Word: naftas
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...next challenge for Clinton will be to construct similar centrist coalitions to pass health-care reform, welfare reform and other contentious initiatives. The NAFTA group "is not really a coalition at all," said a White House official. "It just proves that anytime you get the business community behind something, you get a lot of Republicans. And anytime you get the President, you get a third of the Democratic Party." Indeed, days after the NAFTA vote, a similar group of moderate Democrats and Republicans was poised to approve $90 billion in budget cuts sponsored by John Kasich of Ohio...
Until the NAFTA vote last week, Clinton was a New Democrat in name only. Though his rhetoric often sounded centrist, he had saved most of his energy to keep promises that fit neatly into the tax-and-spend rhythm of the old Democratic Party. But in NAFTA Clinton embraced a treaty fashioned by Republicans, ignored the advice of many around him and defeated a majority in his own party. This time Clinton earned his New Democrat stripes. "Some fights are definitional," said House minority whip Newt Gingrich, whose party provided most of the votes, "and this was one of them...
...short term, Clinton must make amends with those outside the NAFTA coalition. He will pay close attention to the labor wing of the party, soothing bitterness among rust-belt Democrats. Noting that 156 of 258 Democrats opposed him, Ohio Democrat Marcy Kaptur pointed out that Clinton is out of synch with what she calls the "real core of the Democratic Party" in the House. "I think he's the candidate of Wall Street," she said, "not Main Street." Kaptur predicted that the division will lead to an increase in independent voting and support for Ross Perot's United We Stand...
START EARLY Distracted by another life-and-death struggle on the budget, Clinton ignored the looming NAFTA battle until after Labor Day. That gave the opposition time to lock up votes among House Democrats, who tend to be protectionist and mildly isolationist anyway. It also gave Clinton's own advisers, who were split over the wisdom of NAFTA, room to caper: several urged Clinton to pull out of the pact while he still had a chance and began planting the idea with party officials. The result was confusion...
...first speech on behalf of the treaty in the East Room. Behind the scenes, deputy director of communications Rahm Emanuel sent Clinton a three-page, single-spaced memo outlining a two-month strategy in which the President would each week slowly ratchet up his activity on behalf of NAFTA until he was "in total immersion during the last 10 days." The memo acknowledged that Clinton started well behind his opponents, but it argued that a series of meetings with more than 100 undecided members, regular TV appearances and a coordinated campaign with Republicans and business groups would turn the tide...