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A new TIME/CNN poll supports this conclusion. In the survey, 57% said they favor Clinton's health-care plan. And for the first time in four months, Clinton's overall approval rating exceeds his disapproval rating: 50% of those polled on Thursday night approve of his performance as President, in contrast to 41% who disapprove. To a White House that believes 43% is a "mandate," this is good news. "People feel he is trying," said George Stephanopoulos, the President's senior adviser. "Whether they agree with him or not, they feel he is doing big things." At the same time, a nettlesome rival is losing steam. In the TIME/CNN poll, the portion of those surveyed who have a favorable impression of Ross Perot dropped to 44%, down from 52% in August.
According to Stan Greenberg, the White House pollster, Americans believe the prospect for change is improving now that Clinton has turned his attention to such middle-of-the-road concerns as health care, free trade and "reinventing" government. A day after his health-care speech, Clinton flew to Florida for a Nightline-televised national town meeting on health care and for more than two hours demonstrated his formidable grasp of the problem. "It has been a long time since the public has seen him wrestle with the problems of everyday working Americans," said a White House official. "They didn't see it on gays, and they didn't see it on the budget. Now they see it." Mandy Grunwald, an outside political adviser, put it more succinctly: "He's fighting the right fight."
The Clinton team has lately improved its lot by tempering its relations with Congress, where members of his own party have been giving him fits since the day he was inaugurated. After 12 years out of power, Democrats have had trouble getting accustomed to being part of a governing majority and felt free to treat any President like the opposition. "It takes an adjustment," admits Senate majority leader George Mitchell. "There's a substantial difference when the President is of your party. The necessary discipline and restraint are not in the tradition of the Democratic Party."
Clinton exacerbated the problem several ways. By slaloming between liberals and moderates during the spring and summer, Clinton appeared to be just a middle-aged Democrat, rather than clearly old or new. Such artful ambivalence is often necessary in Washington, but Clinton's was on display all the time, and he gave both factions license to carp at him as inconsistent. In addition, he gave insufficient deference to committee chairmen like Sam Nunn and Pat Moynihan and paid dearly for the slights: Nunn has nearly shut down Clinton on gays in the military, and Moynihan last week suggested that Clinton's health- care financing scheme was spun from whole cloth.