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A moment in the sun

Clinton seizes rhetorical advantage in address

No one can accuse President Clinton of being an inept politician. Corrupt, maybe; indecisive, yes; perhaps even too "slick" for his own good. But not inept -- as his State of the Union address demonstrated Tuesday night. Relishing his last night in the spotlight before the 1996 campaign begins in earnest, Clinton co-opted the Republican pledge to end "big government." In doing so, Clinton made himself the Republicans' Democrat: a president cleaving to the center against a Congress straying right of the mainstream.

Clinton's speech was neither fiat nor folly, a political treatise lacking in specifics but hitting the right rhetorical buttons. Clinton pronounced that "big government does not have all the answers" and attacked the universal bogeyman of bureaucracy. He borrowed from the pioneer mystique of self-reliance and helping one's neighbor while allowing that Americans should not "be left to fend for themselves." Clinton's words may well have made FDR blush, but they seemed in tune with the national zeitgeist circa 1996. However, they also show a dangerous willingness to sacrifice the ideals of the Democratic Party to the idol of Newt Gingrich, a larger-than-life lawmaker who is more phenomenon than man.

Where his speech contained specifics, Clinton fared pretty well. He proposed $1,000 college scholarships for the top 5 percent of graduates from all U.S. high schools. The plan -- with the modest price tag of $125 million -- would reward academic achievement while easing the financial burden of attending college. Coming against a backdrop of cuts to financial aid for needy students, however, Clinton's scholarship proposal seems like a sop to the middle class, whose support he desperately needs to win this fall. While alleviating tuition for high-achieving students of mostly middle- or upper-class backgrounds, Clinton also should consider poorer students who have succeeded in the face of great adversity.

Additionally, Clinton called for tax incentives for businesses that clean up abandoned properties. That proposal -- while not outlined in detail -- blends a concern for the environment with the GOP mainstay of corporate tax relief. Clinton should exercise restraint in handing out tax breaks to businesses, which already take advantage of the government's generosity to the tune of several billion dollars a year.

Analysts were quick to frame Clinton's speech and Senate Republican leader Bob Dole's televised response as a sneak preview of presidential debates to come. Not so. Dole seems the likely GOP standard-bearer to face Clinton in November. But Dole's uninspired response to the State of the Union address underestimates his potential to score points against Clinton. And Clinton, who enjoyed the congressional stage the presidency affords him, won't be in such an advantageous position during the presidential debates.

The pundits were right about one thing, though. Clinton still has the intangible qualities -- the ability to connect with the common voter -- that got him elected in the first place. In just a few months America will see whether he can ride those qualities into another term in the White House.