WASHINGTON INSIGHT
ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Whatever his final mark on history, President Clinton is outstripping his predecessors in one category: total days on the reelection campaign trail. Clinton was on the road 22 days last month, far more than any recent incumbent seeking reelection. Ronald Reagan hit the road for 12 days in September 1984; Lyndon B. Johnson was out seven in the same month in 1964. In September 1956, Dwight D. Eisenhower stooped to conquer with only three campaign events: a picnic at his Gettysburg, Pa., farm, an Iowa plowing contest and a send-off for GOP candidates departing Washington’s National Airport for the trail.
*
ALIEN LANDING: Washington is a place where truth is often stranger than fiction, so perhaps this makes perfect sense: As part of the National Enquirer’s retooled image, the supermarket sheet is considering setting up shop among Washington’s mainstream press. “The new Enquirer isn’t writing UFO stories anymore . . . we’re not writing about two-headed babies,” editor Steve Coz explains of the likely opening of a D.C. bureau, which would be a first among the tabloids. Today’s Enquirer, Coz insists, runs more articles about real-life sex scandals, diets and fashion. For Washington, that translates into fewer spaceships at the Jefferson Memorial, more Dick Morris at the Jefferson Hotel. Besides, Coz says, “Bill Clinton has brought the presidency to the celebrity realm. He’s brought the Hollywood crowd to Washington and we want to cover that. . . . Women want to know what’s going on with Hillary’s life, what she’s wearing. So we’ll cover that. We want to be there when Chelsea goes on her first date.”
*
MAKEOVER: Whether Wednesday’s debate between Clinton and challenger Bob Dole will improve the quality of political discourse remains to be seen. But it has done wonders for the University of San Diego’s Shiley Theatre, where the debate will be held. The 46-year-old theater has undergone a $1.2-million renovation. Gone are wooden benches, dim illumination and stuffiness. In their place are plush “Carnegie Hall” seats, new lighting and air conditioning. Although the university had long planned to raise funds to upgrade the theater, the project was accelerated by the opportunity the debate provides to look sharp for a world of viewers.
*
WRONG HORSE: First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton earned a huge round of applause in Quincy, Mass., last week when she told a campaign rally, “I want to urge all of you to support Phil Johnston to succeed Gerry E. Studds in the U.S. Congress.” Flanking Mrs. Clinton were the state’s top Democrats, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and John Kerry and Reps. Joe Moakley and the outgoing Studds--all of whom were surprised to learn later in the day that their cheers were for naught. In a bizarre turnabout, a recount of the Sept. 17 primary ballots showed that Johnston finished 108 votes behind Norfolk County Dist. Atty. William D. Delahunt.
*
ODDS & ENDS: Campaign and Elections magazine, the leading trade journal for political professionals, handicaps the 2000 presidential race: Al Gore, 3:1; Colin L. Powell, 6:1; Jack Kemp, 9:1; Ross Perot and Patrick J. Buchanan, tied at 100:1--and if Clinton loses in November, he is given a 35:1 chance of regaining the White House in 2000, the same odds assigned to Newt Gingrich. . . . A photo taken by a Sierra Club protester published last week on the front page of the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call shows Oregon Rep. Wes Cooley, the conservative Republican who is ending his House tenure amid allegations he misrepresented his marital status and military background, saluting protesters with a hand gesture you might say roughly depicts the missing man formation.