Meet The New Bill Clinton

Of all Bill Clinton's sins, real and imagined, none seems to have gotten beneath the skin of long-time Republicans quite as much as his supreme talent for political mimicry. Sure, young GOP firebrands in the House may fulminate about Vince Foster, missing files and moral turpitude in the Oval Office. But Clinton's uncanny ability to co-opt Republican positions on everything from welfare reform to the death penalty has driven party lifers like George Bush Senior and Bob Dole to distraction unlike anything else.

"Rather than contend for an agenda of his own, he just adopts Republican rhetoric," a frustrated Bob Dole fumed in June 1996, "If Bill Clinton keeps it up, he won't have to give any more of his long-winded speeches-all he'll have to do is find out my position on an issue and say, 'Me too, me too, me too.'"

You might feel like Dole too if such maddening tactics by the opposition were helping to take down your presidential bid.

When it comes to the mass-market game of electoral politics, Bill Clinton has shown himself in the last two elections to be without equal. The proof is in his two victories against venerable American names, despite his own scandals and high negatives.

But, it's fair to say, consider the competition: both the elder Bush and Dole, though adjudged by many to be perfectly affable in person, often came across on the stump as wooden, scripted men cut from the uniform party mold. What better foils for a charismatic young southern governor, a man who fairly radiates bonhomie, a politician who exudes compassion but is conservative enough on certain issues to appeal to a broad electoral base?

Hmmm ... Sound like someone else we know?

The Republican Party establishment may not have much nice to say about Bill Clinton the president, but this election season they seem intent on paying Bill Clinton the politician the sincerest form of flattery. And if Al Gore doesn't watch out, Bush might take his Clinton imitation all the way to the White House. "Compassionate Conservatism," after all, is just a more economical way of saying "A Republican who feels your pain."

Differences? Many, obviously, between Clinton and George W. Their wildly different backgrounds for starters. But strip away the names and the party affiliations and the affinities begin to shine through.

Those who would point to Bush's hard turn right in South Carolina as evidence to the contrary might remember Clinton's Arkansas homecoming in 1992, when he raced back to Little Rock to preside over the execution of brain-damaged death-row inmate Rickey Ray Rector. Pandering to the Christian right (which fears post-election abandonment) by Bush? Try Clinton's courting, and subsequent abandonment, of gays.

George W. Bush is trying to walk the Clinton tightrope by giving lip service to his party's core while positioning himself firmly in the center on everything else.

Such is standard practice in the general electio. But Bush's means to this end have been distinctly Clintonesque. Instead of gaining the middle ground by toning down traditional Republican issues with moderate rhetoric, Bush has been walking on what is generally thought of as Democratic turf. Unveiling developed positions on the environment and education. Promising a Medicare prescription drug plan. Using "softer" rhetoric in a calculated attempt to bridge the so-called gender gap.

Gore, like Bush the elder and Dole before him, now finds himself cast as the stiff party regular against a political chameleon. And he's been forced into playing a "me too" game of political catch-up on what are supposed to be his strong issues. It's been a bad month for the vice president.

But Bush shouldn't get comfortable just yet, because the Clinton strategy carries its own substantial risks. There were times when it took every bit of Clinton's substantial intelligence, guile, and command of the issues to wriggle through the rhetorical hoops he set up for himself in running as a "new Democrat." If Bush is going to steal Al Gore's thunder, he'd better be ready for a hard rain in the debates.