That new hit by the rock group Chumbawumba that goes “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” might well be President Clinton’s theme song.
He’s up again. Just look at the way even his strongest rivals on Capitol Hill are pulling their punches, for fear that attacks on Clinton’s popular programs will backfire.
“Don’t take the bait,” House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s spokeswoman Christina Martin warned Republican press secretaries in a letter last week.
“The White House is setting up rhetorical straw men on popular issues, hoping to draw us into bloody fights, so they can demagogue that we are `against’ the environment, the elderly, the poor, the sick and the young.”
Not exactly a glowing tribute to Clinton, but faint praise is better than none, especially when it comes from your political rivals.
The straw men to which she was referring were the string of initiatives Clinton has been unveiling recently on issues as varied as Medicare, child care, education, AIDS treatment, food safety and the Peace Corps.
“Rather than wasting time swatting at gnats,” Martin advises, Republicans should push their own “successes,” like tax cuts, welfare reform, “an honest balanced budget” and other key items on the Republican agenda.
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Still, in setting the terms of the current debate, this cautionary notice from his political rivals offers yet another measure of the success of the New Bill Clinton.
Or perhaps I should say, “the Newest Bill Clinton.” Throughout his political career, Bill Clinton has been a master at re-invention. He even has compared himself to the big rubber dolls that, when knocked down, pops back upright again.
These days it appears to be working. Despite setbacks and scandalous headlines, approval ratings for himself and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton have never been higher.
Among other recent markers, the president and Mrs. Clinton ranked first in the in the annual Gallup Poll of “Most Admired” men and women, nudging out Rev. Billy Graham and Oprah Winfrey, second-place finishers.
That’s a far cry from the darkest days of the earlier Clintons. First we saw the activist Clintons. They sprung out of the gate with a string of initiatives that culminated with the president’s 1993 budget victory, then collapsed with the failure of the sweeping health-insurance reforms of which Mrs. Clinton was in charge.
That defeat led to the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994 and the emergence of a New Clinton. This one swung to the political middle and followed adviser Dick Morris’ advice to “triangulate” by setting himself apart from both Republicans and Democratic congressional leaders.
On the one hand, the New Clinton announced that the era of big government is over. On the other, he bashed Republicans as extremists out to destroy Social Security.
It was here, in combat, that the New Clinton scored best with voters. When budgetary stubbornness by both sides led to two government shutdowns, voters tended to blame the Republicans. When Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott turned to a more cooperative approach, passing a new minimum wage bill and modest health-insurance reforms before the 1996 elections, Republican approval ratings surged upward again.
Through it all, Mrs. Clinton lowered her profile, only to emerge most recently as a spokeswoman for broad ideas, like education and child care, while leaving the nasty arguable details of structure and finance to others.
This begins to explain the new caution by Gingrich’s office in dealing with the Newest Clintons. Loath to be branded a lame duck, the Newest Bill Clinton is introducing modest but significant reforms in pursuit of a legacy–and daring Republicans to oppose him on any of it.
His new initiatives include proposals to allow 55-year-olds to buy into Medicare, spend $21.7 billion on new child care programs and bring new federal aid to education, including new school construction and as many as 100,000 new teachers.
Who could oppose such marvelous ideas? A lot of people, especially Republicans, when questions are raised as to how it is to be paid for. But, at a time when Gingrich is toying with his own possible presidential run in 2000, Gingrich apparently sees negativism as bad politics.
But left hanging is a larger question of how the Clinton days will be remembered. Clinton’s legacy is important to him, but great legacies are not built on modest initiatives. The most memorable presidents took bold steps. So far, the Newest Clintons have done a good job of building political capital. History will judge them by how they spend it.