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"Scam" ads the norm Trail Mix: Hillary haters spam cyberspace Gunning for the center Democrats make Hillary legit The blundering pundit Don Giuliani Campaign video: |
Bigger, longer, uncut | page 1, 2 But with his rousing tax and health-care proposals, Clinton was able to simultaneously promote ideas Gore has campaigned on, while drawing attention away from vaunted tax and health plans of all of Gore's potential opponents. Reached in New Hampshire immediately after Clinton's comments on Gore's health care record, Bill Bradley's campaign spokeswoman Anita Dunn speculated that "it would be no surprise that perhaps the Gore campaign has misled the president on what the Gore proposals are." Either way, she noted, "Gore's been a loyal member of this administration and obviously Clinton's made no secret that he'll do everything he can to get him elected." He also gave wife, Hillary, credit for proposing what he described as "a single, voluntary rating system for all children's entertainment, one that is easier for parents to understand and enforce." He urged entertainment executives to support the plan. (Campaign officials for her likely New York Senate opponent, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, refused comment.) Significantly, he didn't mention his wife when touting his health-care proposals, lest he contaminate them with the scorn and suspicion that doomed hers.
Before he got to his plans, though, Clinton spent time focusing on the country's economic success, and listing a string of positive social and economic indicators before concluding, simply, "the state of the union is the strongest it has ever been." Clinton's aggressively confident and well-received speech was a marked contrast to his two previous addresses, which were mired in the Lewinsky scandal. The dramatic change could be seen in audience shots of chief GOP rivals nodding, if not cheering along -- surreally, the cameras even captured impeachment nemesis Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., cheerfully clapping along as Clinton announced plans to crack down on illegal guns. Still, Clinton's own attempts at magnanimity seemed strained, as when he reached across to the aisle to thank Republicans for the "extraordinary" -- if hardly surprising -- "support you have given to our men in uniform." The Republicans' response was led by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who, in a halting, kindergarten teacher's delivery, argued for Republican education plans that allow decisions to be made in local school boards with "more federal help but less federal interference." Education, Collins said, was the best way to fight what she described as a growing fear brought by economic prosperity. "Between Silicon Valley and Wall Street, many Americans still live in the shadows of the new prosperity." Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., stressed the need for health-care reform that, he said, offered choice. He characterized the Clinton plan as a "bloated" big government plan, saying that "socialized medicine doesn't work." "In fact, if David Letterman had lived in Canada, he'd still be waiting for his heart surgery," Frist said. Sounding a similar note, Texas Gov. George W. Bush issued a reaction, stating: "The litany of spending programs the president announced tonight proves my point that if you leave a large surplus in Washington, the money will be spent on bigger government." But compared to Clinton's overwhelmingly optimistic speech, the Republican response seemed cautious and abbreviated. Of course, before he even gave the speech, others, including the Washington Post, were quick to point out the difference between State of the Union rhetoric and reality. And after Clinton released his more ambitious proposals to Congress earlier in the day, The Associated Press quickly reported that, "Republican leaders in Congress are saying that big proposals with big spending to match do not stand much chance of passage in this election year." Still, that wasn't quite the point of this exercise. According to presidential historian Allan Lichtman, "All he needs to do lay out an ambitious agenda -- the more ambitious the better -- and it will put Republicans on the defensive. "His approval ratings are still high. What does he have to lose? Right now, he's interested in what kind of vision he can claim, what it will do for his legacy." It will be a while -- if ever -- before he'll be able to take credit for implementing these programs, and not just proposing them. But Thursday night that didn't matter. He packed the house, got the applause, and felt all eyes upon him -- even if they were really focusing on the guy over his shoulder. Salon's Washington correspondent Jake Tapper contributed to this report.
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