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To begin that march, to spark the discussion that Clinton most wanted to flow following Blair House, his already scheduled economic conference in Little Rock offered a flag of convenience -- and a particularly apt messenger was quickly engaged.
John White "drafted Ross Perot's economic plan," Clinton said as he introduced his chosen agent in Little Rock, "and later, much to my delight, endorsed the Clinton-Gore ticket."
White's pedigree was especially important to Clinton. The 19 million people who voted for Perot represent the nation's political balance of power. To ensure his re-election and garner the support he needs for his programs, Clinton must have the Perot constituency in his corner. His challenge is analogous to Richard Nixon's in 1968. Following that election, the George Wallace vote was up for grabs. The Wallaceites were mostly Democrats, and they could have reverted to their traditional home, but Nixon lured them to the G.O.P. with his Silent Majority rhetoric.
Clinton views the Perot vote as similarly in flux, and he intends to secure it. Thus, those of his plans deemed most attractive to Perot's voters, like welfare reform, national service and campaign reform, have been designated high priorities by the President-elect. Welfare reform and national service could be costly, but Clinton says he can push the "big bucks" into the "out years." Campaign reform is even better, a twofer from God. "The Perot people share my view that the system is broke," he says. "Campaign-finance reform is part of the way to begin fixing it. We're gonna do it" -- and it costs nothing.
White's Little Rock audience knew he had strayed to Clinton from Perot, but they also knew he had never wavered from describing Clinton's numbers as "strained." So when White spoke, people paid attention. To those who had been at Blair House, it was all familiar. In fact, almost all White's comments reflected the Blair House presentation to Clinton, and a Clinton aide worked closely with White in Little Rock. "I was told they needed someone to deliver the hard message," says White. "They dumped the data on me and provided me with the graphics." In fact, the charts White used in Little Rock were some of the very same diagrams Clinton's briefers had used in Washington. But not all of them; White wasn't told about the Clinton team's own view of the PPF numbers that he had himself questioned earlier, and he played the dutiful soldier in Little Rock. White's audience heard him ascribe the bad news entirely to the changing "natural effects."
"Well," White says now, "the PPF part of the problem is not really that great, and all of Clinton's numbers are going to have to be refigured anyway to deal with the new realities. All that counts at this point is that Clinton follow through on the central idea, that his energies be directed toward getting people focused on the long-term stuff that needs to be addressed at a time when the nation is getting giddy about a possible recovery."