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How Clinton the Persistent Rose to Challenge Bush

Kevin J. Kelley writes from Washington
OLD friends say Bill Clinton has harboured big-time political ambitions since his student days at Washington's prestigious Georgetown University.
Such early aspirations were noted during one of the many controversies that threaten to derail Clinton s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. It was disclosed | that Clinton tried hard, and | successfully, to avoid conscription into the United States ' army during the Vietnam war.
While he personally op-| posed the Vietnam conflict. [ Clinton confided at the time | that he would not engage in any anti-war activity that might jeopardise the political career 1 he was planning.
Today, the 45-ycar-old Governor of Arkansas is a strong favourite to capture hfs party's nomination at the democratic national convention In New York this summer. Yet many seasoned politicians still think hfs campaign could suddenly collapse.
He has survived a series of allegations concerning marital infidelity and questionable financial dealings, and managed to turn the political pummelling partly to his advantage by arguing that he has demonstrated persistence and resilience vital to the coming struggle with President George Bush
Even a few members of his own camp fear some disclosure fatal to Clinton * fortunes might yet be forthcoming. This Is one reason why a stop-Clinton movement could arise soon. Nervous Democratic leaders may try. at the last moment, to engineer a dlfler-ent nomination.
Most of the party powerbrokers will probably play no part In an "anybody but Clinton" drive. The handsome, affable Governor has long been groomed for a presidential role by those same Democratic Insiders. Even last summer, when ft was becoming evident that better-known figures would not seek the nomination. key party officials began to agree that Clinton would be the strongest Democratic candidate.
One Southern colleague regularly Jokes that Clinton Is the only politician In the US
touted as a rising star in each of the last three decades.
It was in 1978 that the former visiting Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University was first elected governor of Arkansas. He was 32. Voter* removed him two years later, mainly because he had pursued an agenda too liberal and too ambitious for one of the country's poorest and most conservative states.
Then in an early display of doggedness and adaptability, Clinton won back the Job In 1982 by promising to move more slowly toward reform. He has since been easily reelected.
Last year, in a poll of all 50 state governors Clinton was rated the most effective of their number. Journalists and politicians who have closely monitored his tenure In Arkansas generally give Clinton high marks, especially In the areas of education, financing and health care policy.
Many state business leaders also hail his record, which features tax Incentives Intended to help diversify Arkansas' economy, long dependent on the poultry, paper and natural
gas industries.
Environmentalist* are less enamoured of his performance. One group ranks Arkansas 48th among the 50 states in Its "green Index."
More than anything. It is Clinton's ability to win elections In a Southern state that earned him notice among Democratic kingmakers.
They note that Southerners headed the party ticket only twice since 1964 when a Democrat was elected to the White House. Desperate to revive that formula. Democratic bosses began re-arranging the presidential primary schedule eight years ago with the explicit alm of smoothing the way for a Southern nomination.
To an important extent. Clinton owes his success so far this year to the party s move to concentrate early contests in the South. His candidacy has also been greatly helped by the absence of a black challenger particularly someone with the appeal of Jesse Jackson.
Clinton has overwhelmed his rivals by adding a large portion of the sizeable Southern black vote to his base among working-class whites in the region. If he can keep this inter-racial coalition intact. Clinton may well defeat Bush in November.
Despite his clear vulnerability, the Republicans probably will not make the mistake of underestimating Clinton if he emerges as the Democratic standard-bearer. Throughout his life, the Governor has overcome long odds In a determined quest for success.
Clinton was actually christened in a Baptist church as William J. Blythe IV. He was named after h1s father who died In a car accident three months after his birth. Clinton s early years were spent in the care of hfs grandparents. hl* mother being at nursing school In New Orleans.
The widow remarried an alcoholic car dealer who often
abused her and once fired * gun tn the family home. Clinton eventually took the name of hl* atepfather, who died of cancer in 1967. Hl* half-brother was Jailed for a year tn the Eighties for selling cocaine.
These difficult circum stances led Clinton to strive for perfectton in hi* own life. He was greatly aided by hi* intellectual talents, which took him from Arkansas to Georgetown, to Oxford and eventually to Yale Law School where he met his future wife, Hillary Rodham.
Hillary, a committed feminist and a much-respected attorney. continued to use her own name until it became apparent that her refusal to call herself Mrs. Clinton had begun to damage her husband's political standing tn Arkansas. They have one child, an 11-year-old daughter.
The Bush campaign team has surely taken note of this Impressive biography. Just as
surely. Clinton's strength of character will not deter Bush from attacking him on a personal and political level.
The President can be expected to harp on his putative foe's lack of foreign policy experience. Clinton ha* no record In that realm, other than occasional statements on international Issues
He did seek, early In the campaign, to develop a critique of Bush's actions abroad. Having tepidly supported the Gulf war. Clinton now faults Bush for abandoning the Kurds In their revolt against Saddam Hussein.
He also accuses Bush of continuing to "coddle" the repressive regime In China. And he has been at pains to suggest he differs for dovish Democrats by declaring: "To protect our interest and our values, sometimes we have to stand and fight"
In the domestic sphere, too Clinton often straddles the left-right divide, to the point
where The New York Times called him "self-consciously centrist."
He enunciates traditional liberal position* on many social Issue* even as he stresses to need to encourage "self-sufficiency" and "a sense of personal responsibility' among poor people dependent on public assistance.
Economically. Clinton takes some stands usually associated with conservatives. The centerpiece of his campaign, for example. 1s a call for tax relief for "the forgotten middle class."
This entire political package. along with the smiling and quick-witted manner of its presenter, cause* some critics to view Clinton as a crafty chameleon who will take on any guise In order to win favour. His enemies In Arkansas deride him as "slick Willie."
Barring some late-breaking scandal, US voters will probably be asked to decide In November whether this complicated, sometimes elusive figure should be entrusted with the responsibilities of the Oval Office.
KEVIN J. KELLEY Is an American freelance JournalisL and editor of Toward Freedom magazine.