Bill Clinton: The Long Road

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The final stress of the convention was on presenting a virtual biography of Clinton in film and speeches. It was necessary, says Carville, because focus- group research had found that many voters had no idea that Clinton had come from a poor family in Hope, Arkansas, and had had an alcoholic stepfather; they thought that a rich father had got him into politics. The bio might have seemed corny to some observers, but it and the thunderous reception Clinton and his family received when they paid a dramatic visit to the convention floor on Wednesday night put the capstone on a remarkable transformation. The candidate who a few weeks earlier had been drawing only about a quarter of the total vote in polls now had a lead of more than 10 points, which quickly swelled to 24 points.

Clinton was not satisfied. He remembered vividly that Dukakis had come out of the 1988 convention with another impressive lead (17 points), but suffered a fatal loss of momentum by frittering away August without doing any effective campaigning. Thomases and campaign manager David Wilhelm pushed the idea of the bus tours; Clinton seized on it quickly as a means of building on the convention momentum and furthering his penchant for unconventional campaigning. Plans for the first tour, a six-day jaunt from New York City to St. Louis, Missouri, were being drawn even before the convention met.

The bus tours, which will grow to seven this Monday, were an enormous success. They drew an unsubtle contrast between the patrician Bush's alleged loss of contact with heartland America and the Clinton-Gore close-to-the- people pitch. The journeys cemented the relationship between the candidates and their wives; as Tipper Gore put it, "We were able to tell stories and get to know each other." They also drew huge and enthusiastic crowds, pumped up partly by local journalists who could not afford to fly on a campaign plane but eagerly seized on a rare chance to follow candidates around in the flesh. Some local radio stations took to beginning broadcasts about the day's schedule three hours before the first turn of the wheels, updating continually with bulletins on the tour's progress. The enthusiasm communicated itself to the candidates, who responded in kind; not only Clinton but Gore, who can be wooden and repetitious in a formal setting, relaxed and campaigned in an easy, friendly manner.

THE END GAME

While the Democrats barnstormed Middle America, Bush wasted August. The President was late getting organized, late appointing James Baker to pull his floundering campaign together, late settling on a theme -- a good three months behind on almost everything. In contrast to the lift Clinton got out of the Democratic Convention, Bush got almost none from the Republican meeting. In fact, August set a pattern that held until almost the end of the fall campaign and very nearly turned it from main event to nonevent. Right through the first two debates the story was Clinton holding a big lead, Bush flailing about futilely in an attempt to catch up.