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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 21, 1994                   TAG: 9412220028
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A15   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CAL THOMAS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IRRELEVANCE

When 9 p.m. came, I expected the host to turn on at least one of his television sets and invite those interested to watch the president's speech. He didn't. What's more, no one asked him to. When 10 p.m. came, someone remarked, ``Gee, we forgot to watch the president.'' There was laughter and feigned disappointment at having missed it.

The incident says a lot about the increasing irrelevance of President Clinton to the national political debate. People have heard everything he has to say - and they don't seem to be interested in anything ``new.'' Many no longer believe him.

In fact, within 24 hours after the president's address - in which he revealed himself as a born-again tax-cutter and a previously closeted advocate of reducing the size of government - his spokespersons put out the word that Clinton's proposals would be phased in over several years, reducing their impact and whatever political bounce he might have hoped to receive.

The president began on the wrong note, saying that all is not right with America and that ``millions are hurting, frustrated, disappointed, even angry.'' Actually, millions are more optimistic than before the election in which they expressed their anger and frustration at Clintonomics by handing over Congress to the Republicans.

Next, he said with not a little hubris, ``I ran for president to restore the American dream ....'' But the American dream comes from the collective hearts and wishes of the people, not from a single politician - especially this one. It can't be imposed on the country. Remember, he thought we all dreamed about having nationalized health care.

Then he said that incomes needed to be raised. Only last year he pushed through a retroactive tax increase designed to reduce incomes. And he said he wanted to cut the size of several agencies and offer an annual tax credit of up to $500 for each child, but only if that child is under 13 and only if the combined family income is $75,000 or less (as if children are cheaper when they hit the teen years). Tax deductions for college costs would be limited to families making under $120,000.

All of this is about government telling us how much of our money it intends to let us keep. The president still doesn't get it. Americans are tired of working harder, only to find huge percentages of their income going to inefficient government, which then tells them how much it will allow to trickle out of the treasury back into their pockets. It's our money, Mr. President, not yours.

The philosophy and whining in his speech were particularly irritating to read in transcript. ``We need less hot rhetoric and more open conversation, less malice and more charity. We need to put aside the politics of personal destruction and demonization that have dominated too much of our debate.'' Yet who is most responsible for that if not this administration - which has repeatedly referred to the ``decade of greed'' and anyone who disagrees with its policies as selfish?

Finally, we are to ``find strength in our diversity,'' when our strength once came from our unity ("E pluribus unum" - out of many, one - has been transformed by the multiculturalists into ``out of one, many.") The Clinton rule for the next two years will be ``country first, and politics as usual dead last.'' Should we infer from this that the first two years were politics as usual first, and country dead last?

Bill Clinton is where George Bush was in the midst of his presidency - facing a State of the Union Address as a defining moment. Bush blew it, and I think Clinton will, too. People aren't listening. They don't care about him. Their ideas and hopes are now with the Republicans.

Perhaps it was only a coincidence, or possibly an omen, but at this year's White House Christmas party for the press, one of the items on the hors d'oeuvre table was cooked goose.

Los Angeles Times Syndicate