Four Midwestern Governors Dismiss Clinton

MADISON, Wis. (AllPolitics, March 18) -- "We have a chance to rectify our mistake," Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson intoned this weekend at a rally for Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kan.). "We can replace the say-anything, do-nothing president with a true leader who knows how to deliver on his promises."

But Will They? Dole has received a hero's welcome from all four of Tuesday's primary state governors: Ohio Gov. George Voinovich (256K AIFF or WAV sound) , Michigan Gov. John Engler, Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar and Thompson of Wisconsin. All four are popular and rode 1994's anti-Democratic tide to easy re-election. All could be on Dole's short list for vice president.

President Bill Clinton, in 1992, won these states, along with 72 electoral votes, more than one-quarter of the total needed to capture the White House. What will happen in '96?

"In 1992 Clinton ran as the candidate of change and was rewarded," Engler explained to the Associated Press. "But in 1994, when he had failed to deliver, voters turned on him with a vengeance and elected a Republican Congress. We governors showed what the potential payoff is if you keep your word and get the job done."

Certainly Bob Dole is hoping the many Democrats and independents that voted these four governors into office will stay under the GOP tent. But some 15 months after the self-styled GOP revolution hit Washington, Clinton is riding high in the polls, while the negatives for House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Republican Congress are rising.

Engler dismisses the polls: "If you could win the presidency in March, (former president) George Bush would be finishing his second term right now."

"Bill Clinton is a better politician and we will give him that," Edgar told AP. Echoing Dole's seemingly solitary campaign theme, Edgar added hopefully that "this should be an election about who you trust to deliver on their promises and I never hear the word trust when people are talking about Bill Clinton."

Thompson says Clinton's 1992 pledge to "end welfare as we know it" is Clinton's "Achilles' heel." Thompson, who has attracted attention for his efforts to reform welfare, says he can't go forward with his latest initiative due to Clinton's veto of a GOP reform bill.

The Dole record should suffice, Engler concludes. "We need to reinforce the Dole agenda based on the actual record and experience of the states. I think it is a powerful combination."

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