Reelecting President Clinton is the goal, and while it is a goal that is still more than a year away, it is time to consider the reasons why the American electorate should vote for Clinton and to begin informing that electorate of these reasons. This will be a difficult task given first that the administration has done a very poor job of informing the public to date of its own accomplishments, and second given that all the media and political attention at the present time is on the Republicans. However, in recent weeks Clinton has gained the high ground because of certain unfortunate circumstances, notably the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. The problem is that this boost could be dissipated with one or two mistakes between now and election day.
Consider first why Clinton was elected the last time to see if any of the same circumstances pertain. In fact, few do. The election of Bill Clinton in 1992 has to be seen as a referendum on the incumbent more than an endorsement of Clinton. George Bush had some of the same advantages in 1992 as Clinton may believe he has today, and clearly the outcome of the election shows that a degree of popularity in a national crisis is not sufficient to assure victory at the polls. At the same time, some of Bush's liabilities are also Clinton's liabilities, and these need to be addressed as soon as possible.
Bush was popular because of the Gulf War and the success of that endeavor in a relatively short period of time. This gave him a major boost in the ratings, but his popularity was gone in only a few months time because his agenda did not match that of the voter. While Clinton's did in certain key areas, the problem now is that those areas either are no longer of interest to the voter, or the fact that Clinton failed to deliver has made the voter unhappy with his leadership.
The same thing happened to Bush, and there were a number of things George Bush said he want...