Clinton was in many respects the perfect leader for a party
divided between liberal and moderate wings. He tried to assume
the image of a pragmatic centrist who could moderate the demands
of various Democratic Party interest groups without alienating
them.
Avoiding ideological rhetoric that declared big government to be
a positive good, he proposed a number of programs that earned
him the label "New Democrat." Control of the federal bureaucracy
and judicial appointments provided one means of satisfying
political claims of organized labor and civil rights groups. On
the ever-controversial abortion issue, Clinton supported the
Roe v. Wade decision, but also declared that
abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare."
President Clinton's closest collaborator was his wife, Hillary
Rodham Clinton. In the campaign, he had quipped that those who
voted for him "got two for the price of one." She supported her
husband against accusations about his personal life.
As energetic and as activist as her husband, Ms. Clinton assumed
a more prominent role in the administration than any first lady
before her, even Eleanor Roosevelt. Her first important
assignment would be to develop a national health program. In
2000, with her husband's administration coming to a close, she
would be elected a U.S. senator from New York.
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