Clinton Is Calm in Eye of Political Storm, Aides Say : The Presidency: Advisers believe he realizes that he must rebuild his image as a leader who can end gridlock.

The problems have kept piling up for Bill Clinton, even as he attempts to jump-start his presidency with renewed focus on major goals and campaign-style trips around the country. His popularity has slipped. Much of his business support has faded. He’s under constant attack by Ross Perot.

Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), emboldened by his success in filibustering Clinton’s economic stimulus program to death, gleefully assails the President and tests the political waters with speeches in New Hampshire. Even some Democrats have begun to wonder whether the former Arkansas governor who came to Washington with such youthful promise in January has the right stuff.

Yet inside the White House, aides insist the mood is surprisingly calm.

Clinton realizes an accumulation of serious problems could threaten his presidency, senior aides say, but he feels confident that by taking his case to the public he will regain the support needed to achieve his two major goals: congressional approval of his plans for long-range economic investment and health care reform. Together, they are keys to the success or failure of his presidency.

“Now, he understands what he has to do with his presidency,” said a senior adviser, “and he knows this is a crucial period. We have to produce now.”

The President agrees with critics that he failed to focus enough on his two major goals during his first 100 days, the aide said, but while he will give them more attention, he will also emphasize other programs because “he was elected to do a lot of things and he’s comfortable with that.”

His aides portray Clinton as self-assured in analyzing his problems. But they say he is also aware that he must rebuild his image as a leader who can end gridlock in Washington and who must find a way to counter the criticism of Perot and of Republicans who already are gearing up for the 1996 presidential election.

In particular, Clinton believes he must resurrect some of the “new Democrat” themes that helped him get elected. Accordingly, he will continue to press his proposals for welfare reform, national service, and federal aid for beefing up local police forces. Those issues, which he stressed during the campaign, are seen as crucial in demonstrating that he is different from the “tax and spend” liberals that Republicans love to denounce.

At the same time, Clinton argues that there is nothing more fleeting than conventional wisdom in Washington, where one week a President is perceived as up and the next as down. And he frequently tells his staff, as he told the public in a press conference Friday, that change is hard and not a path to popularity.

Despite all the criticism and new polls showing his popularity has dipped as low as 45% from a peak of 71% at election time, Clinton insisted to reporters that he had had “a good week.” He pointed to the House Ways and Means Committee’s approval of his tax package, the Senate approval of a bill liberalizing voter registration rules, and his proposal to create a trust fund to ensure that tax hikes and spending cuts intended to reduce the budget deficit are used for that purpose.

But if he is to rekindle public enthusiasm for his programs, Clinton must find ways to dominate the public debate, instead of leaving the field open to critics and skeptics, as he often has this spring. Dole and Perot, for example, quickly ridiculed the trust fund idea as “a gimmick.”

In an interview, Perot reveled in describing the reaction of a crowd in Wichita Falls, Tex., when he asked what they thought of the fund. “Groaning and laughing. Isn’t that interesting? I asked how many think it is a good idea. Nobody. How many think it is a bad idea? Everybody. Then more laughing. Fascinating,” Perot chortled.

The President’s ups and downs during the bruising presidential campaign, when analysts counted him out more than once, have steeled him for the vexing problems he now faces and probably help explain the relatively calm attitude at the White House, says Democratic Chairman David C. Wilhelm, who managed his campaign.

It’s when the going gets toughest, declares Wilhelm, that Clinton and his wife, Hillary, are calmest, and “at the darkest hour, they suck it up and say, ‘This isn’t about us or about our popularity, it’s about whether or not we’re going to improve people’s lives.’ And that sets the tone for everybody. It’s the key to making it through ups and downs.”

In his public appearances, however, the President has not always demonstrated the kind of cool confidence aides insist he shows in the White House. In fact, the strain on Clinton has seemed apparent recently.

Hailed only weeks ago as a speaker of great clarity, he has taken to making rambling, disjointed asides defending his performance in office. Sometimes, he lashes out at unidentified attackers.

Almost every speech now offers a defense against the widespread criticism that he has lost focus. In Cleveland, he told a puzzled audience:

“I’ve been criticized for doing more than one thing at once. I’ve always felt--can you do one thing at once? Can you do--wouldn’t it be nice if all you had to do was go to work and not take care of your family? Would it be nice if you could pay your bills and not earn any money to pay them? I don’t understand this whole--you can’t do one thing at once. But anyway, that’s what they say.”

At times, the President’s comments have taken on an uncharacteristically harsh tone. At a dinner meeting of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in Washington, he assailed critics who have charged that his Administration wasted time and overlooked experienced talent in its effort to recruit women and minorities.

“You know, I don’t wake up in the morning thinking, ‘I need to find some female Latino who is totally unqualified to put in a job,’ ” Clinton declared. “But that’s the kind of rhetoric you see.”

The 46-year-old President works long hours and sets a hectic pace. Associates say he needs to slow down and get more rest and relaxation.

“He ought to go to Camp David for a couple of days and walk in the woods,” said Sen. David Pryor (D-Ark.), who is a longtime friend. “He needs to get away from the number crunchers and policy wonks and breathe some fresh air.”

One reason Clinton may feel he cannot slow down is the extraordinarily early start of 1996 presidential politics. Dole and several other potential Republican candidates--including Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, Rep. Newt Gingrich of Georgia, former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp--already have paid visits to New Hampshire, signaling their interest in running.

And the ubiquitous Perot, who polled 19 million votes in last year’s election in finishing third behind Clinton and then-President George Bush, has been building his potent grass-roots political organization, United We Stand, America, Inc. And he continually pops up on talk shows and paid TV commercials blasting Clinton and touting his own agenda.

Presidential politics, as Budget Director Leon E. Panetta recently said, is going to complicate the President’s battles over the next 3 1/2 years.

Panetta believes Perot has made a basic decision that he cannot remain a viable candidate in 1996 “unless he takes separate and different positions no matter what we suggest.” Clinton shares that view and is still struggling to find a way to deal with Perot’s attacks.

As a hardened campaigner who ran for Arkansas governor six times before entering the bruising 1992 presidential campaign, Clinton has found it hard to resist counterattacking. But lately he has taken Panetta’s advice that he “ought not to be flailing away on Perot’s daily criticism.”

While the President still occasionally jabs back at Perot, aides say he is trying to follow a strategy of countering the criticism by addressing the issues that are of the most importance to Perot’s followers.

“To deal with Perot,” said George Stephanopoulos, White House communications director, “the President will be dealing with the anger and the anxiety that Perot speaks to on such issues as campaign finance, deficit reduction and health care reform.”

Clinton aides cling to the belief that there is a heavy downside for the Republicans in being unabashedly partisan in their attacks on a new President so soon after 12 years of GOP rule. “They are not embarrassed to go on a political trek to New Hampshire in the beginning of a new Administration, and that’s not lost on people,” said a senior aide.

That could be wishful thinking, but Thomas (Mack) McLarty, Clinton’s chief of staff, believes the Republicans may overplay their hand, not only in the early presidential jockeying, but in Dole’s efforts to organize solid Republican opposition to Clinton’s economic program.

“Americans don’t like gridlock,” said McLarty, “and they’ll know who’s responsible if we have it.”