Clinton Crafts Middle-Class Message : President: He hopes tonight’s speech to nation will reassure those feeling forsaken by the economic recovery. It’s a chance to rebuild a battered image.

More than a chance to unveil specific economic proposals, President Clinton’s address to the nation tonight is being designed to address the insecurities of millions of Americans who think that they have been left behind by the nation’s economic recovery.

More broadly, it is an attempt to enable the President to return to the central themes that propelled him into office two years ago.

The speech will be more about who Bill Clinton is and what motivates him than about specific proposals, according to aides who have worked on early drafts of the speech.

“This is not a budget speech,” said White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers.

In the 10-minute address, scheduled to be carried by the major networks at 6 p.m. PST, the President will attempt to portray himself as the valiant champion of the downtrodden and forgotten American majority, doing battle against entrenched Washington interests.

“Clinton came from the middle class and through the grace of God and the power of the middle-class dream made himself the most powerful person in the world,” said White House political adviser Paul Begala. “That’s who he is. That’s what drives him. That’s what he has to communicate to the voters.”

Another White House adviser said that the President plans to describe what he considers to be the principal problems and issues confronting the nation and explain his priorities for the next two years. The address is intended to be upbeat, a look forward rather than a rehash of the last two years and the November Democratic electoral debacle.

The speech comes at a pivotal moment in the Clinton presidency, according to scholars and fellow politicians, who generally agree with the appropriateness of the President’s planned approach.

Given his party’s disastrous showing at the polls, Clinton must quickly establish himself as an effective leader--or fade into irrelevance as resurgent Republicans seize the agenda and demoralized congressional Democrats pull away from their President.

The key to regaining authority, analysts argue, is for Clinton to be himself. That is seen as the only way for the all-too-adaptable Clinton to rebuild his battered credibility.

“He has to convince people that there is a body of core beliefs that he is committed to and willing to go down in flames for,” said Alonzo Hamby, an Ohio University biographer of President Harry S. Truman.

Clinton, of course, is no Truman, the immutable Missouri mule. Clinton’s political profile has been likened to a kaleidoscope of shifting images, variously tinted to suit the conditions of the moment.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Paul E. Tsongas offered this devastating assessment of Clinton this week in calling for the creation of a centrist third party: “The problem you have here is fundamentally a lack of moral authority and what the President has to figure out is how to reclaim that. And it is not going to be easy.”

But Clinton can perhaps use his famous flexibility to his advantage, making his presidency relevant to the voters and benefiting from the inevitable blunders of his ambitious Republican adversaries.

Another piece of widely subscribed advice for the sometimes hyper-activist chief executive: When it comes to new ideas and new programs, less is better.

Said Democratic House leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri: “I think what you are going to have in the next two years is less proposals, and simple, straightforward proposals that have the potential to connect with middle-income voters.”

In deciding to keep his speech short and thematic, Clinton is doing what many scholars and politicians believe he should do. Indeed, many think that he has talked too much already. More talk will not change the public’s perception of Clinton, which has hardened after two years of virtually constant exposure, some argue.

Oklahoma Rep. Dave McCurdy, his longtime ally and fellow “new Democrat,” said as much publicly when he recently chided the President with an admonition from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Do not say things. What you are stands over you (all) the while and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.”

Everett Carll Ladd, head of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, put it more bluntly in an interview: “If you’ve got a record which is considered by a good part of the citizenry to be a failure, you’re wasting your time talking to them. They are tired of hearing from you.”

Perhaps mindful of this, Clinton has been uncharacteristically invisible and silent this week, having uttered not a word in public as he has engaged in four days of closed-door meetings with political and budget advisers.

Despite his present difficulties, a number of factors can be turned to his advantage, analysts contend.

For one thing, even though he does not have all the answers to the nation’s economic problems, neither does anyone else--including his Republican opponents. It is by no means certain that the formulas that helped the GOP sweep the November election can be applied to the new responsibilities of governance. And they are divided among themselves on how to proceed.

Then, too, Clinton still has a few months’ time to recover from his past errors before the campaign season begins.

The objective for Clinton, said opinion analyst Ladd, is “to see if he can accomplish something in that span so that after six months he can go the public and ask, ‘Even if you didn’t like the first two years, how do you feel now?’ ”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Television, Radio to Carry Address

President Clinton’s address to the nation today is scheduled for 6 p.m. PST. Viewers can watch on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, C-SPAN, CNN and KCET. Radio listeners can tune into KCRW-FM (89.9), KFWB (980), KNX (1070) and KPCC-FM (89.3).