THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 12, 1994 TAG: 9410120412
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
The seemingly unstoppable Oliver North express to the U.S. Senate has come screeching - if not to a halt - then certainly to a walk. Over the past week, Oliver North has undermined much of the confidence he had accumulated in 2 1/2 years of non-stop campaigning.
His attack on President Clinton for hollowing out the military was correct on the facts, as we have pointed out. But his timing made it appear that he was using an international crisis to boost his candidacy. His remark that the president is no longer his commander-in-chief is correct, but was unfortunate in the context. He had to backtrack.
Last week, North's staff had to scramble to repair damage from the candidate's apparently contradicting himself on two other issues: flying the Confederate flag and his misleading Congress during the Iran-Contra affair. He also called President Clinton ``boneheaded'' and a ``yahoo.'' Staff and supporters blamed the fatigue of the campaign trail and said that North was misquoted or quoted out of context.
All this sounds uncomfortably like no one so much as . . . Bill Clinton. The Democratic Party is facing potentially serious losses in the midterm elections, at least partly because the president himself has backed and filled so much in his public statements that he has eroded his credibility as the country's leader.
Even the mainstream press has questioned the president's versions of events in the Whitewater scandal, the first lady's trading in cattle futures and many other events major and minor. Mr. Clinton also has a habit of ducking responsibility by blaming his problems on the press.
Oliver North seems to have some similar problems. Instead of forthrightly acknowledging error and moving on in the campaign, he has sought to explain things away. And while there's always plenty to criticize about press coverage, candidates and their supporters who dwell on media as the wellspring of their problems tend not to be taken seriously by the public at large.
Character counts, as we have said before. And, as North has rightly pointed out, Mr. Robb has plenty of his own problems in the character department. But one of the sources of Oliver North's appeal is that he is a straight talker. Constantly having to explain what you meant to say puts him in danger of being perceived as having the same weaknesses as Bill Clinton. by CNB