Why Clinton Should Settle for One Term : The GOP resurgence spells the beginning of class warfare; to spare the nation that fate, the Democrats need a sure winner.

In order to give the country a chance to save itself, President Clinton should make a magnanimous gesture: He should announce, as early as possible, that he will not run for a second term.

Should he do that, he would accomplish two major objectives. He would signal to the country at-large that the welfare of the nation stands above politics, and he would ensure the memory of his presidency in our history books as a string of domestic and foreign-policy successes. These successes are now blurred by jarring instances of his staff’s weaknesses and lack of experience. By removing himself from the scene--perhaps personally anointing his successor--he would clear the road for a resurrection of the Democratic Party. That in turn is bound to stop the destructive avalanche of Republican attempts to undo generations of work aimed at making life for an average American better and more meaningful.

The Republican majority is sending a signal to working men and women that their welfare has to be subordinated to the needs and desires of the men and women who inherit or earn wealth. They also send signals to men and women who live below the poverty level that their chances of getting out of their misery are small indeed. Human welfare is to be subordinated to corporate welfare. Property, rather than the quality of human life, has assumed priority status. In short, what we are witnessing today is what Karl Marx and his followers predicted, that capitalism would become its own gravedigger. Nothing can destroy our democratic system, nothing can be more dangerous to our market economy, than creating an ever wider gap between the rich and the poor. Hungry and disenfranchised people are the best fuel for revolutions. They started the French and Russian ones. Blinded by their own successes and their own greed, nations of the past dug their own graves. Unless the Republican wreckers are stopped in time, America may be going the same way.

The perception of Clinton’s presidency is that he is partly responsible for making the Republican victory possible last year. Somehow, he has failed to communicate how progressive and how successful his first two years in office have been. Minor mistakes--faulty appointments, inability to clearly state policy objectives--overshadowed major accomplishments. And at this late hour, I am not sure that he can regain momentum and the confidence of the electorate.

Clinton’s chance to be reelected appears slim, to say the least. His chance, even if reelected, to stem the Republican attempt to slash funds from programs aimed at human needs while preserving those of defense and business interests, would be equally slim. But unless this is done, the damage that the Republican philosophy would inflict on the body and soul of the nation would be of a lasting nature. It is, therefore, necessary that a drastic, almost dramatic move be made to change the course of the country.

That dramatic change rests now in Clinton’s hands. For better or worse, the wonderful prospects of his presidency have not materialized. Should he be willing to step aside, to free himself for the remaining time in office from the burden of running, free himself from constraints imposed on any incumbent attempting to please the electorate, Clinton could stem the Republican wave aimed at the soft underbelly of the nation’s poor and underprivileged. He could leave the office in the full glory of a President who, due to unusual circumstances, was willing to put the interests of the people first and return to his early loudly proclaimed commitments.

At the moment of his formal announcement, Clinton may also want to declare his personal choice for his successor, someone who could unify the party, who has been a model official in executing the demands of his office: Vice President Al Gore.