THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 30, 1996 TAG: 9608300713
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
LENGTH: 77 lines
President Clinton stirred the Democratic convention to an ovation Thursday by pledging to balance the budget and do it in a way that preserves Medicare, Medicaid, education and the environment.
``As long as I am president,'' he said, ``I will never allow cuts that devastate education for our children, pollute our environment, end the guarantee of health care under Medicaid or violate our duty to our parents under Medicare. Never!''
And, alluding to the vetoes with which he withstood a Republican Congress, he declared, to ever-mounting applause, ``And as long as I am president, I will never allow the Republican leadership to use the blackmail threat of a government shutdown to force these burdens on the American people.
``We didn't let it happen before and we won't let it happen again.''
At nearly every other sentence, he evoked applause like pounding surf.
And, referring to Republican Bob Dole's budget-busting $548 billion tax cut, Clinton said, ``We should not bet the farm and we certainly shouldn't bet the country.
``Do we really want to make the same mistake again? To raise interest rates again? To stop economic growth again? To court recession again? To start piling up another mountain of debt, to weaken our bridge to the 21st century? Of course not. We have an obligation to leave our children a legacy of opportunity, not debt.''
The president declared that every high school student should be connected to the information superhighway by the year 2000.
On Clinton's four-day, 500-mile train trek through five Midwest states, his acceptance speech was a kind of work in progress. Four aides worked on the speech's midsection while the president shaped the beginning and the end.
On the journey, Clinton was as jubilant as a boy who finds a new toy Christmas morning.
Between each city, he took a stand, mike in hand, on the train's platform and continued communicating with passing America.
Spectators who gathered by the rails to watch the train go by were startled to be hailed by the president. One such moment, recorded by the Chicago Tribune, began with Clinton calling: ``Hi, folks, hi. Nice garden!'' To others he called: ``I like your dogs! . . . '' ``That's the biggest satellite dish I ever saw! . . . '' ``Be careful, don't fall off that platform! . . . '' ``Nice bikes! . . . ''
Each day he announced an initiative to correspond with that day's theme. At Kalamazoo, Mich., it was $1.9 billion to clean up two-thirds of Superfund sites and 5,000 old industrial sites.
It was as if he were breaking open a pinata to shower trinkets upon heads of the American people. At other stops he called for crime and literacy proposals, and restoration of funds to the federal clean water bill.
His aides feared his voice would give out, but after plunging into the crowds he emerged refreshed.
In a further test of his resilience, top strategist Dick Morris resigned after a tabloid alleged that Morris had blabbed to a call girl about his job in the White House.
But in his stem-winding delivery, Clinton was at his robust best.
A tender moment occurred Wednesday night after a helicopter deposited Clinton on the University of Illinois ball diamond.
On the platform, Hillary, grinning, extended her arms about belt-high as if welcoming a child bringing home from school an ``A'' paper. Clinton spread his arms wide, his face exultant at what he and she had done. Chelsea watched the emotional reunion, a lesson in togetherness.
As he and Hillary faced the crowd, he said, ``I think she did a great job, don't you?'' Clinton said it as if she had baked a great cake.
He wanted to look into the eyes and hearts of the American people for whom he had worked, he said, and what he saw there pleased him.
On Thursday the conservative magazine Standard scoffed at the ``insincere laundry list of teensy-tiny Clinton policies for children.'' To most parents, the birth of a child is one of life's major events, and they would welcome Hillary Clinton's plea for a hospital stay of 48 hours for mother and baby.
This and other proposals would seem to appeal to all families, especially a single parent or working couples.
Looking to the year 2000, he extolled Al Gore as ``my partner, my friend, and the best vice president in history.''
KEYWORDS: DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION 1996 CHICAGO by CNB