The Political Analysis Section - Page A2
August 31, 1996 Caesar's Arena Morality:
by Staff Political Writers, The Daily Republican Newspaper
The Rise & Fall of Bill Clinton!PALO ALTO DESK - Probably the most mean spirited, elaborately stage-managed, and hollow presidential campaign in American political history backfired in its organizer's face last weekend in Chicago.
When president Clinton's campaign General, Dick Morris, fell on his own sword the shallow Truth was revealed. What was obvious, was the arrogance of those behind the most cold-blooded campaign ever devised. Justice will out and it fell on the most deserving of political heads.
It was Dick Morris and Bill Clinton who had done their best to make the Chicago Convention victims' week while mouthing words of peace and friendly cooperation.
The morbid thread of the New Democrat tone was a set-piece from the opening night. The appearance of the paralyzed Jim Brady(a Republican from the Reagan administration) and his wife failed to accomplish its purpose. The over-long plea of wheelchair-bound some-time Superman actor, Christopher Reeve fell short of its mark, as well.
Then too, a wooden Al Gore's tearful account of the death of his sister from lung cancer was weak and not persuasive, given his lifetime as a tobacco grower in Tennessee.
It was obvious that things on stage were too melodramatic. It was as if, in the order of things, the Democrat Party wanted victims to sacrifice.
Was president Clinton obliged to deliver a 'victim' to the bought-and-paid-for 'delegates' to the arena that night?
There was a flavor of uncertain justice about the demise of Dick Morris that day. Political parties that choose to deal in the coinage of morality always do so at their peril. Morris was the sacrifice and the crowd was satisfied. He made a quick exit by the side door from the convention headquarters hotel and disappeared into the night. He has never denied the allegations.
If Dick Morris had not made "family values" the centerpiece of the Democrat Party Convention all last week, Morris might have been given a 'stay-of-execution' for a while.
But all those speeches he wrote for Clinton and the first lady pushing the virtue buttons of hearth and home sealed his fate.
When the president's fortunes began to turn sour after the November 1994 elections, Morris was hired as Clinton's campaign general strategist. Morris turned the dialog toward Republican values.
Dick Morris' personal celebrity peaked last week. Despite his claims he never gave interviews to journalists, Morris was the guest at lunch of the full editorial board of The Washington Post. Then too, Morris' appearance on the cover of Time magazine, and a seven page story on him should have signaled the troubles coming his way. The president does not like sharing the limelight with his staff.
The Morris fiasco is specially troubling to president Clinton because more embarrassing details are finding their way into newsprint and electronic media coverage. The news of the fall from grace of another Clinton aide on moral grounds, has reawakened old and deep-seated doubts about Clinton's own character and judgment.
The Democrat Party is helpless as it now watches Clinton botching his attempt to turn himself into a good Republican and reverting to his old liberal Democrat agenda that the American people rejected in 1994.
The president's personal and political reputation are at risk again in yet another moral crisis.
Dick Morris and Hillary Clinton are the president's oldest political associates. Clearly, Clinton's lack of good judgment is called into question more than ever before as both of them have fallen under the knife.
A chastened Bill Clinton is hoping today that his luck hasn't run out. Meanwhile the American people have learned just how insecure and reckless this president is, even if was to be his finest hour.
COMMENT
The Daily Republican Online
© 1994-1996 HTML Tahoe Web Press..
All rights reserved.