Quick Start for a Long, Hard Campaign

THE MAIDEN ADDRESS OF A NEW PRESIDENT TO A joint session of Congress, plus the Supreme Court, the Cabinet and the assembled diplomatic corps, is always one of the great ceremonial rituals of the republic. For Bill Clinton, it was also the opening of a campaign that promises to be every bit as hard fought as the one that ended last Nov. 3. And the outcome is in considerable doubt.

Aides separately released details of Clinton's plan to enact the greatest tax increase in history, plus a package of sharp spending cuts, in order to begin the long-overdue job of reining in deficits; those final specifics deviated only modestly from advance leaks. Primarily, the address gave the President a chance to start building support for a program that will face passionate opposition from an ersatz alliance of many interests being hurt, and he seized on it effectively. In plain but strong language, Clinton pleaded with the public to weigh the mild immediate pain of higher taxes against the far greater eventual pain of letting deficits run wild. "Unless we change," said the President, "we will be condemning our children and our children's children to a lesser life than we enjoyed."

Even before he began speaking, Clinton was on the phone to Ross Perot, briefing him for 12 minutes on the plan; the Texan withheld a full endorsement but praised the President for an "excellent speech." Clinton then took off on what amounted to a campaign swing through Missouri, Ohio and upstate New York; this week he pushes on to California and Washington. In St. Louis, Missouri, Clinton noted that Republicans were already complaining that "he should have cut ((spending)) more" and challenged them, "Show me where, and be specific -- not hot air." Members of the Cabinet and other top aides fanned out to pitch the plan in 21 states.

A TIME/CNN poll showed respondents approving the plan 62% to 27%. Clinton also got a boost from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, a stalwart conservative, who not only commended the President but also indicated that the Fed would cooperate by holding down interest rates to soften the bite of higher taxes. But the first barrage of phone calls to Congress was highly negative, and there is something in the plan to offend almost every interest employing a lobbyist with an in at a particular congressional committee. Budget Director Leon Panetta told the Washington Post that chances of congressional passage are only fifty-fifty. (See cover stories, beginning on page 18.)