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Being right vs. being practical

Friday, February 25, 2000

By BOB HERBERT
THE NEW YORK TIMES

It is a measure of Bill Bradley's distance from the real world of power politics in this country that he seems somehow to have convinced himself that he can revive his presidential campaign by winning the non-binding Democratic primary in the state of Washington.

So he's gone off to the great Northwest, which is probably a more congenial place for the cerebral former senator than some of the bigger, noisier primary states such as New York and California.

Bradley goes his own way, meandering, leaving the rough and tumble to others. It is fair to wonder if his heart is really in this race.

Bradley sounded some nice themes as he geared up his campaign last year. He said the United States had a moral obligation to lift as many of its children out of poverty as possible. He said it was time to "vanquish racial discord from our hearts and spirit." And he came up with a plan that was supposed to make health insurance available to most Americans.

The health insurance plan was crucial to Bradley's candidacy, and it became a liability. Al Gore jumped on it like a dog on red meat. Bradley was offended by the ferocity and -- in his view -- unscrupulousness of the attacks.

All politics is personal. When Bradley saw a win in New Hampshire slipping away from him, he retaliated against Gore -- bitterly, personally and relentlessly. He all but called the vice president a liar and suggested he wasn't fit to be president. Those attacks continue.

The irony is that Gore was more right than wrong about the Bradley plan. It is impractical and could cause more harm than good. It would require a massive restructuring of the nation's health care delivery and finance systems, and would probably erode the availability and quality of health care that the poor currently receive from Medicaid.

All of which is moot, because the plan is not about to see the light of day. Democrats in Congress have not yet recovered from the trauma of the Clinton health care debacle. A proposal as sweeping as Bradley's would have no chance -- none, zero -- of passing Congress in the foreseeable future.

A congressional aide who is an expert on health care legislation put it this way: "The Clinton plan in large part fell of its own weight, and I think an awful lot of members have taken away from that experience the belief that the best and possibly the only way to reform the health care system -- which all Democrats believe needs reforming in a number of ways -- is to do it in very targeted, incremental steps."

Gore's major health care initiative is an effort to get universal coverage for children by the year 2005.

Dr. Jack Lewin, the chief executive officer of the California Medical Association, said this week: "Mr. Bradley has raised an issue which I think will have great relevance in the future and we're all indebted to him for being a visionary. Mr. Gore is looking at the practical reality of the world and saying, 'Let's take a step that is viable.'"

The practical reality of the world is just the thing that Bradley seems so adept at skirting. How do you lift as many children out of poverty as possible? How do you vanquish racial discord? How do you overcome the recalcitrance in Congress and really bring health coverage to all Americans?

It is one thing to talk movingly about these matters, which Bradley does. It is another thing to rally the support that is necessary to make some of these things happen.

There are times when Bradley reminds me of the line that the Sundance Kid tosses at Butch Cassidy. "You just keep thinking, Butch. That's what you're good at."

Butch's own assessment is, "I have vision, and the rest of the world wears bifocals."

The practical reality of running for the Democratic nomination for president would seem to require that Bradley do all he can over the next 12 days to generate the kind of excitement in New York and California that could lead to upset wins in those two vast and crucial states. Without them, he's finished.

But Bradley is in the Pacific Northwest, where it's quiet and cool and peaceful, and you can think those big and exciting thoughts.

Bob Herbert is a columnist with The New York Times. Copyright 2000 New York Times News Service.

© 2000 The New York Times.
All rights reserved.

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