In a more or less conservative country,
the more or less conservative candidate, Bob Dole, should have been a lock for
the presidency; the only problem was President Clinton. Clinton had moved rightward positioning
himself between Newt Gingrich's zealous revolutionaries on the right and
liberal democratic barons on the left. Clinton's speeches started sounding like
a Republican was giving them. Bob Dole
had followed the Nixon ideology of going "starboard" in the primaries
and coming back to the center in the general election. The only question was whether Dole had gone
too far right and would not be able to recover in time. With Clinton's move to the right and his
advantage of incumbency, Bob Dole would have to present some exciting new ideas
to win over the American people.
Throughout the history of presidential
elections, there have been a few issues that always appear: abortion, crime and
the economy. The position taken by candidates
on these issues could make or break their campaign.
The first of these issues, abortion, has
been a hotbed of controversy. The
pro-life versus the pro-choice groups.
Throughout his political career, President Clinton has been adamant on supporting
a women's right to choose. Clinton
stands firm on the fact that abortions should be "safe, legal and
rare" without many unnecessary
restrictions. To further show his hard
stance on abortion, Clinton vetoed a bill in April that would have banned a
rarely used procedure termed "partial birth abortions." President Clinton defended his decision,
calling it justifiable in extreme situations, such as cases of rape, incest and
to save the life of the mother. Unlike
Bosnia and gays in the military, Clinton has not wavered on this issue. Bob Dole on the other hand has taken just the
opposite stance on abortion. Dole
opposed the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. In 1983 he voted for a constitutional
amendment to overturn this settlement but has since softened his stand and
supported an amendment to restrict abortion except in cases of rape, incest and
if the life of the mother is in danger.
Dole, not surprisingly, supported a ban on "partial birth
abortions" and has condemned President Clinton for vetoing it, saying,
"A partial birth abortion blurs the line between abortion and infanticide,
and crosses an ethical and legal line we must never cross." Dole's position could pose a potential
obstacle to the presidency. His stance
is responsible for his huge gender gap.
Women perceive Dole as rigid and insensitive to their needs. What Dole must do is stick to his guns but
reassure the nation that even though we do not all agree, we must not let it
divide us.
Another mainstay, in terms of issues, is
that of crime. With gun control
legislation being debated in the congress and rising rate of drug use among
teenagers, the nation as a whole is acutely aware of this persistent dilemma. Clinton is the first Democrat in a long time
to take the crime issue from the Republicans.
A law and order president, Clinton has supported the death penalty, and
backed the "three strikes you're out" policy of life sentences for
three time convicted criminals. The
President also signed the Brady bill establishing a five day waiting period to
buy handguns and also pushed the mainly Democratic, 1994 crime bill which
sanctioned 100,000 new community police officers. Dole has supported almost every anti-crime
legislation that has passed his desk in his 35 years in Congress, but in a show
of partisan politics led an opposition fight against Clinton's crime bill. He called it "pork laden" for its
support of such frivolous programs such as midnight basketball, which called
for a program to open up school gyms to inner city youth in order to keep them
off the streets. Dole also tried
unsuccessfully to undo the provision for 100,000 police officers, arguing
instead that communities should be free to spend their money in any manner they
wish and supported overturning the ban on assault weapons. In addition Dole has been critical of
Clinton's judicial appointments calling them soft on crime. He has pledged to appoint tough judges who
will be tough on crime, especially drugs.
Dole must use this issue relentlessly.
Even though crime numbers are down, crime is still a problem. Dole must repeat his call for prisoners to
work 40 hours a week to help compensate their victims and then move quickly to
the drug epidemic. Dole must use
Clinton's slip ups against him. Recall
that Clinton said that if he had to do it all over again, he would inhale. Dole must also use fellow Democrats against
Clinton, such as representative Charles Rangel, who has been quoted as saying,
"I've been in congress for over two decades and I have not seen a
President who cares less about this issue."
With the federal deficit in the trillions
of dollars, the government has been increasingly trying to cut back spending
but more must be done. The American
public has grown very wary of the excess money being spent by government. Any presidential hopeful must address this
issue adamantly. Clinton took many steps
early in his first term to show his New Democrat ideology through heavy deficit
cutting, and due to a big tax increase, the deficit has fallen from $290
billion to $130 billion during his first four years. He also called for a line-item veto, a
Republican idea, for three years before getting it passed. Clinton would use this as a waste cutting
tool. Since that, however, Clinton has
neglected the issue, particularly on the balanced budget, suggesting 10, 8, and
7 year proposals. Last year his
opposition to a 7-year balanced budget forced two partial government shutdowns.
During his congressional career, Bob Dole
was a deficit buster, supporting a balanced budget while belittling supply side
tax cutters. In an effort to combat
Clinton's double digit lead in the polls, Dole has reverted to a plan for a
three year, 15 percent income tax cut and a $500 per child tax credit. Although this would still up the deficit by
$550 to $800 billion, Dole insists he can still balance the budget through a
Reaganomics style economic growth. Even
though support for Dole's 15 percent tax cut has declined he must still harp on
it. It will look much more coherent if
it is used in context with the cost of college, home prices and the problem of
caring for the elderly. Dole must also
stress the fact that Clinton is for big government, which means spending big
money. This will also make his tax cut
more compatible to the people. If all
else fails, just say, " The best way to keep government officials from
spending your money is not to give it to them in the first place." It
worked for Reagan.
Dole did not use the issues effectively, and
he did not show confidence in his ideas.
Clinton presented himself as a brake between Dole and Gingrich's
conservatism and it worked. Dole
presented facts and figures, then expected the American public to applaud
him. But we're dealing with reality here,
to win, he should have been more aggressive and tackled the issues head
on. In the end, by not addressing the
issues clearly, Presidents Clinton's centrist stand, coupled with the good
economy and aggressive campaigning, was too much for Bob Dole to over
come.
No comments:
Post a Comment