The early success of Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton`s drive for the Democratic presidential nomination seems to have irked not only his opponents and their handlers but also some of the nation`s most celebrated political commentators.
Dissatisfaction with the Clinton boomlet is rampant-except with the Democratic voters in New Hampshire.
There, with the nation`s first presidential primary less than a month away, the polls show Clinton holding a cushy lead.
Could that change? Absolutely. A Boston Globe poll a week ago showed that 79 percent of New Hampshire Democrats surveyed were not deeply smitten with any candidate.
More important, perhaps, unsubstantiated allegations of extramarital affairs continue to circulate with each publication date for the supermarket tabloids, and those rumors may yet fell Clinton.
Does that mean he isn`t the front-runner at this moment? No.
Candidates become front-runners for reasons. And those reasons have to do with building a capable organization, delivering a coherent message, garnering enough money to get on television and-if you`re a Democrat running for the White House-advancing the idea that you might not lose 49 states if you actually get the nomination.
For better or worse, the early stages of a presidential campaign involve convincing party regulars-many of whom will wind up as delegates to the party convention-that the candidate possesses that most valuable of political commodities: electability.
That is the genius of the Clinton campaign thus far. He has presented himself, credibly, as a fresh breeze to a party becalmed in a sea of failed presidential efforts.
The press, of course, remains skeptical about the press.
The hired windbags on the political talk-show circuit can`t ignore the polls, but they can observe New Hampshire from a distance and surmise that Clinton is a creation of simple-minded scribblers on the beat.
Time magazine put Clinton on the cover last week but sprinkled its report with caveats about ”press puffery,” insisting that ”the national press and television have anointed Bill Clinton . . .”
Urging caution, Newsweek informed its readers that Clinton`s nickname back in the Ozarks was ”Slick Willie.”
The magazine did not disclose that the traveling press in New Hampshire has taken to calling him ”Elvis.”
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”Clinton`s the flavor of the month,” sniffed Kathi Rogers, an adviser to Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin. ”Media hype,” said her candidate.
And last week, a former editor of The New York Times weighed in, arguing that national press had elevated the Arkansan to front-runner status without checking in on the East Side of Manhattan.
So how did this happen to the all-but-anonymous governor of a small Southern state, a pol best known for making a rambling, tin-eared speech at the last Democratic National Convention?
Believe it or not, it had almost nothing to do with a press conspiracy.
While many of the pundits were contemplating New York Gov. Mario Cuomo in November, Clinton was turning heads in Chicago when the whole Democratic crew of candidates was invited in to address the Association of State Democratic Chairs.
In December, Clinton swept the Florida Democratic Party`s non-binding straw poll, as a Southern moderate should have.
Clinton is well-organized in the South, particularly in Texas, which along with Florida is a key state in the March 10 round of primaries. And he has not been shy about expanding his Southern base, having been busy fundraising in California and collecting endorsements in New York City.
He has raised about $4 million, turning up at fundraisers all over the country even as the Democratic Party waited for Cuomo`s decision on his presidential future.
In Illinois, the state he has targeted as his Northern base, Clinton has put together a slate of delegates drawn from every point on the Democratic ideological spectrum, a slate that has caught the eye of Cook County pols, who generally view presidential elections as a distraction.
Simply stated, this is a guy who looks as if he knows what he`s doing.
Did schmoozing with the press play any role in Clinton`s early lead?
Well, the press` tendency to cuddle up to one candidate or another on those long, lonely nights in primary states is as traditional as courting the Formica-top diner set in Berlin, N.H.
Falling for Clinton signals something of a departure, of course, in that the press almost invariably picks a candidate with no realistic expectation of winning anybody`s nomination.
Right now, that`s all Clinton has: a realistic expectation. But nobody made it up.