Clinton

BILL Clinton will take office with high hopes and good will, but his presidency will stand or fall on whether he fixes the economy. His first task is to sort out the long-term "change" he champions from the short-term economic urgencies.As John Maynard Keynes aptly observed, "In the long run we are all dead." It is the short run where people are losing jobs, homes and hopes. And Mr. Clinton will soon lose his political mandate if recovery is not forthcoming. Mr. Clinton courageously resisted the fashionable (and mistaken)

Suddenly on October 13, 2006 in South Boston, VA., Johnta devoted daughter of Francine Clinton, and Johnny Grinnan, grandmother, one son, one brother, one aunt, four uncles and a host of other relatives and friends. Friends may call at the Mt. Olive Baptist Church, 651 Mt. Olive Lane, Turners Station, MD. on thursday 2-8 P.M. Family will receive friends Friday 11 to 12 noon with services following. Interment King Memorial Park. Arrangements by CARLTON C. DOUGLASS FUNERAL SERVICES, P.A.

Washington. -- A few blacks have expressed concern that the Democratic ticket is composed of ''two white Southern males,'' a criticism I regard as silly and meaningless.The three white presidents who have done the most to liberate and lift the level of life of black people in my lifetime were Harry Truman from Jim Crow Missouri, Lyndon B. Johnson from segregated Texas and Jimmy Carter from Georgia, with its atrocious history of violent racism.The two presidents who have done the most damage to black aspirations in this generation have been Ronald Reagan from California and George Bush from Connecticut.

In Friday's editions, The Sun incorrectly described attorney John D. Holum, one of several key advisers to President-elect Bill Clinton, as a registered lobbyist with Congress for utilities and railroads. Mr. Holum says he represents utility companies on regulations, litigation and enforcement at the state and local level but is no longer registered as a lobbyist before the Congress.The Sun regrets the error.As he prepares to move to the White House, President-elect Bill Clinton is getting advice from a broad network of people, some of whom may join his administration.

Democrats in Congress are starting to figure that if they hang together they can let the Republicans hang themselves separately. The object of the exercise is to make the GOP largely irrelevant to the sweeping economic reform process launched by President Clinton by keeping Democratic majorities intact for showdown votes.That this is Mr. Clinton's strategy is becoming more and more evident as he makes extraordinary concessions to the deficit hawks in his party -- to the conservatives and moderates who have felt the White House is relying too heavily on higher taxes and not enough on spending cuts.

If Congress treats Bill Clinton the way it did Jimmy Carter, we won't be out of power for 12 years but for 28 years next time.The speaker: Walter F. Mondale.That's one way of putting it. Another way would be to reverse the thought. If Mr. Clinton treats Congress the way Jimmy Carter did, the Democrats could and should be out of power for a long, long time. Mr. Carter, the last Democratic president, cut short his honeymoon with a Democratic-controlled Congress in 1977 after only a month. He issued a hit list of water projects that alienated Rocky Mountain country and convinced many lawmakers he was a Southerner with a cramped view of the country, despite the presence of an experienced Minnesota senator as his vice president.

President Clinton's first official visit to Western Europe calls to mind some incendiary comments made by former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt about how Americans go about choosing their leaders. The time was the early Eighties, soon after Ronald Reagan took office. Mr. Schmidt was in his usual arrogant state of mind.His disdain for President Jimmy Carter was already legendary. What was new was his low opinion of Mr. Reagan, then embroiled in the backlash of some unfortunate remarks about how he would conduct a nuclear defense of Western Europe.

Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton's sweep of the South, including swing-state Florida, puts former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas in a defensive, must-win situation heading into next week's primaries in Illinois and Michigan. These upper Midwest states are neutral ground for both candidates, and as such have more significance than yesterday's much-touted Super Tuesday.Nevertheless, the resilience and organization shown by Mr. Clinton were impressive enough to make him the undisputed front-runner for the first time in the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.