Candidate Bill Clinton has been successful in stealing Republican ideas while maligning conservatives as “mean-spirited” and hateful.
Overhauling welfare, telecommunications and agriculture. The safe drinking water act. Drive-thru deliveries and an adoption tax credit. Family flex time.
Candidate Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton have taken credit for all these bills in their self-congratulatory, style in the month since the Democratic National Convention.
If the G.O.P. is so evil, how can their ideas be so bad? And why would President Clinton want to associate himself so closely with them or their ideas?
The “drive-thru deliveries” bill was sponsored by Rep. Gerald B.H. Solomon (R-N.Y.), protecting new mothers from being forced out of the hospital after a mere 24-hour stay.
Mrs. Clinton, who failed to attribute this bill to its correct sponsor, used this at the Democratic convention to speak of the ills of insurance companies while hypnotically preparing the country for another Health Care Task Force.
When Candidate Bill took the podium at the DNC, he took credit for at least seven Republican-sponsored bills, including Rep. Susan Molinari’s (R-N.Y.) tax credit for those who adopt children, Rep. T. Cass Ballenger’s (R-N.C.) bill that allows for more family flex time at work and Rep. Tom Biley’s (R-Va.) safe drinking water bill.
The Republican-dominated 104th Congress did all they promised and passed nine of the 10 bills that were in the unprecedented “Contract with America.”
Clinton, who begrudgingly signed a number of these bills, including the Welfare Reform Act (which he said needed reform in 1992 and vetoed twice before signing) is clearly taking credit for Republican ideas because the closer the election, the farther right he shifts.
The candidate should listen to his liberal critics, including Mario Cuomo, Jesse Jackson and Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.), who all were extremely vocal in their contempt of his slow shift to the right, particularly on welfare.
When Bill Clinton thinks like a liberal he thinks big (remember health care and government-sponsored cellular phones for neighborhood watch programs?) and when he acts like a liberal his approval rating falls faster than that you can say “indictments for all.”
The fact is, Candidate Clinton has very few new ideas of his own.
According to the Competitive Media Reporting, in a week’s span, from Aug. 30 to Sept. 8, the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign aired television ads more than 4,200 times. It is not surprising that less than 1 percent of those ads was a positive message about the candidate.
As president, Clinton has fewer ideas than he has former business partners in the slammer.
True, mudslinging is nothing new to campaigns. Bob Dole, who as Senate majority leader helped establish and pass most of the laws Clinton now takes credit for, has to do a little mudslinging himself.
The Dole campaign, since the Republican National Convention, has aired 5,500 television ads. Half of those portray his vision for the future of America and the other half is, well, mudslinging.
Dole seeks to balance the budget, stimulate the economy and stop wasteful spending in Washington. He also plans to restore the war on drugs and crime while restoring values within the family.
One has to hand it to Candidate Clinton for allowing the Republicans to do all the work in creating meaniful legislature while he takes all the credit.
Pretty slick, Bill.
Lori Cruz, a senior political science major, is features editor of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at cruzl@ulvacs.ulaverne.edu.
