ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 25, 1996 TAG: 9601250030
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
PRESIDENT Clinton's State of the Union speech was predictably an impressive if too-long performance in which he applied his hallmark rhetoric - inclusively broad, bland and breezy - to moderate themes reminiscent of his successful campaign four years ago. In combination with Sen. Bob Dole's response, it said as much about this year's presidential election as about the state of the union.
Timing has worked to Clinton's advantage. Without a primary challenge for renomination, the president Tuesday night could appear conciliatory toward the congressional opposition and arrive first at the political center from which general elections are won. Dole's response, if somewhat subdued, still reflected his need to win contested GOP primaries that are dominated by party activists, many of whom remain suspicious of the majority leader's commitment to conservatism.
It isn't surprising, therefore, that Clinton's address - while covering so much territory in an hour-long search for political consensus - included no mention of race or affirmative action, abortion or gay rights. For that matter, it didn't include much about America's foreign policies and interests, beyond the obligatory and appropriate salute to our troops in Bosnia. The speech clearly was screened, if not written, by pollsters.
Nor is it surprising that Dole seemed at a loss to distinguish specifically his own positions from the president's. His speech was more partisan than Clinton's, sprinkled with references to "liberals" and rhetoric about "the rear guard of the welfare state" and such. But Clinton had just endorsed charter schools and higher academic standards, mandatory work for welfare mothers, moral campaigns to reduce teen pregnancy and resist the influence of media violence and sex on children, and new measures to fight youth gangs and drug pushers. Indeed, he had just announced that the era of big government was over. What could the co-opted majority leader do except to appear, well, doleful - just as House Speaker Newt Gingrich did, seething in his role as State-of-the-Union backdrop?
Still, for all his targeting of the broadest possible cross-section of Americans, Clinton did make points contrasting his outlook with the congressional GOP's. The era of big government may be over, but a smaller government can still help people along, he said, and shouldn't be tilted in favor of the fittest and the richest.
The president offered no big, new, ambitious projects, but he did talk about small steps that might help ease economic insecurity and cultural anxiety among the middle and working classes - from reinforcing job-training programs and helping with child-care expenses and student loans to assuring the portability of health insurance and coverage of pre-existing conditions, from signal-blocking V-chips for corrupting TVs to expanded community-policing of neighborhoods.
Spreading the balm of compromise, his speech aimed more to position than to persuade. But it was not without frequently invoked "challenges" to Congress and the country. It was a fitting opener to this year's presidential campaign, showing some measure of the challenge a GOP nominee will face trying to beat Clinton to the middle.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 linesby CNB