CAMPAIGN ’96 : White House Sees GOP Vote as Win-Win

Who was the real winner of New Hampshire’s Republican primary?

At a jubilant White House on Wednesday, the answer was Bill Clinton.

In public, President Clinton and his aides tried to sound blase and uninterested in anything as raucous as a bitterly divided GOP field. “I regard this whole process as one for the Republicans to work out,” Clinton said. “I’m going to be president.”

But in private, White House aides and Clinton campaign officials were beaming over Patrick J. Buchanan’s New Hampshire victory. “It’s 90% positive for us,” a senior White House official said.

Buchanan’s win pleased the Clinton camp for two reasons: First, it virtually ensures that the Republicans will wage a costly, mutually destructive civil war over the next five weeks. “The longer it takes, the better it gets,” said a smiling Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).

Second, the unexpected success of Buchanan’s strongly conservative message likely will pull his rivals, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas and former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander, to the right on social issues--making it easier for Clinton to paint them as extremists.

“The Christian Coalition and the religious extremists in the Republican Party . . . are going to ask a very high price for their continued support,” predicted Clinton campaign spokeswoman Ann F. Lewis.

Clinton aides said that they do not believe Buchanan is likely to win the Republican nomination. But they are licking their chops over the prospect that the fiery columnist will continue picking up delegates during the remaining primaries and play a major role at the GOP convention in San Diego this August.

“If you liked Houston, you’ll love San Diego,” crowed one, referring to Buchanan’s fire-and-brimstone speech at the 1992 convention which turned many voters away from the party.

Clinton’s initial response, aides said, will be to obey an old political adage: When your enemies are destroying themselves, never interfere.

Instead, Clinton will spend the remaining weeks of the primary season striving to look presidential, visiting schools and factories and environmental sites--”taking the Rose Garden on the road,” one aide said.