The Clinton/Gore taint?

What was the real reason the Democrats prevented President Clinton’s
removal from office? Was it because they truly didn’t believe his
felonious conduct was impeachable and removable? Not a chance!

True, they all insisted Clinton’s misdeeds “didn’t rise to that
level.” And, they were able to summon the support of countless
“unbiased” constitutional scholars. But we all know they would have been
singing a different tune if a Republican president had behaved
similarly.

Instead of “egregious” and “reprehensible,” it would have been
“impeachable” and “removable.” And the Republican would have been out on
his ear.

What we must remember, is that in terms of presidential politics,
Bill Clinton resurrected the Democratic Party. He gave it new life in
two essential ways, one pre-meditated and the other, more reactive.

With malice aforethought, Clinton inaugurated class-warfare and
racial politics to polarize voters and salvage the Democratic cause.

With less calculation, he transfused his party with the new blood of
centrist policies. Granted, he campaigned as a moderate Democrat — but
he didn’t intend to govern that way. Once in office, he only reluctantly
endorsed centrist/conservative policies as a matter of political
survival — such as the welfare reform bill, which he finally signed
into law after twice vetoing it.

Plus, Clinton single-handedly neutered the 1994 Republican
congressional majority and its promised revolution. He not only saved
the Democrats; he stopped the Republicans dead in their tracks. A guy
like that, no matter how reprehensible, was worth a great deal to
the Democratic Party.

Well, now that Clinton has become a lame duck, with barely over a
year left in office, are Democrats finally willing to cut their ties to
their adolescent savior? The answer to that question will have a great
deal to do with whether Al Gore becomes the presidential nominee.

You see, the irony of relying on such a tragically flawed person as a
savior is that the temporary salvation he provides will inevitably turn
to destruction.

Contrary to predictions of an impeachment backlash decimating the
Republican Party, a character backlash is finally catching up with the
Democrats. You can smell it everywhere, but most prominently in the
anemic state of Al Gore’s presidential campaign.

Al Gore is not being tainted through his mere association with
Clinton. He wholeheartedly embraced him at the conclusion of the Senate
trial by pronouncing him one of the greatest presidents in history. As
such, Gore became Clinton’s accessory after the fact.

If his nonpareil dullness isn’t enough to sink him, his willing
adoption of Clinton’s stench will be. And ever so slowly, Democratic
officeholders are catching on.

Gore is a left-wing kook, but that isn’t why his campaign is in
trouble. People aren’t yet fully aware of his nutty extremism. As a
matter of fact, Bill Bradley is edging up on him from the left!

But Bradley has something else going for him, which couldn’t be
timelier. Regardless of his ideology, he exudes character. For voters,
this provides a welcome contrast from the Clinton-stained image of Al
Gore.

But just as Democratic leaders are beginning to wake up to the
suicidal nature of tying their party’s fortunes to Al Gore’s candidacy,
Gore is quietly doing what he has to do to secure the nomination.

Even though his campaign seems to be losing steam, Gore has shrewdly
invested a great deal of effort into wooing Democratic congressmen —
who will automatically be sent to the Democratic convention as
super-delegates and will constitute about 20 percent of all delegates.

And while Bradley has courted black voters intensively, he has failed
to make inroads in Gore’s South, which is the heartland of the black
electorate. Without substantial African-American support and no Southern
strategy, Bradley may be finished.

Despite Bradley’s major inroads in New Hampshire and New York, to win
the nomination he must convince enough Democratic leaders, including
blacks, that Gore is a sure loser in the general election. Only those
leaders can upset Gore’s strategy. Bradley better begin to “court” them.

The Democrats’ best chance to hold on to the White House is to
finally get off the Clinton/Gore bus. Now that it’s no longer expedient
to rely on their discredited savior, will they abandon him? Let’s hope
not.