September 1, 1996

Democrats' Weep-A-Thon Corralled Reluctant Liberals

Democrat regulars, strong on compassion, had themselves a weep-a-thon at Chicago and felt much better for it.

Radlibs wept also but for a different reason. It was uncertain which political party Bill Clinton was promoting.

Jim Brady, President Reagan's press secretary - brain- damaged by a bullet aimed at the Gipper - plucked the first heart string by walking haltingly onto the podium.

It was the first time he had gotten out of his wheel chair in public. Everyone watching - at the convention or at home, Democrat or Republican - was thrilled. Brady's fight to overcome his handicap is inspiring.

Brady and his wife, Sarah, were invited to the convention to plead for gun control. This is a legitimate issue to debate. Yet, the Bradys turned their appearance into a gratuitous slap at Republicans for not according them the same favor at San Diego.

This was followed with a speech by Actor Christopher Reeve, paralyzed from the neck down when thrown from a balky horse. Speaking in measured cadence from his reclining wheel chair, Reeve urged allocation of funds for research about spinal injuries.

Vice-president Al Gore used 10 minutes of his air time to recount, in painful detail, the death of his sister from lung cancer after years of smoking cigarettes.

The speech was classic mea culpa from a man who grew tobacco for many years and still accepts tobacco company contributions. Dumping on tobacco companies obviously is meant to distract voters from the lackadaisical drug program of the Clinton administration under which substance abuse among teenagers has soared.

For four days, others sprinkled their speeches with incidents of such things as a mother shot to death by gang violence, a little boy dying from tainted meat, children crippled from living within four miles of a toxic dump.

TV news celebrities noted frequently that "there is not a dry eye in the hall."

Children, children, children.

Family values. Family values.

One would have thought former Republican Vice-president Dan Quayle had scripted the convention.

Actually, Clinton's move to anecdotal tear-jerkers and conservative values was the handicraft of a politically amoral spin doctor named Dick Morris.

The president credits Morris with resurrecting him from political death in 1988 after being turned out by voters as governor of Arkansas. Morris subsequently sold his talent for deft phrases to conservative Republican senators Trent Lott and Jesse Helms.

Morris moved into the White House after the 1994 debacle wherein Democrats lost control of Congress for the first time in 35 years.

He persuaded Clinton to co-opt Rep. Newt Gingrich's Contract with America - after demonizing the House Speaker with a $35 million worth of attack advertising bankrolled by the AFL-CIO.

No blush of shame tinted Clinton's cheeks during his acceptance speech as he claimed credit for Gingrich's contract proposals:

Balanced budget by 2002.

Welfare reform.

Line-item veto.

Requirement of Congress to abide by the same laws laid on all other citizens.

Tax incentives for adoption of children.

Tax credits for families with children.

Reduction in capital-gain taxes for homeowners.

However, Clinton allowed as how the Republicans had gone too far with these innovations. He promised to "fix" them if reelected and given a Democrat Congress.

This mollified liberals such as Sen. Teddy Kennedy, Sen. Christopher Dodd, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, Democratic Whip Tom Daschle, Rev. Jesse Jackson and former N.Y. Gov. Mario Cuomo. All had said some petulant things doubting Clinton's commitment to Democrat ideals.

They got the message that "fix" means "repeal."

Some of Clinton's chutzpah lost steam when Morris was "cut loose" from the campaign for sharing White House secrets with a $200-per-hour prostitute. She ratted to the supermarket tabloid Star for a better price.

In a statement to the press, Clinton asserted Morris was his "friend" who had made "invaluable contributions to his campaign" and to whom he "still would talk." Amorality - political or otherwise - is not a Morris monopoly.

The most noteworthy aspect of Clinton's speech was his laundry list of miniature, government programs. There was something for every special-interest delegate, and a lot more besides. I counted 50 goodies before they started to overlap.

Missing was a comprehensive program to fix the big problems of the nation - the national debt, shrinking corporations, imminent bankruptcy of Social Security and Medicare, teenage drug use, declining education scores.

Reaction by TV commentators was surprising. Nearly all of them - perceived as liberal Clintonites during the Republican convention - summed up the president's and Mrs. Clinton's speeches as "ordinary."

ABC-TV's Sam Donaldson - a critic at San Diego - couldn't contain his disgust with Clinton's speech: "He promised everything to everybody and can't be trusted to do any of it!"

Nonetheless, the Democrat convention was a success. It dragged reluctant liberals, screaming and kicking, into the New Clinton fold.

PARTING SHOTS

• Clinton's campaign guru, Dick Morris, let his prostitute listen in on a telephone conversation with the president - giving a whole new meaning to the term "call girl."
  
• The American Society for Composers, Artists and Publishers has given up trying to collect royalties from Girl Scouts singing "God Bless America" around their camp fires. The prospect of facing a pack of angry youngsters armed with sharp sticks and hot marshmallows was too unnerving.
  
• If you think we're getting too much government, be thankful we're not getting as much as we're paying for.

By Lindsey Williams, columnist for Sun Coast Media Group newspapers