Who Should Lead America into the Next Century?

President Clinton deserves to be reelected. He promised to change the country and that is exactly what he has done. Four years ago the economy was slumping, crime was up, and the federal deficit was at an all-time high. Our government was paralyzed, caught in a brain-dead debate between "every man for himself" Republicans and "government can solve every problem" Democrats.

President Clinton realized that the American people needed to forge a new compact with their government -- a compact whereby government promoted opportunity to, and demanded responsibility from, all Americans in order to create a better community. Opportunity, responsibility, and community -- that's the message on which Bill Clinton was elected and the philosophy by which he has governed.

Take opportunity. The Democratic Party's oldest and most fundamental principle can be found in the old rallying cry of Andrew Jackson: "Equal opportunity for all and special privilege for none." This is the ideal of a society in which government empowers people by giving them the basic tools they need to unlock their talents and ambitions, one that allows people to succeed within a system of fair and open rules. To encourage opportunity, President Clinton expanded the Earned-Income Tax Credit so that every full-time worker is guaranteed an income above the poverty level. He also has proposed a new G.I. Bill for American Workers, modeled on the successful bill that educated a generation of Americans after the Second World War, that would give people vouchers so that they, and not the federal government, can decide where to get the skills they need.

Take responsibility. If government is going to provide opportunity for all, then it is fair to ask for something in return. The President's new compact with the American people can succeed only if we the people are prepared to fulfill our civic duties and contribute our fair share to the commonwealth. In this spirit, President Clinton established AmeriCorps, a national service program founded on the principle that citizens who receive government support for education or training ought to give service time back to their country. In order to end a welfare system that gave something for nothing, the President pushed for work-based welfare reform. In addition since government has a responsibility to work at maximum efficiency, President Clinton and Vice President Gore have reduced the federal work force by 225,000 workers and have dumped 16,000 pages of burdensome and often outdated regulation.

Take Community. To help fight crime in our communities, President Clinton has pushed for legislation that will put an additional 100,000 cops on the streets. He fought for passage of the Brady Bill to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, and he led the fight to ban assault-style weapons. He supported the television "V" chip to give parents control over what comes into their homes, and he advocated penalties for parents whose kids are chronically truant.

Four years ago President Clinton offered the American people a new vision for the future. That vision is starting to become reality. The federal deficit has been cut by sixty percent, and we have the lowest combined rates of unemployment, inflation, and home mortgages in twenty-eight years. Ten million new jobs have been created, the number of people on welfare is down, wages are up, and for four years in a row the crime rate has gone down. The country is undeniably better off than it was four years ago, although obviously there is still work that remains to be done. Bill Clinton has earned the chance to do that work and to finish the job he started.

-- Al From, president of the Democratic Leadership Council

"A Better Man For a Better America" might be the political equivalent of "Just Do It," but it also happens to be true of Bob Dole and his agenda.

On the morning after the election I want my young sons to recognize that Americans have elected a man of character. Bob Dole has exhibited a capacity for self-sacrifice, courage, and commitment to principle. His public career is marked by trustworthiness and a set of core beliefs that Bill Clinton simply does not share. Character counts.

The centerpiece of the Dole agenda is his economic plan, but improved race relations and progress in the abortion controversy are also reasons to support Dole.

The average American family pays 38.2 percent of its income in taxes, thus spending more on the government's needs than on their own food, clothing, and housing combined. Parents aren't working longer hours to boost their family's well-being but rather to meet the unprecedented demands of government. Dole's tax cut plan would mean a tax savings of $1,261 for a family of four making $30,000 a year -- an 86 percent reduction in taxes owed. A family of four with an income of $75,000 would see their taxes reduced by 21 percent -- $300 a month more to spend as they see fit. Clinton's targeted temporary tax cuts offer 10 cents in tax relief for every one dollar of the Dole reduction.

The Dole economic plan would provide much-needed tax relief while balancing the budget. This is not the impossible feat Clinton claims it is; it would not even (unfortunately) eliminate government as we know it. Federal spending under the Dole plan would increase by $250 billion over the next six years -- that's 2.1 percent a year, instead of the 2.95 percent it would increase a year under Clinton's plan. The Dole budget would be a down payment on the commitment to help parents who want to work less and spend more time with their children.

Unless dramatically reformed, federal entitlements are unsustainable. Bob Dole has a serious plan to curb the growth of Medicare that his opponent has shamelessly disparaged. The lesson of the 1996 race should not be that politicians dare not face up to the crisis in entitlement spending. Bob Dole's political courage ought to be rewarded by adult voters who don't shrink from hard truths.

Bob Dole supports the elimination of state-based discrimination through the use of race and gender preferences for employment and college admissions. Affirmative action to provide equal opportunity is defensible, but a racial spoils system under which Americans, based on their ancestry, are set against one another is not. Dole would eliminate the federal spoils system, a move that would improve America's racial climate by not magnifying grievances that encourage race-consciousness.

Polls and recent congressional votes prove that pro-life and pro-choice Americans have found long-sought common ground. They agree that the gruesome practice of partial-birth abortions should be banned. While Clinton has already vetoed a bill that would have banned these abortions, Bob Dole has pledged to prohibit them, leaving a door open for compromise.

As a "soccer mom," I'll vote for Bob Dole in behalf of the sons I shuttle to endless practices. They deserve an America that rewards good character, limits the burdens of government, rewards its citizens for their accomplishments rather than their ancestry, and listens to the moral choices its citizens have made.

-- Kate O'Beirne, Washington editor of The National Review.