Clinton Declares ‘Hope Is Back’

CHICAGO — President Clinton on Thursday accepted the renomination of his party with an appeal aimed squarely at the middle of the American electorate and a lengthy recitation of what he seeks to accomplish in a second term.

“Hope is back in America. We are on the right track to the 21st century,” Clinton said, recalling his four-day train journey to the Democratic convention here. “But our work is not finished.”

But Clinton’s moment of triumph was sullied by the overnight resignation of his closest political advisor, Dick Morris, who abruptly left Chicago following reports that he had consorted with a high-priced Washington prostitute as recently as last week and had shared with her sensitive conversations he had with the president.

The Morris revelations tarnished a Democratic convention that had been meticulously scripted to present the party as the tribune of the American family and the struggling middle class.

Thus began the final campaign of a politician whose career has seen more euphoric heights and dizzying depths than any American public figure since former President Richard Nixon.

Clinton’s ascension to the arena podium was preceded by the formal, unanimous renomination of his running mate, Al Gore, who briefly thanked the delegates while accepting their nomination. Also on the program was a gauzy, 20-minute film whose chief visual point appeared to be the strength of the marriage between the president and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. The movie included a testimonial from Clinton’s mother-in-law, Dorothy Rodham, to the depth of their love and the intellectual ferment of their relationship.

In his speech, which strongly reflected Morris’ influence, Clinton reprised the “bridge to the future” theme that Vice President Al Gore had introduced in his address Wednesday night. Clinton used the phrase 26 times.

The language was designed in part to remind listeners that Bob Dole, the 73-year-old Republican nominee, had promised to serve as “a bridge” to return America to the values of its past.

“Tonight, let us resolve to build that bridge to the 21st century, to meet our challenges and protect our values,” Clinton said near the beginning of a 66-minute address.

“Let us build a bridge to help our parents raise their children, to help young people and adults to get the education and training they need, to make our streets safer, to help Americans succeed at home and at work, to break the cycle of poverty and dependence, to protect our environment for generations to come and to maintain our world leadership for peace and freedom.”

And, in a reminder of his veto of the Republican budget plan which marked the beginning of his political resurrection last winter, Clinton vowed to block any effort to radically scale back popular government programs.

Aversion to Cuts

“I could never allow cuts that devastate education for our children, that pollute our environment, that end the guarantee of health care for those who are served under Medicaid, that end our duty to our parents through Medicare,” Clinton pledged.

“It doesn’t matter if they try again as they did before to use the blackmail threat of a shutdown of the federal government to force these things on the American people,” he said. “We didn’t let it happen before. We won’t let it happen again.”

Clinton also criticized Dole’s $548-billion plan to reduce income tax rates by 15%, calling it a replay of what he characterized as the failed economic policies of the Reagan administration.

“Do we really want to make the same mistake all over again?” Clinton asked, and the United Center crowd roared back, “No!”

But the speech did not seem to generate much spontaneous excitement in the hall. Delegates seldom leapt to their feet in applause and many appeared distracted during Clinton’s litany of proposals and promises.

The until-now smooth-running White House political operation, which seemed at midweek to be coasting toward an easy reelection victory, was thrown into disarray and dismay by the Morris episode.

Officials declined to confirm or deny the report of Morris’ activities, which was carried in the Star tabloid. But the Star’s story, based on an account by the woman herself, was accompanied by extensive detail and a photograph of a canceled check that Morris had signed over to her.

Morose White House aides sought Thursday to downplay the damage Clinton would suffer, insisting that it was Clinton--and not his widely resented political guru--who was running for president.

They were buoyed by polls showing Clinton leaving Chicago with a lead of between 10% and 15% over Republican challenger Bob Dole.

Clinton Debacle

Still, it was all too evident that Clinton campaign officials felt that they were witnessing yet another Clinton catastrophe like those that had so many times in the past threatened to end his quicksilver career. The Morris affair was hauntingly reminiscent of Clinton’s own brush with political oblivion four years ago after reports that he had allegedly carried on a years-long extramarital affair with lounge singer Gennifer Flowers.

How much lasting damage the affair might cause remains uncertain.

Political analyst Kevin Phillips, for example, argued that because Morris’ resignation would distract attention from the final night of the convention, it would probably reduce whatever momentum that Clinton might otherwise have gotten from the gathering.

But given Clinton’s current healthy lead, “if all the allegations about Clinton’s character haven’t brought him down, allegations about an aide’s character won’t,” Phillips said.

“It’s another Walter Jenkins,” he added, referring to a similar incident 32 years ago in which Jenkins, then-President Lyndon B. Johnson’s de facto White House chief of staff, was arrested on an indecent behavior charge in Washington in the fall of 1964.

Despite predictions of lasting political damage, the president went on to win a landslide victory over Barry Goldwater just a few weeks later.

In the meantime, many convention delegates were stunned by the revelations, which seemed to crystallize the ambivalence many feel about Clinton, a brilliant candidate but an exasperating man who, as even his friends and aides say, can at once give voice to humanity’s noblest sentiments and keep company with its lowest impulses.

“This could not have come at a worse time,” said California Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Uneasiness Remains

While many delegates, anticipating victory in November, had overcome their doubts about Clinton’s newly conservative social and fiscal policies, Clinton has not fully stilled their uneasiness about his character, his steadiness--or his choice of friends.

Morris had few allies in the White House, where most aides considered him untrustworthy, in part because of his past work for conservative Republican candidates. He feuded openly with Deputy Chief of Staff Harold M. Ickes over such policy decisions as Clinton’s signing of the welfare reform bill earlier this month, which Morris supported and Ickes opposed.

White House aides said that Clinton revised his speech Thursday afternoon in the wake of the Morris affair in recognition that conventioneers had been ambushed by the horrid news.

Press secretary Mike McCurry said that Clinton knew that the matter had been a “diversion” from the previously successful convention and included language in the final draft to “lift up the spirits” of the delegates.

The president’s speech capped a four-day conclave that was long on sentiment and surprisingly light on partisan politics.

No Going Negative

Clinton promised that he would abstain from personal attacks on his opponents and called for greater civility in public debate.

“I believe that Bob Dole and Jack Kemp and Ross Perot love our country, and they have worked hard to serve it,” Clinton said. “It is legitimate, even necessary, to compare our record with theirs, our proposals for the future with theirs and I expect them to make a vigorous effort to do the same.

“But I will not attack. I will not attack them personally or permit others to do it in this party if I can prevent it. . . . This must be a campaign of ideas, not a campaign of insults.”

Following Clinton’s dictum, the convention’s overall tone, at least in prime time, has been largely nonpartisan, with praise for Dole’s wartime sacrifice and his long service in Congress.

But as in previous nights, before the network cameras turned on, one of the party’s liberal stalwarts warmed up the crowd--this time Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).

Leading the crowd in chants criticizing “that famous Republican trio of reaction--Dole, Kemp and Gingrich,” Kennedy declared Dole “the compliant partner in the so-called Gingrich revolution. . . . Newt Gingrich thought it up, but Bob Dole swallowed it--hook, line and sinker.”

And responding in kind to a lengthy catalog of Democratic sins that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas had read out during the GOP convention, Kennedy denounced “the radical wish list of the education-cutting, environment-trashing, Medicare-slashing, choice-denying, tolerance-repudiating, gay-bashing, Social-Security-threatening, assault-rifle-coddling, government-closing, tax-loophole-granting, minimum-wage-opposing” Republicans.

While Clinton delivered the expected recitation of the achievements of his first four years in office, his focus was chiefly on his intentions and his hopes for a second term.

“Just four years from now--think of it--we begin a new century full of enormous possibilities. We have to give the American people the tools they need to make the most of their God-given potential,” Clinton said.

The president spoke at length about expanding educational opportunities through tax breaks, job retraining grants and other incentives. He vowed that even as he strives to balance the federal budget, he would not allow education funds to suffer.

“Now, folks, if we do these things, every 8-year-old will be able to read, every 12-year-old will be able to log on to the Internet, every 18-year-old will be able to go to college, and all Americans will have the knowledge they need to cross that bridge to the 21st century,” he said.

Two new proposals

Clinton’s speech contained two new proposals, one aimed at middle-class homeowners, the other designed to reward employers who help people move off welfare rolls into the workplace as the new welfare reform law takes effect.

The first would exclude up to $500,000 in gains from the sale of a home from capital-gains tax, replacing an exemption that now only applies to homeowners 55 and older and is limited to $125,000 in gains. Taxpayers would be able to take advantage of the exemption every two years.

The measure, which would cost $1.4 billion over the next seven years, would exempt 99% of home sales from capital-gains taxes.

The second proposal, estimated to cost $3.4 billion over seven years, would provide tax credits to businesses who hire people on welfare. Employers could claim a 50% credit on the first $10,000 of wages paid to long-term welfare recipients. The credit would be available for two years and would cover not only wages but training assistance, health care and day-care expenditures for the new workers.

The welfare jobs proposal would also funnel grants and loans to banks that lend money in distressed areas and provide tax incentives for businesses to invest in urban “empowerment zones.”

The new welfare-to-work plan came in a section of the speech meant to mollify Democrats embittered by his signing of a Republican welfare plan that ended the 60-year-old guarantee of minimal support for the poor.

Clinton said he had a “moral responsibility” to provide jobs for those thrown off welfare under the new law. And he challenged business owners--especially those who have complained about the current welfare system--”to try to hire somebody off welfare and try hard.”

The new proposals are to be paid for by elimination of tax breaks for corporations. He promised that each of the dozens of measures he outlined Thursday would be paid for without busting the budget--”line by line, dime by dime.”

Clinton also repeated his earlier proposals to expand literacy programs, underwrite higher education costs, expand gun control laws and subsidize environmental cleanup efforts.

Upbeat Reaction

On the floor, despite the occasional restlessness, delegate reaction to the president’s speech was uniformly upbeat, occasionally ecstatic, pushed to that point by the night’s relentless audio-video buildup.

As the crowd started doing the macarena--yet again--Marshall Walker III of Richmond, Calif., hollered his take on the speech. “It was uplifting to me.”

“A lot of the things he spoke about are things we’ve been talking about in the labor community,” said Walker, a public employee union leader, putting his hands on his hips and wiggling. “He said: let’s put this country to work. I tell you, if we put this country to work, we won’t have all the problems he talked about. When we put people to work we’ll be doing the macarena for days.” Ruby Gilliam, a 74-year-old Ohio delegate, shouted: “I’m running for county recorder, and I’m gonna campaign door to door for myself and Bill Clinton. What he said is the way it’s going to be. The future. I’m gonna get him the women’s vote.”

And Clinton won an endorsement, as well, from Muhammed Ali, who sat with the Clinton family as the president spoke. “I thought it was great,” the former heavyweight champion said.

Times staff writers Paul Richter, Doyle McManus, Bob Sipchen and Marc Lacey contributed to this story.

More on Politics

* CALIFORNIA BLUES: Morris flap dampens mood of some in state delegation. A17

* TEXT OF SPEECH: Excerpts from President Clinton’s acceptance speech. A18

* HIGH IMPACT: Reporter says his Morris story was timed for peak publicity. A19

* MORE COVERAGE OF CONVENTION: A5, A16-A19

* REACTION IN O.C.: Speech is sweet music to faithful. (Orange County Edition, A21)

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

“I want to build a bridge to the 21st century.”

In accepting his party’s renomination, President Clinton made these points:

LOOKING FORWARD

America must focus on its future, not yearn for its past.

“Just four years from now . . . . we begin a new century . . . . We must give the American people the tools they need to make the most of their God-given potential.”

ON DOLE’S TAX CUTS

The cost of the GOP plan would explode the deficit, drive interest rates up.

“Do we really want to make the same mistake again? . . . Of course we don’t. We have an obligation . . . to leave our children a legacy of opportunity, not a legacy of debt.”

HELPING THE POOR

In the wake of welfare reform, jobs must be available to those who want them.

“I challenge every business person in America who was ever complained about the failure of the welfare system to try to hire somebody off welfare and try hard.”