No Mention of Clinton in Philly

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 2, 2000 -- -- He has tormented the GOP for eight long years. He is despised by the party faithful. He symbolizes everything George W. Bush is running against.

Yet his name is rarely invoked in the convention hall where Republicans are gathered in that most partisan of political gatherings — a national convention. He is President Bill Clinton.

And so it’s indeed peculiar that the titular head of the Democratic Party — particularly one as loathed by party loyalists as the current commander-in-chief — has received such scarce mention.

Bucking the Bashing Tradition

Both parties traditionally dedicate the second night of their four-day conventions to bashing the opposition — prominent party members take to the podium to assail the other party.

“This speech is a lot like a Bill Clinton promise,” New York Rep. Susan Molinari joked in her keynote address at the 1996 convention in San Diego. “It won’t last long and it will sound like a Republican talking … Americans know that Bill Clinton’s promises have the lifespan of a Big Mac on Air Force One.”

Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson even called Clinton a “draft dodger” in the war on poverty, for his refusal to sign Republican-backed welfare reform legislation.

“A few years ago, when I suddenly found myself president,” said former President Gerald Ford on the first day of the 1996 RNC convention, “I said I was a Ford, not a Lincoln. Today, what we have in the White House is neither a Ford, nor a Lincoln. What we have is a convertible Dodge! Isn’t it time for trade-in?”

This year, however, at the direction of their “compassionate conservative” nominee-to-be, Republicans are doing their level best to project a nicer image.

Rhetorical Allusions

One result of that rhetorical retooling is that until vice-presidential nominee Dick Cheney took the podium on the convention’s third evening, Clinton’s name had yet to pass the lips of a single major prime-time speaker.