OPIONION - Page A3
January 22, 1997 WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON'S
by William Heartstone, The Daily Republican Newspaper
2ND INAUGURAL ADDRESS
WASHINGTON DESK - On Monday, president Clinton began another edition of political rhetoric with nothing to offer the American people.
The president compared himself favorably to Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt. He said, in part, 'We have resolved for our time a great debate over the role of government. Government should do more, not less.'
How will the 2nd chance Clinton' administration accomplish that? He said 'It is up to citizens to find a new spirit of responsibility and community and to use their new, smaller government as a source to shape the nation's future.'
Clinton's popular support, however, has reached an all-time high according to a recent Gallup Poll which reported 62% public approval.
As he spoke from the inaugural platform, he made gratuitous and meaningless claims, such as 'America demands and deserves big things from us, and nothing big ever came from being small.'
It appears that president Clinton's interest is not in leading this nation but in talking-up what he sees as his grandiose place in history.
He also appears to be overlooking that he has lost both houses of Congress in a disastrous midterm election.
Revealing the shallowness of his rhetoric, he said on Monday that '... [G]overnment is neither the problem nor the solution to most of the nation's woes.'
Last time around he pushed the theme that he would '... bring the nation into a new century.' On Tuesday, he told us that the nation is undergoing a wave of fundamental change.
Since president Clinton barred all cameras from the inaugural festivities, the only thing you can be sure of and perhaps the only measurable thing to come out of this 2nd chance inauguration is the $44 million boost that this 2nd inaugural bash gave the local Washington D.C. economy on Tuesday.