ustxtxb_obs_1992_03_27_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

While it remains possible that someone other than Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton will be the Democratic can didate for the presidency, the Michigan and Illinois primaries make it less likely. There are those who continue to argue, as did Walter Mondale and Stewart Udall, in op-ed pieces in the New York Times, for a return to nomination by party machinery. The irony of Mondale passing as an authority on electability notwithstanding, Udall makes a better argument, suggesting that in New York in July “the 722 super delegates \(the members of Congress, governors and state party chiefs who sit at the helm of provide the kind of leadership that, a generation ago, enabled the Democrats to nominate their best qualified candidates.” Udall goes on to make the case for a ticket that would include Lloyd Bentsen and Mario Cuomo, or another that would be filled by Mario Cuomo and Sam Nunn. Or, how about Bentsen and Kathleen Brown, Jerry Brown’s sister who serves as state treasurer of California? Or Bill Bradley and Al Gore? And the persistent rumor here in Austin some of which comes from the usual suspects around the Bentsen organization is that no one who works for Bentsen is to support any of the other candidates. Just in case, you know? This all might be interesting speculation but it is unlikely that any of it matters. After the Michigan and Illinois primaries, what does matter is that either Bill Clinton or George Bush will be President in 1993. The real fight in the Democratic Party now is for the soul and ear of Bill Clinton. That that fight has already begun was reported in the penultimate paragraph in a Wall Street Journal Article on FOBs friends of Bill written by Jill Abramson: “Lately, there has been some tension between the various concentric circles of FOBs. Some of Mr. Clinton’s advisors from the McGovern and early days have tried to push the campaign in a more traditionally progressive direction, while his advisors from within the Democratic Leadership Council would like him to sharpen his attack on liberal orthodoxy. Will Marshall, president of the DLC-affiliated Progressive Policy Institute, worries that with so many campaign cooks and so many competing agendas, Mr. Clinton’s message has lost some of its resolution as of late.” The Journal article includes a survey of Clinton’s diverse associates, including Harvard economist Robert Reich; William Coleman III, son of former Transportation Secretary William Coleman; New York lawyer Harold Ickes who helped manage Jesse Jackson’s 1988 campaign; and Texas Land Commissioner Garry Mauro. But then there’s also Georgia Gov. Zell Miller and Sen. Sam Nunn of the Democratic Leadership Council, of which Clinton is a founding member, and Thomas Mack McLarty, chairman of Arkla Inc., an Arkansas gas utility. The DLC think-tank, according to the Journal story, provided Clinton with many of his speeches in the fall. So to define Bill Clinton by the formula of the Mexicano dicho often trotted out by Jim Hightower: Dime con quien andas y to dire quien eres Tell me who you walk with and I’ll tell you who you are is a challenge. Bill Clinton is the quintessential postmodern candidate an eclectic composite of everyone’s political values. “He is good at getting the best from a wide spectrum of people,” Marshall, of the DLC think-tank, said. Perhaps this, in part, explains why Clinton has done so extraordinarily well at attracting voters from such a wide spectrum. The New York Times took note, in an editorial titled “Bill Clinton, in Black and White”. “Of all the numbers pouring forth from Super Tuesday, an exemplary one stands out. While winning half the total Democratic vote in Florida, Bill Clinton, white Southerner, won approximately 75 percent of the black vote.” In Texas, Clinton won an incredible 87 percent of the black vote. Another exemplary figure, documented by the Southwest Voter Education and Research Project \(the San Antonio-based polling arm of the Southwest Voter Registration and Clinton received 64 percent of the Hispanic vote compared to 19 percent for Tsongas and 9 percent for Jerry Brown. According to Hazel Obey, a Democratic Party National Committeewoman from Austin, Clinton’s success in the black community is built on personal contacts. “His ties in are real strong in Texas, having been here in ’72 and having developed such a good relationship with an awful lot of people. He came here in `72 with Taylor Branch to run the McGovern campaign. Those ties have lasted across the years.” \(Branch is the author of Parting the Though Obey worked on the 1984 and 1988 campaigns’ of Jesse Jackson, she said she has no reservations about supporting Clinton. “People are saying he’s conservative. Now the media is saying he is a liberal. Well honestly, the man came here to run the McGovern campaign in 1972 and has a liberal past. I think his message is a winning message. I don’t think it has anything to do with being liberal, conservative, or moderate.” He has, Obey says, a message that “sells,” a message that will win Am b, THE TEXAS 1 IP server MARCH 27, 1992 VOLUME 84, No. 6 FEATURES Primary Post-Mortem By James Cullen 6 No Congressional Casualties By James Cullen 9 Hispanic Hard Feelings By James Cullen 10 San Antonio Drug Bust By Brett Campbell 12 Blue Skies, Bleak Future By Barbara Belejack ’17 DEPARTMENTS Editorial, Observations 3, 4 Environmental Observer Wildlife Lacks Enforcement Funds By Robert Bryce 16 Books & the Culture Three Texas Poets Book reviews by Dave Oliphant 18 Women at War Book reviews by Deborah Lutterbeck 19 Feminism on the Screen Movie reviews by Purnima Bose 20 Afterword Arlington: Fighting the Next War By Philip Parker 23 Political Intelligence 24 Cover illustration by Richard Bartholomew back the Reagan Democrats. The only objection Obey had to Bill Clinton, she said, was his membership in the DLC and the DLCsponsored presidential candidates’ forum at the end of last year. Jackson wasn’t invited. “I’ve talked to him [Clinton] about it and we’ve worked it out,” Obey said. Obey said that after the national convention she will be pressing for an up-front role for Jackson in the Clinton campaign. But she would oppose the sort of participation the Dukakis campaign asked of Jackson: “We ran around all across the country to register voters and campaign for them and they isolated us to the extent that you don’t want Jesse on the 6 o’clock news because you don’t want conservative white America to see him … If Clinton really want EDITORIAL Friends of Bill THE TEXAS OBSERVER 3