Clinton Says Bush Has Failed in Duty to Lead America

Fresh from his assault on President Bush’s handling of foreign policy, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton on Wednesday broadened his criticism to accuse the President of breaking faith with the most basic of presidential promises--his vow to lead America.

Speaking from the hard concrete floor of the cavernous Louisiana Superdome, where Bush triumphantly accepted his party’s 1988 nomination for President, Clinton took his cues directly from the speech Bush delivered here nearly four years ago.

“Four years ago, this President promised 15 million new jobs, no new taxes and a kinder and gentler nation,” Clinton told a small crowd of supporters. “But most important, he promised to be President, to accept responsibility. The mission was of an America ‘moving forward, always forward.’ Four years later, we’re moving backward.

“We are not moving forward, always forward, and all Mr. Bush has to offer is the politics of blame and more of the same.”

With arch and brittle tones, Clinton also rejected Bush’s recent contention that he is a President the nation can trust--an allusion Republicans have used in an effort to resurrect voter concerns about Clinton’s character.

He flatly accused Bush of having violated the nation’s trust. He said that Bush’s promise of 15 million jobs “is 14 1/2 million jobs short” and that the President’s vow to lead a “kinder, gentler nation . . . has been savaged by the political tactics and the divisions of his own Administration.”

“Beyond the trust issue, beyond the broken promises, beyond the bad economic policies, underneath all this is an even more fundamental issue--that is the failure of the President to assume responsibility for the future of this country,” Clinton said.

The Superdome appearance--bracketed by a town meeting in Lake Charles, La., and a rally elsewhere in New Orleans--continued what has amounted to a tour by Clinton through the signposts of George Bush’s life.

Clinton is taking on the Republicans with a stew of symbolism and substance, mixing well-known Bush locales with the issues that won Bush the presidency.

Last Thursday, the Democratic nominee traveled to Bush’s adopted hometown of Houston, where he criticized the President’s record on crime. On Monday, he chose Illinois, one of the most important electoral states in 1988 and again in 1992, to slam Bush for his handling of the Gulf War.

And Wednesday in New Orleans, Clinton’s focus was on Bush’s leadership and his economic policies.

Throughout the day, Clinton contrasted Bush’s handling of the economy with his own economic plan, which he says will erase the deficit within seven years, provide 1 million jobs to needy Americans and restart the nation’s economic engine.

Clinton has said he can finance his spending with a surcharge on millionaires, increased taxes on those making more than $200,000 a year and restructured taxes on businesses that send their operations overseas.

In attacking Bush, Clinton leveled much of his criticism at the President’s chief economic adviser, Budget Director Richard G. Darman, who on Tuesday told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that the President was not to blame for the foundering economy.

“Mr. Darman pointed the finger of blame everywhere but the Oval Office,” Clinton said, charging that the President “is still in the grip of a failed idea, still believing the only way to make an economy grow in a tough global environment is to cut taxes on the wealthiest 1%, raise them on the middle class, let the deficit grow, reduce investment in our future and stay out of the economic battleground with other nations.

“He still believes that, when it comes to offering opportunity for ordinary men, the best policy for the government is to do nothing.”

Clinton himself was not immune to criticism Wednesday.

Vice President Dan Quayle told reporters that conservatives would rally to Bush’s side once they think about what shape the Supreme Court would take under Clinton. Quayle suggested that Clinton would apply an anti-death penalty “litmus test” to his Supreme Court appointments. The vice president drew that conclusion from Clinton’s statement last month that Mario M. Cuomo, the New York governor who opposes the death penalty, would be “a good Supreme Court justice.”

Speaking to reporters in Lake Charles, the western Louisiana town where he held a town meeting Wednesday morning, Clinton said he was appalled at Quayle’s remarks.

“Dan Quayle and George Bush can talk about capital punishment, but I’m the only person who’s really carried it out who’s running for President,” said Clinton, who supports capital punishment and has overseen the executions of four Arkansans during his tenure as governor.