The Big Bounce With the Assist from Perot, Clinton Comes out on Top

The Democrats didn’t get a bounce out of their convention last week. They got a blast-off. After 30 years of trying, the party finally got what it has wanted--a convention with no news. At least not from the conven tion floor.

For the Democrats, no news is good news. No walkouts, no platform fights, no credentials battles, no rules challenges.

The absence of confrontation does have a downside. It limits the audience. As everyone in Hollywood knows, Americans like a little blood. In fact, the box office for the convention was down. TV viewership fell by almost 20% from the Atlanta convention four years ago.

But the reviews were terrific, and the word-of-mouth seemed to get around. Polls taken before the convention was over showed Bill Clinton making huge gains--up 15 points in one poll taken Monday and Tuesday nights, up 16 points in another poll taken Thursday night. That is far bigger than the typical convention boost of five points.

The press did its best to stir up trouble. “Story! Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder says he may not speak to convention.” He spoke. No one paid attention. “Story! Pennsylvania Gov. Bob Casey unhappy with Democrats’ abortion stand.” He was outvoted, by approximately 4,288 to 1. “Story! Rev. Jesse Jackson unenthusiastic about all Southern-white-boy ticket.” That story died after the first three minutes of Jackson’s speech, when he talked about “President Bill Clinton” and “Vice President Al Gore.”

“Story! Brown delegates say ‘Let Jerry speak’ or he won’t endorse.” He came. He ranted. He did not endorse. The party said, “So what?”

There was only one real news story during the convention, but it happened 1,500 miles away, in Dallas. On Thursday morning, Ross Perot announced he was not running for President. Not only that, but Perot gave Clinton a tremendous plug when he said, “The Democratic Party has revitalized itself.”

The Democrats were thrilled by Perot’s timing. Perot calls it quits in the morning, causing shock and dismay among his supporters. He says nice things about the Democrats. Eleven hours later, Clinton appears on national television, before an audience of hysterical supporters, to re-introduce himself to the American people.

Where was George? Gone fishing. The President of the United States got bumped right out of the news.

Actually, George Bush got plenty of attention last week. But it was not the kind he wanted. The Democrats used their convention to get out several messages. The first and most important one was that Bush is a failed President.

The barrage of Bush-bashing was relentless. “Step aside, Mr. Bush,” New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo said in his nominating speech for Clinton. “You’ve had your parade.”

Every speech seemed to have a Bush-bashing refrain, repeated in unison by the delegates. Following the lead of New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, they shouted, “You waffled and wiggled and wavered.” With vice presidential nominee Al Gore, they yelled, “It’s time for them to go.” Georgia Gov. Zell Miller’s mantra was, “George Bush just doesn’t get it.”

Miller got the prize for the best anti-Bush oratory, Southern-Gothic division. He said, “Our commander-in-chief talks like Dirty Harry but acts like Barney Fife. If the ‘environmental President’ gets another term, the fish he catches off Kennebunkport will have three eyes.”

Vice President Dan Quayle got his share of attention. One handmade sign on the convention floor declared, “Al Gore has written more books than Dan Quayle has read.” In a statement breathtaking in its contempt, Jackson compared the family values of Mary, mother of Jesus, with “Herod--the Quayle of his day--who put no value on the family.”

It worked because it resonated with the already strong public sentiment that Bush does not deserve another term. By the end of the week, Bush’s favorability ratings had gone from bad (44%) to worse (37%).

The Democrats also tried to get across the message that Clinton was not the man Americans thought he was. They presented Clinton to the public, not as the dishonest and evasive politician who won the primaries, but as a whole new person.

The device they used was biography. Somehow a lot of Americans had gotten the idea that Clinton came from a privileged background. Maybe it was the well-publicized fact that he went to Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship.

Cuomo disabused the public of that notion when he told the country that Clinton “was born poor” and survived “the buffeting and trauma of a difficult youth.” The single most effective line in Clinton’s acceptance speech Thursday night was this simple statement: “I never met my father.”

The party used a video introduction to Clinton’s speech to bring home the message that the nominee had to struggle for everything he achieved in his life. Nothing was left out, including the stirring story of how the teen-age Clinton stopped his alcoholic stepfather from abusing his mother.

Well, almost nothing was left out. Somehow, they forgot to mention that he went to Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship.

It worked. Clinton’s favorability ratings jumped from 45% to 59%. Somehow, miraculously, Clinton got through a week of the campaign with no one mentioning Gennifer Flowers, draft deferments or uninhaled marijuana.

It wasn’t hard to figure out what the Democrats’ theme for this campaign is going to be. It’s one word: change. Every speaker used it. Clinton gave the cue: “It’s time to change America.” Former Rep. Barbara Jordan entitled her remarks, “Change--From What to What?” Cuomo described how Perot “used one word and applause broke out all over America--’change!”’

But what does it mean? Two things. The Democratic Party offers change. And the Democratic Party has changed.

By claiming to offer change, the Democrats hope to attract the Perot voters. Party Chairman Ronald H. Brown recited the 1992 Democratic catechism just after Perot announced his decision not to run: “The American people want change. They want it desperately. Only one candidate offers change. George Bush represents the status quo.” The Democrats hope that if they repeat the catechism, their souls may be saved.

There was a distinctly Perotian spin to Clinton’s acceptance speech. He said, “People want change, but government is in the way. It has been hijacked by privileged, private interests . . . . It’s taking more of your money and giving you less in service.” Democrats never used to talk that way about government.

Or this from Clinton: “The choice we offer is not conservative or liberal, Democratic or Republican. It is different. It is new. And it will work.” Not Democratic? Beg pardon? What was that donkey doing in the lobby of Madison Square Garden?

The Democrats were making a willful effort to expunge their own, sorrowful past. Barbara Jordan said, “The Democratic Party will change. It will not die.” The party platform claimed to offer “a third way,” one that rejects both “the do-nothing government of the last 12 years” and “the big-government theory that says we can . . . tax and spend our way to prosperity.” And just whose theory was that?

Will anyone believe the party has changed? The words at the convention were new, but a lot of the music--Jackson’s rap, Cuomo’s operatic aria--was old. Apparently, Perot heard a new tune from the Democrats, and so did a lot of his supporters. The Perot people are connoisseurs of change, and polls taken after Perot’s announcement showed his supporters tilting heavily to Clinton.

What can the Republicans do?

They can hardly re-introduce Bush to the American people. He’s already had more comebacks than Judy Garland.

Republicans claim that, with Perot out, they can run the kind of race they know how to run. They can call the Democratic Party a liberal wolf in conservative sheepskin. After all, the Democratic platform does call for new taxes (on the rich). And new spending (on everybody).

They can call Clinton an irresponsible playboy and draft-dodger. You can see the ads now: “When George Bush finished school at age 17, he became the youngest fighter pilot in the navy. He served heroically in World War II and was shot down over the Pacific. What did Bill Clinton do when he finished school? He went to England and smoked pot. (Close-up of passage in letter: ‘Thank you for saving me from the draft.’)”

That kind of politics is called “us” versus “them.” It has helped keep the GOP in the White House for 20 of the last 24 years. Clinton skewered it in his speech when he said, “Them . Them the minorities. Them the liberals. Them the gays. Them, them, them. But there is no them. There’s only us.”

The Republicans are confident that they can put their conservative base back together now that Perot is out of the race. As Bush said on Thursday, “The Perot people are conservative people. They should feel at home with us.”

They used to, until the house started falling apart. The Perot people are Bush voters who are angry at Bush. They want change. Can they get that by going home to the Republicans?

On Friday, Bush said to Perot’s supporters, “I hear you. I share that frustration.” The frustration with himself? No, the frustration with Congress. Change Congress, the President said, and you will get the kind of change you want.

Bush was forgetting something, however. Perot’s supporters were not urging Perot to run for Congress. They were urging him to run for President. That’s a pretty good clue as to what the source of their frustration was.