IMG 14022826

THE SURPRISTNG TH ING ABOUT BILL

WE WANT TRANSCFNDENCE IN A POLITICIAN. SOMETHING JUTCY—AND CLINTON DELIVERS By GARRISON KEILLOR THE CAPTAIN OF HIS SOUL Sep. 18, 1996

One guy wore a "15%" pin on his lapel, likc a slore manager al llie January white sale, and tire other guy stood up willi his face shining and lalked in tuneful cadences about education and giving pcople an opporlunily, and tliat guy won, so let it bc a lesson for llic next time. People don'l votc for you on tlie basis of a discount.

Tlie appcal ofPresideut Clinton was undereslimated after tlić 1994 clcclion, in the steady beat of Republican dmms from tlieir cncampmenl on the Whitewatcr Rivcr. bul there is, after aft the trash is said, something basically allractive and likablc about tlić nian and the way hc reachcs out to pcople, and when you comparc liiin to his dctractors, he is charisma itself. You look al liim at the leelem, and you look at tlie sweaty young Republicans in tlie back of the room wiłh tłiG ball-bcaring eyes and tlie WHO KTLLED VINCE FOSTER? banners, and it's not a hard choice wliotn you'd ralhcr go havc lunch willi.

Sometimes politics comes down to a simple ąuestion of who's morę likablc. Democrats tried to portray Ronald Reagan as Dr. Sl:rangclovc, bul he was a charming man who twinklcd at people, and lhere's your cxplanation for the Conservativc Revolution. It wasn'1 about idcas.

A politician has to bc ablc to stand up and tell liis stoiy^r. You can't clcct him by lining up big blocs of voters behind him—Women, Tlie Workers, Tlie Sensitive & Moody. Ile has to speak in his own voice, talk about his mother, make sense as liiinself. He cjin’t speak Uie speech tliat tlie speech coimnittcc wrote for Mm. Classic American stories are about individuals transccnding the group, and we look for transcendence in a politician, something surprising and juicy.

Mr. Clinton is fuli of surprises. He is a President wito reads books. He is a sweet talker, a man who can stand up williout a tcxt and tell you what hc is thinking. He lias tlie dignity of soinconc who has always known who hc is. His is a genuine hcroic American story, and when people sce the boy in the picturc rcaching for President Kennedy^ band. tłiey know whosc boy tliat is. He has risen and fallcn and risen again. and his latcsl eomcback may be his most hcroic of all.

And yel herc is a man who, the minutę hc puts toast in the toaster. people start complaining about iLs being too dark. If hc ollers compromise, he is a wafflcr, and if he doesn'1, lic is arrogant. If he dcccivcs the press, hc isa liar, and if he doesn’1, he is a bumbler. He is conslantly disenclianting liis admirers, and yet he has so many die-liard enemics tliat ifyou wTote a book saying hc was programmed by the KGB in 1969 to bc the father of Madonna's cbildand run the Gali carte! using Elvis (who is in Antigua) as intennediary, you would havc yourself a l>est sellcr.

But the American pcople have hope for this man. 'iliey want to sec him do some good and avoid doing great hanu and accomplish tliings througli negotiation and compromise and bc able to pick up a phonc and cali his opponents and be gracious to them.

Republicans, 1 inust say, are in danger ofbccoming the party ofUnclc ITarrys, the uncle with tlić big cyebrows who ca me over for a big Sunday dinner and grumped about the damned libcrals. Evcn with his mouth fuli of pot roasl and mashed potatoes. hc was bilter about liberals bccausc tlicy were miming the country into the dirt. Tlie Rcpublicćms, once the party of hardlieaded rcalists and independent Uiinkers, havc become tlie party of people with a gmdge, like tlie Christian Coalition, a powerful political machinę that no morę reprcscnts Christians than the Elks Club reprcscnts large animais witli antlcrs.

American voters tend not to vote for angiy pcople, just as they don’t vote for naked ones. Tliey arc not amdous to havc a rcvo!ution, tbank you very much. Tlie Republican Congressmcn who lalked rcvolution were ignored for years, as Congressmcn gcnerally are. (You sit in a conunittee hcaring room, tlie ranking minorily member of the Subcoimuittee on Mcal Loaf, and you fulminate against the govcmment for houts, to an audicnce of lobbyists from tlie tlie Ground Round Institutc, the Onion Chopping Board, the American Brcad Cnimb Fcderation, and nobody ever hears about it.) But in the blaze of glory that attended the Republicans’ risc to power in 1994, their spccches were widely noted. Tlieir tirades against regulatory agcncies suggested a fronticr-boomtown nicntality: make your pile any way you can, enjoy your brains out, to heli with everybody clsc. They played palriotism likc a $29 accordion. They were loudly contemptuous of the President of the United States. They Iooked for all the world like tlie long-aggricvcd minority out for yindication. Tliis did not go ovcr well on television. \Vlicn the Republicans were scen as the Party That Sliut Down the Governmcnt Bccause Newt Gingrich Was Miffcd Bccause Ile Hnd to Sit in the Back of Air Forcc One, that was the end of Senator Dole’s chanccs.

The American faith liolds that the important distinctions are between individuals, not belween groups. Class does not tell tlie stoiy; ncillicr does political affiliation. Behveen two siblings a vast, unbridgeable gulf might cxist, whereas between malc and fornale, wbite and blaek, straight and gay, Easteni and Western, rich and poor, Dcmocrat and Republican, there arc no absolutc differences. You and T, whocvcr we arc, are together on the raft driiling down tlie Mississippi, the sky fuli of stars, islands drifting by, snatches of musie, the mouraful calls of distant steamboats, and even tliough I know T skould. I will not tum you i n to the authorities. Pcacc.