CLINTON IN THE REALITY POLITICS OF 2003

Gannett via bloomberg no url | 9/18/3 | CHUCK RAASCH

[NativeNewYorker]

WASHINGTON - You can take Clinton out of the White House, but you can't take Clintonites out of politics.

If you didn't have a firm grip on the calendar, you might have looked up this month and sworn it was 1992 all over again:

• There was Bill Clinton, decked out in country denim, spinning Democratic homilies from a hay-bale stage in Iowa. Once, he talked about building a bridge to the future, but now he seems more intent on building a bridge to his past presidency. Then he was off to California to bask in the adoration of the Golden State, where he overshadowed the embattled Gov. Gray Davis.
• A host of Arkansans and ex-Clinton advisers lined up behind former Gen. Wesley Clark's newly announced presidential candidacy. Clinton, while not endorsing Clark, was described as supportive of his candidacy. Some of the names around Clark - Skip Rutherford and Bruce Lindsey - were instrumental in Clinton's successful presidential campaign 11 years ago.
• The bob-and-weave twins of political consulting, James Carville and Paul Begala, were playing themselves on TV coaching a presidential candidate on what to say in the debates, just like they did with Clinton in '92. Only this time their subject in an HBO reality show about politics was Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor. So here's the situation: Carville and Begala, paid commentators on real politics on TV, appear on a new HBO reality series with actors and dispense real-life advice that a real-life candidate uses in a real debate. Got that?

  That Dean actually used a Carville-inspired sound bite from the HBO series, ``K Street,'' bears final testimony to the obliteration of the line between show business and the government's business.

  Reality TV, what's next? Joe President, where 10 candidates live together for two years and the last one standing becomes chief executive?

  On second thought, with the presidential primary process now dragging out for two years in the traditional political fields of Iowa and New Hampshire, ``Joe President'' might describe the current nominating process. The Democrats certainly have been up close and personal lately, providing some good reality TV entertainment.

  In recent installments, Dick (Gephardt) complained that Howard (Dean) had been friends with that bad Newt (Gingrich) back in the 1990s. Both Newt and Howard had spoken badly of sacred Medicare, according to Dick. Howard, his pride wounded, said he felt sorry that Dick had to stoop so low to compare him to the evil Newt.

  John (Kerry) and Joe (Lieberman) were trying to get under Howard's skin by needling him about being not ready for prime time.

  John (Edwards) was finally having a coming-out party - his ``official'' announcement that he really wanted to be president after months of campaigning. But on John's big day, Wesley (Clark) stepped all over the party by letting it be known he, Wesley, would also like to join the gang.

  Meanwhile, Al (Sharpton) was trading insults with the Lyndon LaRouche hecklers in the audience.

  It's enough to make your head swim. And it's still months before the true reality of real voting sets in. But then again, with what went on in Florida in 2000 and what's going on this year in the ballot-box challenge to California's Davis, even voting has become a surreal exercise in America '03.

  -- (Contact GNS Political Editor Chuck Raasch at craasch(AT)gns.gannett.com/.)

[tioga]

Love the comparison to "reality" tv........

laughed all the wat thru reading this one........

[sgtbono2002]

They placed Napoleon on an Island where he was held incommunicado, Too bad we cant do this with Bubba and Beelzabob Hillary.