Bill Clinton had just finished signing some letters in the Oval Office last Tuesday night when he paused for a moment to take stock. Earlier in the day he had signed his cherished national-service bill, and he was preparing to spend the evening making more than 60 changes to a draft of the health-care speech he would deliver the following night. Obviously pleased to return to two issues that had served him well in the campaign, Clinton shoved some papers into his briefcase and said to an aide, "I think things are really coming together. We're doing what we were elected to do."
Perhaps the Clinton presidency is just getting under way. After a nearly disastrous start that left him questioning his own performance, Clinton has repositioned himself as a problem solver. He and his aides are learning that they can frame the debate on only one issue at a time, and sometimes not even then. And while there are plenty of questions outside the White House about the wisdom of Clinton's course, there is also palpable relief inside that the President is finally on the move. As Hillary Clinton told 150 White House officials at a midnight East Room celebration following the speech Wednesday, "It's the end of the first quarter, and we're in the game."
Though short on specifics, Clinton's speech Wednesday night proved that he is remarkably persuasive at making the case for his policies -- a key test of leadership. "If Americans are to have the courage to change in a difficult time, we must first be secure in our basic needs," he said. "The health-care system of ours is badly broken, and it is time to fix it." By personalizing a complex subject with stories of people who had lost their health insurance or faced a choice between medicine and food, Clinton asserted what a senior official described as "moral passion" and established that the cost of doing nothing will exceed the cost of change. White House officials admit that Clinton must still explain how the plan will be financed. But there is resistance to being too precise. "I would not assume that the public is going to want to know every detail," said a senior Administration official. "The public is far more interested, as far as we can tell, in knowing that the plan is rooted in sound values."
The White House is monitoring public opinion closely. The Democratic Party invited nearly 100 disaffected Clinton supporters and Perot backers in Dayton, Ohio, to watch the speech Wednesday night and use hand-held dials to register their approval and disapproval. Though such sessions aren't as reliable as telephone polls, the results encouraged the White House that its message was on target. Support for Clinton's health-care plan more than tripled over the evening, several officials reported; Clinton's personal approval rating among the group jumped nearly 50%.