Clinton Seeks Deliverance Again in N.H.

Buffeted by events in Washington, President Clinton sought support Tuesday in the state that saw some of his greatest triumphs over adversity.

Clinton’s visit to New Hampshire had been planned long before the most recent wave of troubles washed over his White House. But the trip quickly took on the tone of a search for deliverance, an attempt to repeat the performance of February, 1992, that rescued his political career and launched him toward the presidency.

Talking with reporters after his first event of the day, a town hall meeting here, Clinton insisted that he was not “angry”--as he had seemed in attacking his Republican critics the night before. Rather, he said, he was “determined.”

“That was a deliberate--I wanted to tell those people how I felt,” he said of Monday night’s outburst, in which he accused the GOP of being “committed to the politics of personal destruction” and trying to sabotage his Administration.

In Washington on Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) responded by chiding the President for the remarks and advising him to lighten up.

“Take a few minutes to relax. Go outside. Take a walk. Enjoy the sun,” he said. “Remember that the election is over and you won.”

Clinton was clearly remembering that, at least, and trying to re-create the tactics that allowed him to do so. Talking with reporters, he displayed a snapshot a woman had given to him that morning. The picture was of her son, “a child with a pre-existing condition” who, because of it, “can’t get health insurance.”

“This is what people care about,” he said. “They want public life to be about them and their lives and their futures.”

The words were almost identical to those Clinton used here two years ago to stave off the attacks on his draft record and his marital infidelity.

But for the President’s top aides and for those who had watched him through the campaign, Clinton’s words were not the only part of the day that took on an almost eerie familiarity. There were the scenes as well: Clinton walking through the New Hampshire snows. Clinton answering shouted questions from reporters. Clinton fighting off trouble by turning to his favorite forum--a town hall meeting.

The President’s day began in Nashua’s Sheraton Tara Hotel. Slightly more than two years ago, in the lobby there, Clinton endured an hourlong, unplanned press conference over his efforts to avoid the draft, which had just been revealed. When, on arrival at the hotel this time, Clinton’s close aide Bruce Lindsey reminded him of the event, the President professed to have forgotten. If so, he was the only one.

From there, Clinton headed to Elm Street High School, which had been the scene of one of his last campaign rallies before New Hampshire’s primary. Appearing to complete the picture was Clinton’s senior adviser, George Stephanopoulos, who had accompanied him throughout the New Hampshire campaign but rarely travels now. Stephanopoulos flew to the state Monday night to help plot strategy and to steady the President as he had once bolstered the candidate.

“I wanted to see the town meeting,” Stephanopoulos said, smiling wryly, when reporters asked the reason for his presence. Clinton, he said, “loves being back here.”

The crowd rewarded Clinton with precisely the sort of morning for which his aides had hoped--a series of questions that began with an inquiry about federal aid for community service programs and ended, an hour later, with a man carrying a message from his neighbors: “God bless you.”

In between, Clinton fielded several questions on health care and beamed as 68-year-old Betty J. Windberg told him: “Whitewater is for canoes and rafting.

“Shame on those who would detract and distract from the important work you’re doing with universal health coverage and jobs.”

“Bless you,” Clinton replied.

The town hall allowed Clinton to flaunt his now-trademark style of President-as-policy-wonk, leaving behind the painful Washington questions about resignations, subpoenas and hearings over his controversial Whitewater real estate investment in favor of detailed explanations of his plans for job training, the federal budget, and, of course, health care.

From Nashua, Clinton flew on, as he had in the last days of his primary campaign, to Keene, on the far western edge of the state. There, showing no evidence of the brace he was wearing to ease a sore back from his Monday jog in Detroit, he toured a high-technology printing factory and indulged his passion for handshaking by diving into a cheering crowd of several thousand that lined the town’s picturesque Main St.

Later, Clinton departed for a final touch of personal recovery therapy, one that was not available to him when he was a candidate--a visit to the troops.

From Keene, Clinton flew to Ft. Drum in Upstate New York, where a 21-gun salute, the sounds of the 10th Mountain Division Band playing Sousa and the cheers of thousands of men and women in uniform could almost take Washington off a troubled President’s mind.

“No longer are thousands of children dying every day” in Somalia, Clinton told the troops. “You helped make all that possible.”

“Somalia has not yet found an enduring peace,” Clinton conceded. But, he said, “the Somali people have been given a serious chance to build their own future. That is all we or anyone else can provide.”

The soldiers and their families cheered loudly and, afterwards, pressed forward for photographs and handshakes. For their embattled commander-in-chief, it was a respite from the rigors of politics. But as Clinton reboarded Air Force One for the flight back to Washington, he was joined by an aide who had flown up from Washington only hours before--Stanley B. Greenberg, his pollster, bringing with him political reality.

Asked whether his numbers showed the same erosion of political support that public polls have found, Greenberg shrugged. “The President doesn’t need me to draw that conclusion,” he said.