Clinton Revives Image of the ‘Man From Hope’ : Politics: It worked in ‘92, so voters are being reminded of the President’s modest roots and early adversity to reshape ideas about his character.

Three years after his campaign helped turn the tide of an election by skillfully marketing the story of his early life, President Clinton and his aides have decided they must mount a new effort to sell his biography to wavering voters.

Through a new round of speeches and interviews, Clinton has suddenly begun reprising the “Man from Hope” themes of humble origins and early adversity to strengthen his appeal and help defuse perceptions of an irresolute character--an image that may be his greatest political vulnerability.

Earlier this month, in a major speech on race relations, Clinton worked in the story of his struggles at the hands of his alcoholic, sometimes violent stepfather. And in what aides said was perhaps the most intimate interview of his presidency, Clinton told Good Housekeeping magazine how his stepfather made his home life so unhappy that the younger Clinton had turned into a “loner” who had to construct a separate, more stable world inside his imagination.

Clinton’s return to a tactic that paid major dividends during the 1992 campaign indicates that his team believes they can once again improve his standing among voters by promoting their version of his life story.

But the fact that they feel compelled to do so highlights one of Clinton’s major problems: His version of his background, and by extension his personality, keep being eroded in the minds of many voters by what they see and hear of him as an adult.

For instance, over the last three years, the public has accumulated a variety of impressions that run counter to the portrayal of the President as an ordinary American--from Clinton’s taste for high-priced haircuts, to his socializing with Hollywood stars, to the image of opulence that inevitably clings to life in the White House.

*

Probably more worrisome for the President and his aides, the polls don’t show much fluctuation anymore on how the public views Clinton’s personality and character. That suggests that voters have largely made up their minds on what kind of person he is, although their judgment on his job performance may remain up for grabs.

Nonetheless, Democratic strategists believe Clinton is well-served by the new focus on spelling out who he is. Voters’ views of a candidate’s life history are crucial in an election, even when he is a President who has completed three years of his term.

“People in Washington will tell you that people vote on policy,” says Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster. “But they really vote on the person.”

The two leading GOP candidates seem to be acknowledging as much in early campaign advertising that offers variants on Clinton’s “Man from Hope” theme.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole has put out a video to remind voters that the consummate legislative mechanic was once a war hero and a poor boy from Kansas. And Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, in one of his first ads, declares, as music swells in the background: “I remember the day my father died, and my mother told us, ‘We’re going to have to get by on less.’ ”

The effort to market Clinton’s life story comes at a time when he has been trying in other ways to shake his image as a leader too willing to shift positions in order to look good.

*

In speech after speech, Clinton has sought to draw attention to his stands on politically risky issues--from intervention in Haiti, to support for affirmative action, to his plans to extend federal regulation over tobacco.

This effort suffered a considerable setback recently when, during a speech at a Texas fund-raiser, Clinton publicly regretted his 1993 tax hike, a confession that infuriated allies and gave comfort to the GOP opposition.

Clinton’s top political adviser, Dick Morris, is known to believe that the character issue is the President’s greatest vulnerability, and that the White House should do what it can to defuse it.

In his first presidential race, Clinton’s aides also saw the life story as their strongest response on the character issue, as memos from the campaign have since shown.

“The core problem of the Clinton candidacy is Clinton’s essential ‘political’ nature,” aides Stanley Greenberg, Frank Greer and James Carville wrote in an April, 1992, memo cited in a Newsweek magazine campaign chronicle, “Quest for the Presidency.” But, they went on, “the facts of Clinton’s life radically change the judgment about Bill Clinton: He is a human being who struggled, pulled his weight, showed strength of character, and fought for change.”

To convey that image, the campaign team mounted a publicity effort that utilized sympathetic media and conduits where they could convey their message without commentary or analysis. They used radio talk shows, local television, even MTV, in a campaign that culminated with presentation of a video, “The Man from Hope,” at the Democratic National Convention.

*

Clinton has been using some of the same media--local TV and radio talk shows--to retell his story this season. And at times he has been very explicit in describing the lessons from his character that he wants the public to draw.

In his interview with Good Housekeeping, Clinton made a specific point about people from troubled homes who may seem too eager to compromise and make peace: “Most good, whole people who have survived these kinds of upbringings--deep down, are pretty steely,” he told the magazine.

Clinton is by no means the first White House occupant to seek to reshape the public’s view of him.

In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge, a man fond of dallying at the estates of wealthy friends, was able to remake his image by stressing his roots as a Vermont farm boy. He went on to score a landslide reelection victory. But today, with closer scrutiny of presidents by the media, impressions of personality are formed earlier and more permanently.

And there are signs that some perceptions of Clinton that have shifted during his term have not changed for the better.

White House and party officials have often pointed with pride to evidence of Clinton’s strong connection to average voters. Yet polling data shows that the public’s view of Clinton as a leader concerned with their problems has deteriorated steadily since the first days of his term.

In the spring of 1993, a full 76% of voters told ABC-Washington Post poll-takers that Clinton was a politician “who understands the problems of people like you.” Only 20% said he was not.

But that number has slid lower, to the point that in a survey this April by the same organization, 50% said he understood their problems while 49% said he did not.

White House officials “need to be concerned” about that kind of erosion, said Karlyn H. Bowman, an analyst of public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank. “Maybe the [public’s] sense that was so powerful during the campaign needs to be reinvigorated.”

But accomplishing this may be tough. Polls on Clinton’s personality traits--such as warmth or persuasiveness--have shown variations of only about 5 percentage points during the term, according to surveys by The Times Mirror Center for The People & The Press.

Clinton’s overall job approval rating, meanwhile, has bounced around from highs in the upper 50s to lows in the upper 30s, according to Gallup Organization figures. His numbers also varied by 15 to 20 percentage points on performance-related questions, such as his ability to get things done.

*

Clinton’s job performance “is clearly subject to quite a bit of change,” said Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Organization. “But I’m a little doubtful that there’s a lot of room to change impressions of him as a person. American opinions about him are pretty well formed, barring some unusual revelation.”

Still, a pollster from an opposing camp said the effort to play up Clinton’s past is worthwhile if the expectations aren’t too high.

At this date, in trying to reshape impressions of Clinton’s traits, “you can only move the needle at the margin,” said Bill McInturff, who conducts polling for Dole. But he added that because such portrayals are so crucial to a candidate, “this may be a good idea. It does make some sense.”