To be sure, there is a sense in which Clinton did indeed move to the center. He abandoned some of the more liberal items of his first two years, such as health care, and he advocated a balanced budget–a vital issue for many voters. But if personnel is policy, there’s little evidence that Bill Clinton has become conservative. Former chiefs of staff Mack McLarty and Leon Panetta were centrists. So is the new West Wing boss, Erskine Bowles. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros, a liberal, was replaced by another progressive, Andrew Cuomo. In fact, much of the ““new team’’ is really the old team playing different positions. Moving Federico PeNa from Transportation to Energy is hardly a bold stroke. No, Clinton will continue to be the Synthesizer in Chief.
What awaits in 1997? Look for the president to emphasize education in his upcoming Inaugural and State of the Union addresses. Clinton will use those opportunities to push to make two years of post-high-school education universal, to provide more money for college scholarships and to wire more classrooms to the Internet. Is this right or left? No. It’s Clinton.
