Going Flat Out

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When Bill Clinton's campaign for President was faltering, a bus tour into America's heartland helped lift him into a lead he never relinquished. Last Friday, with the success of her husband's presidency at stake, Hillary Rodham Clinton kicked off another bus tour, this one designed to rescue the Administration's campaign to overhaul the U.S. health-care system. Before a sweltering crowd packed into a plaza in downtown Portland, Oregon, the First Lady called on Congress to "do the right thing" by voting for a bill that satisfies the White House's primary goal: guaranteed health insurance for everyone. "The message is simple!" she shouted. "If we do not provide health insurance to every American, then we have failed all Americans!"

Dubbed the Health Security Express and organized by supporters of Clinton- style reform, bus caravans from Portland, Dallas, Boston and Independence, Missouri, will wheel across the country, picking up passengers and making made-for-media rally stops before converging on Washington next week, just as Congress is beginning full debate on its modified versions of Clinton's plan. The President hopes the bus caravans will help him sell a message he thought he had got across 10 months ago. When the President unveiled his reform plan last September, polls showed that most Americans favored his approach to overhauling the system.

Now the public is skeptical. It has increasingly come to see in health-care reform a risk instead of an opportunity. In a TIME/CNN poll conducted in July, 31% of those surveyed believe they would be "worse off" under Clinton's plan -- up 10 points since September -- and only 15% think they would be better off. "People generally understand the need for change," says Congressman Bob Matsui, a California Democrat. "But they're concerned about getting hurt." Even more alarming for the Administration has been the remarkable efficiency with which the President's opponents have succeeded in vilifying the Clinton plan. In the TIME/CNN poll, 49% opposed the Clinton approach, while only 37% supported it.

The shift in public opinion has forced the Administration to narrow its goals. Last week Clinton publicly signaled his willingness to compromise on his central objective -- health-care coverage for 100% of the population. "You've got to get somewhere in the ballpark of 95 or upwards," he said. "I'm quite open on that."

The next day, when loyal supporters protested, the President claimed he was sticking with his original goal. But on Thursday night, Senate majority leader George Mitchell sat down in the Oval Office with the President, the First Lady, Vice President Al Gore and new chief of staff Leon Panetta and delivered some bad news: no plan as ambitious as Clinton's could pass the Senate. Instead Congress would try to produce a "less bureaucratic" plan. Universal coverage would still be the goal, but it would have to be phased in very slowly. With less than three months before congressional elections, Clinton had little choice but to concede. Republicans are expected to slice deeply into the Democratic majorities in both houses, meaning the odds will only grow longer for Clinton if he fails to get legislation this year.