Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 9, 1993 TAG: 9308250313
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cal Thomas
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The mishandling of the Lani Guinier affair is only the latest in a lengthening list of mishaps that people are beginning to see not as exceptions, but as the rule for a president they fear they may have misjudged and who might be OK for middle management, as Ross Perot has suggested, but isn't skilled enough to run the nation.
The American people can put up with a little on-the-job training, and polls show even now that many voters would be willing to give President Clinton another chance. But the one thing they won't put up with is being lied to. The latest New York Times/CBS News Poll shows an increasing number of Americans view the president as a liberal, not the ``new Democrat'' he said he was during the campaign, with only 13 percent believing the country is on the right road.
The 2-1 drubbing of Sen. Bob Krueger by Kay Bailey Hutchison in Saturday's Texas runoff election - which Hutchison made a referendum on President Clinton and his plans to increase taxes - ought to set off alarm bells in the White House. This was the voters' first opportunity to grade the new President on his job performance so far. ``Needs improvement'' would be an understatement.
Would anyone want this bunch running a war if one broke out? Who would direct it, Harry Thomasson?
Those who voted for Bill Clinton can't claim they weren't warned. Repeatedly during the campaign, even writers and publications considered friendly to Clinton churned out enough information to alert us to possible trouble.
Times White House correspondent Maureen Dowd compared him to a ``television evangelist'' (no elaboration needed), and The New Republic editorialized that ``on important matters of principle, Clinton has shown a profound tendency to tell every constituency what it wants to hear and to placate special interests ... at the expense of hard policy choices.'' Paul Greenberg, editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, who is a veteran Clinton observer, wrote last fall, ``I don't know of a single essential principle that he would hold fast to.''
All of these observations have been confirmed during the first five months of the Clinton presidency.
Among the problems of cutting and running, whether it be from war or from political battles, is that your foes, and even your friends, quickly come to understand you can't be trusted. And politicians in your own party soon look to protect themselves from voter anger.
Budget Director Leon Panetta was explaining on CNN over the weekend that he thinks Oklahoma Sen. David Boren will ``come around'' on the energy tax and the other new taxes in the president's economic program. Don't be too sure. The first law of political survival in Washington is not to save the president of your party, but to make sure your own lifeboat is in good repair should the ship start to sink.
At the end, because of Watergate, Richard Nixon could count on few Republicans to stand by him. Jimmy Carter was abandoned by most Democrats when it appeared his re-election prospects were doomed. That's the way it is in politics. If you can't play the game, you ought not to get on the court.
The best two teams in professional basketball, the Phoenix Suns and Chicago Bulls, are playing for the title starting this week. I'm 6 feet, 7 inches tall. Dressed in one of these teams' uniforms, I might look from a distance like the player I was in high school and college. But it wouldn't take long after the game started to find that I'm too old and don't have the skills (and didn't in my ``prime'') to play in this league.
It is growing increasingly apparent, and appalling, that Clinton is out of his league. But before Republicans take too much comfort from the president's first-quarter play, they better find someone with political skills equivalent to the basketball-playing abilities of a Charles Barkley or a Michael Jordan. Incompetence can cut both ways.
by CNB