Issue 1 is President Clinton’s visit to Russia and the future of missile defense. Issue 2 is the presidential race.
The pundits debate whether President Clinton should make a decision–either with Russia or unilaterally–on missile defense. Most pundits, including David Broder (NBC’s Meet the Press) and William Safire (MTP), think Clinton should abstain from any decision because it will tie the hands of the next president. Tucker Carlson (CNN’s Late Edition), however, thinks that the office trandscends its occupant; Clinton need not recuse himself just because he’s near the end of his term. (In an interview on LE, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright notes that President Bush signed the Start II treaty just before leaving office and left it to Clinton to ferry through the Senate for ratification.) Lawrence Kudlow ( The McLaughlin Group) thinks the debate is irrelevant: Because Clinton is a lame duck, he has little power. But Eleanor Clift (TMG) thinks that Clinton’s lame-duck status gives him more power, because he’s free of electoral constraints. Lawrence O’Donnell (TMG) adds that Russian President Vladimir Putin would rather strike a missile-defense deal with Clinton than with a President George W. Bush, who would drive a harder bargain.
Mark Shields (CNN’s Capital Gang and PBS’s NewsHour With Jim Lehrer) argues that Al Gore’s campaign is surging, and he cites a new Zogby poll showing Gore and Bush in a dead heat. Both Shields and Paul Gigot (NH) agree that Gore is striking a more positive tone. But most pundits think that Gore remains vulnerable. Tucker Carlson notes that Bush’s frequent policy proposals have been dominating the news. David Frum (TMG) argues that unions will flee to Ralph Nader now that the China trade bill has passed, a sentiment echoed by David Broder and William Safire. Kate O’Beirne (CG) says that more conservatives support Bush than liberals support Gore, and that Gore will continue having trouble energizing the Democratic base. Susan Page (LE), Steve Roberts (LE) and Carlson note that although Gore is an expert on arms control, most polls show Bush ahead on foreign policy issues. Paul Gigot and Robert Novak argue that Gore’s negative ratings are so high it will be nearly impossible for him to surge ahead of Bush.
Eliáninfinitum
The Elián González lawyers take to the airwaves once again. Juan Miguel’s lawyer, Gregory Craig (MTP and CBS’s Face the Nation), argues that the legal case of the Miami relatives is hopeless, so any appeal of last week’s federal court decision will only delay Elián’s rightful return to Cuba. But the lawyers for the Miami relatives, Manny Diaz (LE) and Jose Garcia-Pedrosa (FTN), say that because due process law for aliens varies from state to state, the Supreme Court might take their case to clarify the constitutional question.
Safire’s Suprise
William Safire, ever the conspiracy theorist, lays out two “surprise” scenarios that may alter the New York Senate race. 1) Independent Counsel Robert Ray releases a report this summer critical of Hillary Clinton’s Whitewater dealings. 2) The Clinton administration engineers a Middle East peace agreement right before election day, and Hillary basks in the glow.
Last Word
I don’t think we’re seeing any major movement [in the presidential polls]. And I think we can predict what’s going to happen between now and the [party] conventions, and we could just write the story ahead of time and go to the beach.–Sen. Chuck Robb, D-Va. (CG)
