STUCK IN THE MIDDLE

AT MIDTERM, CLINTON STRUGGLES TO DEFINE HIMSELF TO AN ELECTORATE THAT REMAINS SKEPTICAL OF HIS MOTIVES

BILL CLINTON'S PRESIDENCY HAS been an exercise in crisis. His legislative victories have often come only after bloody, near-death struggles, and his numerous political setbacks are nightmarish and ongoing. He has experienced-- and somehow survived--more make-or-break moments in two years than most Presidents do in four. The repudiation in the polls last November was as thorough as any President has ever suffered at mid-term, leading to mordant jokes around Washington that Clinton has become the country's first half-term President. Though the White House released a 16-page list of accomplishments last week, the public gives him little or no credit for any...

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