Clinton Accuses Bush of Unfulfilled Promises

Democrat Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign began airing a new ad Thursday accusing President Bush of not living up to four of his chief 1988 campaign promises. The campaign refused to say where or how often the ad is running, but said it would be broadcast for about a week. Clinton’s advertising campaign has generally been restricted to 20 or so battleground states, which include Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio and Michigan.

The Ad: As a narrator intones “1988,” a clip is shown of Bush, in his acceptance speech at that year’s Republican Convention, saying: “We will be able to produce 30 million jobs in the next eight years.” The narrator then says: “Under George Bush, more private sector jobs have been lost than have been created.” Another clip features Bush saying: “And I am an environmentalist.” The narrator says: “The Sierra Club says Bush allowed his Administration to quote ‘gut’ clean rules.” The next Bush clip shows him saying: “I want to be the education President.” The narrator says: “George Bush tried to cut college aid for families making over $20,000 a year.” In the final clip of Bush, he is saying: “I want a kinder and gentler . . . “ as the narrator interrupts to say: “Uh, uh. We can’t afford four more years.”

Analysis: The statement that more private-sector jobs have been lost than created in the last four years is correct. So, too, is the quotation from the Sierra Club. The ad does not note that Bush won praise from environmentalists in 1989 and 1990 by pushing for passage of the Clean Air Act. Since then, however, the Administration has delayed or weakened many regulations under the new law. The statement about Bush on college aid is somewhat misleading. Bush proposed giving more aid to the poorest students, with the result that slightly fewer of those whose families earned more than $20,000 annually would receive government grants.