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2012
Remembering Oklahoma City, and How Bill
Clinton Saved His Presidency
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"Making Hay"
Exactly 15 years ago yesterday, then-President
Clinton
was forced to declare at a press conference, "I'm relevant. The
Constitution gives me relevance." Health-care reform was dead, and
Hillary Clinton seemed discredited. Both houses of Congress had gone
Republican, and the GOP was rolling out its legislative plans.
The next morning, the Oklahoma City Federal Building exploded. Pundits
would go on to write that it was the government shutdown later that
year that allowed Clinton to trump the Republicans, but it was actually
Oklahoma City that first allowed him to step forward as a national
leader. As speechwriter Michael Waldman wrote in his book POTUS Speaks:
"It was the nation's first exposure to Clinton as mourner in chief ...
In fact, it was the first time Clinton had been a reassuring figure
rather than an unsettling one."
Even more than that, Oklahoma City created a huge
political opportunity, which Clinton quickly seized. On April 27, a
little more than a week after the bombing, Dick Morris, then a
little-known but influential Clinton adviser, presented the President a
fantastically naked political memo that, as you can find in his book
Behind the Oval Office: Getting Reelected Against All Odds, said:
"Permanent possible gain: sets up Extremist Issue vs. Republicans."
Morris suggested using "extremism as issue against Republicans," not by
"direct accusations," but via a "ricochet theory." [Full]
With
little or no understanding of America, or it's culture, Obama has since
day one sought to tailor the successes of past presidents to suit the
moment. Be assured; this lesson has not gone unnoticed.
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