Clinton’s efforts prove ‘too little, too late’
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 26, 1994 9:00 p.m.
Clinton’s efforts prove ‘too little, too late’
President’s work abroad may not aid Democrats
By Phillip Carter
Daily Bruin Staff
He can’t leap over tall buildings in a single bound, but Bill
Clinton has recently been able to portray himself as a
superdiplomat in the past few weeks by achieving success in Haiti,
North Korea, the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.
Clinton is in the Middle East this week capitalizing on his
recent string of successes. Yet UCLA students and professors said
that his accomplishments may be too little and too late to boost
his popularity and aid embattled Democrats during the upcoming
midterm elections.
"The average voter doesn’t care much about foreign policy,
except in a negative way," UCLA international relations professor
Jeffry Frieden said. "Successes along those lines  unless
they’re extremely visible  don’t count much in a positive
way."
Fourth-year history student Eric Allen agreed with Frieden,
saying that foreign policy achievements don’t help presidents
politically, and can hurt them when things go awry.
"Bad policy messes things up and that’s noticeable," said Allen,
likening politics to a freeway, where people only notice problems
when accidents snarl traffic.
Recent opinion polls place Clinton’s approval rating at around
45 percent, and voters say for the first time in 40 years they are
more likely to vote for Republicans than Democrats for
Congress.
In light of this, UCLA political science Professor Jeremy Wood
argued that recent presidential success with foreign policy will
have little effect on how congressional and gubernatorial races
turn out.
"(These) races aren’t going to feel much of an effect from it,"
said Wood "Partially because it’s foreign, partially because it’s
Clinton and partially because the candidates are distancing
themselves from the Democratic party."
UCLA political science Professor John Petrocik argued that the
Clinton administration uses foreign policy successes in the opinion
wars to replace bad domestic news.
"The Los Angeles Times probably runs 30 stories a day, at most
five or six are election stories, and most of those are unfair to
Clinton," Petrocik said. "He helps Democrats by squeezing out some
of the space with these high-profile (foreign issues)."
Fourth-year political science student Frankie Quintero said that
part of Clinton’s popularity problem is related to general American
ignorance of foreign issues.
"They may be (informed) on certain issues, but ask people what
GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) or NAFTA (North
American Free Trade Agreement) is, and they won’t know," Quintero
said. "They won’t tell you what GATT is, but they would know where
O.J. (Simpson) is."
Second-year student Chris Banyan agreed, but blamed the media
for not letting Clinton’s popularity rise after his string of
foreign policy successes.
"Everything gets reported from an American perspective, and the
media panders to a public that doesn’t care about the rest of the
world," Banyan said. "Politicians can’t help but give the media
what they want."
Despite the dearth of political rewards, Clinton’s successes
have impressed Bruin experts by changing the face of American
diplomacy.
"What these (events) indicate is a certain degree of success in
reorienting American foreign policy toward post-Cold War
realities," Frieden said. "In foreign policy there tends to be
continuity, rather than discontinuity  the developments in
the last several weeks are the conclusion of what has happened (in
previous administrations)."
Clinton was present Wednesday at the signing of the
Jordan-Israel peace treaty, an agreement the United States
partially facilitated. Last week, the United States reached a
settlement with North Korea, prohibiting that country’s nuclear
weapons development in return for U.S. aid. American troops
continue to occupy Haiti and Kuwait.
UCLA political experts cited Somalia as an example of Clinton’s
old style, which focused too little on gaining popular support for
ventures abroad.
"American foreign policy makers had no idea what the domestic
reaction to the Somalia intervention would be," Frieden said.
"Americans were initially favorable to going in for humanitarian
issues, (but) when it became clear that we were getting involved in
an (internal) power struggle, American public opinion became much
less favorably inclined."
Third-year international relations student Sarah Greene praised
Clinton for finally trying to conduct foreign policy.
"It looks like he’s adapting to making policy in the foreign
arena," Greene said. "He was elected on his domestic policies, but
now he has finally begun to flex his muscles abroad  which
helps American interests."
Based on Clinton’s recent foreign-policy success, however,
midterm-election results are unlikely to get better or worse for
Democrats, Wood said.
"(Even) if Clinton looks good because of Haiti and North Korea,"
he said, "the trickle-down effect for Kathleen Brown will be
minor."
