Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, December 1, 1994                   TAG: 9412010066
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A19   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOHN CHANCELLOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THE PRESIDENCY

The problem with Clinton's presidency is that he is a terrible chief executive. This has been a surprise to some of us who covered his race for the White House. When he was running in 1992, I thought he was the best campaigner I had seen since John F. Kennedy in 1960. On the stump, he was crisp, articulate and concentrated, a candidate who stuck to his message. He was the skilled manager of a sophisticated staff. In the Oval Office, he has allowed his talent to be hidden by inconsistency, indecision and lack of concentration. There are two Bill Clintons: the skilled, focused communicator, and the irresolute politician who tries to straddle the fence.

The president of the American Political Science Association, Charles O. Jones, said in September that Clinton ``has yet to form his presidency.'' One reason is that his image as president is blurred. This lack of clarity extends to his philosophy: Is he a moderate or a liberal Democrat? He campaigned with moderate promises of smaller government and welfare reform. Once elected, he brought forth a liberal agenda that included gays in the military and big-government schemes for health-care reform. The public has seen him advance and then retreat on issues from Haiti to homosexual rights. Vacillation has become part of his style. After the Democratic debacle in November, Clinton seemed to embrace a Republican proposal for a constitutional amendment on school prayer. That was on a Tuesday. On Thursday, White House officials said that was not the president's position.

Clinton's management style would earn him a failing grade at a Russian business school. Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. describes the Clinton administration as ``government by bull session.'' Elizabeth Drew, in ``On the Edge,'' an examination of the administration, quotes a frustrated official's description of a Clinton White House meeting on health-care policy: ``There were 50-some people in the room, a very high proportion of them not above kindergarten age. All of them were for the larger [health-care] package. There were cheers and groans and hissing. When you have that many people in the room, senior people aren't going to conduct a real debate in front of the junior people.'' In the end, there was no health-care package, because the White House lost the battle to its opponents.

Clinton's personnel problems have made headlines, from the abandonment of Lani Guinier as the top civil-rights official to the bizarre departure of Adm. Bobby Ray Inman, chosen as defense secretary. The headlines don't tell the full story: Many staffing mistakes have involved people closest to the president. In 22 months, Clinton has had two chiefs of staff, four deputy chiefs of staff, two White House counsels, two assistants for congressional liaison and two communications directors. His press secretary is to leave at the end of the year.

To be fair, these are not easy times to be president. Voters pay little attention to the strength of the economy or Clinton's accomplishments on free trade and deficit reduction. Because of Republican victories, the second half of Clinton's term will be even more difficult.

His unsteady performance has gotten him in deep trouble, but success is not impossible. Clinton is a classic counterpuncher. He is the ``comeback kid'' who won his party's presidential nomination and the election despite accusations that he had been unfaithful to his wife and disloyal to his country. Yet to prevail in 1996, Bill Clinton will have to find a way to change his presidential style. He will have to fight the Republicans on one side and his own shortcomings on the other. That's a big job. Self-renewal is difficult if you're your own worst enemy.

John Chancellor was a correspondent, anchor and commentator for NBC News until his retirement in 1993. He wrote this column for Newsday, where it first appeared.

L.A. Times-Washington Post News Service