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Jewish World Review August 16, 2000 / 15 Menachem-Av, 5760

Chris Matthews

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Consumer Reports


The nation's prom king


http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- LOS ANGELES | For Al Gore, the toughest part of winning the White House is getting Bill Clinton to give it up.

Instead of yielding Al the spotlight this convention eve, Bill and Hill are grabbing all the money and crowd attention they can muster. Saturday, she holds a big fund-raising concert for her New York Senate race. Sunday, he basks at Malibu with Barbra Streisand, as she rakes in $10 million for Clinton's post-presidential library.

So the question lingers in the L.A. air: When is our charmed, politically gifted, sorcerer of a president going to finish with his tricks and let his apprentice get a shot at center stage?

Al Gore has tried giving Clinton the hook. You don't see James Carville and Lanny Davis or Dick Morris in Gore's cast of campaign aides. You do see a vice presidential running mate, Joe Lieberman, who sends a clear message that Gore wants to put the sordid aspects of the Clinton era as far as possible behind him. It was the Connecticut senator who called Clinton's conduct "immoral," saying Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky made fathers like him keep their daughters from watching the evening news anymore. Preparing to leave for California and the Democratic convention, Bill Clinton has once again raised the Monica story for all to re-examine. In a TV interview in Illinois, he told of his spiritual "rebuilding" and said that "no fair-minded person" would blame Al Gore for his misdeeds.

I expect Clinton's brief moment of public reflection to be forgotten amid the garish celebrations of this weekend. In the company of Cher and Diana Ross and other Hollywood lovelies, the president will take quickly to the role he has sought from youth: that of national prom king. He will take his place in Beverly Hills and Brentwood and Bel Air, not among the great heroes of the history books but at the lip of the dance floor for all to see and admire.

On this point, at least, George W. Bush, had it right in Philadelphia: "Our current president embodied the potential of a generation -- so many talents, so much charm, such great skill. But in the end, to what end? So much promise to no great purpose."

Alone among politicians, this president seems to actually enjoy fund-raising events like this weekend's. He takes the applause of those who've paid to attend as personal, their friendship as authentic. He talks into the night, I'm told, on this most valuable piece of real estate: the center of this wealthy, successful and glittering group, all eyes and ears alert to whatever he has to share.

I have always reckoned that Santa Monica is this president's spiritual home, and not because of the obvious pun.

Bill Clinton seems most at home not in Hope, Ark., where he was born, nor in Hot Springs, where his mother raised him, but here in the land of confected fantasy, here where the predominant values are youth, sex, money, celebrity, winning.

Here, Bill Clinton does not have to do, but simply to be.

How fitting that his grand parade should end here in Hollywood among the actors, directors and producers who share his lifestyle: pursuing the best-remembered passions of high school with the power and perks of middle age.



JWR contributor Chris Matthews is the author of Hardball. and hosts a CNBC show of the same name. Send your comments to him by clicking here.

Up

08/07/00: The good soldier
08/02/00: Welcome to Philadelphia --- we had the first...
07/31/00: Bush-Cheney ticket: A constitutional problem
07/26/00: If Bush is an IPO, Gore is a store
07/24/00: Will being 'better' sink Hillary?
07/19/00: Pre-convention calm?
07/17/00: AlGore is executing a double dose of imitation 07/10/00: Mexicans elect a Bush Republican
07/10/00:Another kind of McCarthyism
07/06/00: How Bubba's teapots clang
07/03/00: AlGore's latest hazard
06/29/00: No echoes in this presidential choice
06/26/00: Death joins the debate
06/21/00: Jerry Brown tells AlGore how to 'wage' campaign
06/19/00: Squishy logic for soft money
06/15/00: Citizen Kane, 113 years later
06/12/00: Kennedy-Nixon redux?
06/07/00: Bush says 'I do' to reality
06/05/00: Clinton's odd silence on his achievements
06/02/00: Pelosi, a voice for human rights
05/30/00: Bubba's escape hatches
05/23/00: Who typifies leadership?
05/19/00: Bubba's legacy involves AIDS
05/16/00: Dubyah's outlook for 'playoffs' remains perilous
05/11/00: Giuliani's travels
05/09/00: A Yale degree, a Bob Jones education
05/03/00: Show of force!
05/01/00: Abortion polls don't reflect reality
04/28/00: Bill Russell and American racism
04/24/00: Vietnam 25 -- The good, bad and ugly
04/19/00: Nader's threat to Gore in California
04/17/00: Berkeley politician visits with Elian's father
04/14/00: Clinton and the Castro curse
04/11/00: Men who saved Elián from the sea
04/06/00: Caine should coach politicians
04/03/00: No. 2 spots: Woman-to-woman?
03/29/00: Gray for veep and Gore might coast to victory
03/27/00: The secret life of a CIA wife
03/22/00: 'We're suckers for underdogs'
03/20/00: Bush's California dream vs. reality
03/06/00: Scary Gore vs. hopeful Bush
03/06/00: McCain's appeal to 'Reagan Democrats'
03/01/00: John McCain fits a hero's profile
02/28/00: Grading the American presidents
02/25/00: Clinton remains No. 1 issue
02/23/00: Will Ross Perot aid POW McCain?
02/18/00: McCain faces fury of GOP establishment
02/17/00: Citizen Springer
02/14/00: McCainia and the frisky independents
02/07/00: A prime-time primary for California
02/02/00: Clinton's final campaign: Take the blame
01/31/00: Which GOPer is willing to pay for his positions?
01/27/00: John McCain's gay radar
01/25/00: This time, candidates get 'authenticity' check
01/18/00: AIDS dooms 1 in 4 in tiny Swaziland
01/13/00: Complacency might be the campaign key
01/10/00: A choice, not an echo
01/06/00: The role of a lifetime
01/03/00: Dangers in Gore's dirty war
12/30/99: Churchill's fighting words saved the century
12/28/99: Candidate Gore's separation anxiety
12/17/99: Catch 22: Leading candidates don't lead
12/17/99: New Democratic leader on the horizon
12/15/99: Is Hillary clueless?
12/08/99: Taking Buchananism to the streets
12/03/99: Why are we so obsessed with 'spin'?
12/01/99: Donald Trump, 'Sinatra of Steel'
11/29/99: Why AlGore will be our next president
11/23/99: After the fall
11/17/99: Our conveniently forgetful president
11/15/99: Next president: Male, WASP, self-selected
11/10/99: Backroom Bill
11/08/99: Please don't feed the 'pander bears'
11/03/99: Battle of the Bubba clones
11/01/99: Pat Buchanan, kamikaze candidate
10/27/99: The year of the woman... voter
10/25/99: The Curse of the Bubba
10/21/99: GOP gives Clinton his finest hour
10/18/99: Clinton's last hurrah
10/13/99: Rough seas for Capt. Ventura
10/11/99: Gore targets Bradley's strength
10/06/99: Bradley's got the right Rx
10/04/99: Buchanan, Churchill and Hitler
09/30/99: Who'll spin political gold in Golden State — Gore or Bradley?
09/27/99: Here's a millennial checklist for candidates
09/22/99: The biography battle
09/20/99: Buchanan's new book is a must-read
09/15/99: Don't rule out Beatty
09/13/99: The man with the sun on his face
09/08/99: W. vs. Jr. on dope and the draft
The FALN: Hillary's Willie Horton
08/26/99: Bill's guilt fuels Hill's race
08/25/99: The seemingly inexhaustible strength of America's free enterprise
08/23/99: GOP candidates are weak also-rans
08/16/99: Bubba on Bubba
08/11/99: Hillary's agonizing attempts to understand
08/09/99: With warm regards, Richard Nixon
08/04/99: Weicker: real third party is on the Left
08/02/99: Dubyah's last hangover
07/27/99: Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh; capitalism is gonna win

© 2000, NEA