoyed in the
- immediate afterglow of the 1988 convention. But Dukakis kept his
- campaign in low gear, and the Bush team wiped out his lead with
- negative campaigning. This time the Democrats are taking no
- chances. The day after the convention, Clinton and Gore set out
- on a six-day bus tour from New York to St. Louis. In this
- year's volatile politics of frustration and skepticism, maybe
- the only thing more uncertain than a three-way race is a two-way
- race.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-