Clinton Takes On Hecklers President Uses Biting Humor In Response To Interruption
President Clinton momentarily abandoned his air of sailing above the partisan fray Tuesday and, goaded by hecklers supporting the Republican ticket, lashed out repeatedly at Bob Dole’s voting record in the Senate.
Clinton had just begun speaking Tuesday morning at Ohio State University in Columbus - after two days of campaigning past midnight - when a group of demonstrators carrying “Dole-Kemp” signs began drowning out his words with chants of “Tell the truth!”
“Wait, wait wait,” he said, hushing the thousands of Clinton supporters in the sports arena who were shouting their indignation at the interruption. “This is a university and we have respected their free speech,” the president said. “They won’t respect ours because they hate the truth.”
Clinton usually refers to Dole in only the vaguest of terms, like “our opponent.”.
But uncharacteristically, as if spoiling for a confrontation, Clinton offered one of the most direct assaults of the campaign on Dole, using the protesters as a foil to lambaste his Republican opponent’s voting record.
The moment offered a brief reminder of Clinton’s willingness to land a political punch and a vision of the campaign that might have been if, rather than coasting for months with a commanding lead, he had been forced to fight back hard.
“They must not have any student loans,” Clinton said of the demonstrators. “Senator Dole voted against creating the student loan program.” Moving on to the direct loan program, in which the government replaces banks as the lender, he said the hecklers must not have received those either “because Senator Dole led the fight against the direct loan program.”
“And they must believe we should start the 21st century as the only great nation in the world with no one in the president’s Cabinet to represent education,” said Clinton, “because that is part of the Dole-Kemp program for the 21st century: get rid of the Department of Education.”
The protesters persisted, chanting, “Dole, Kemp! Dole, Kemp!” as Clinton tried to go on with a speech painting a picture of a brave new world of computers and scientific breakthroughs.
With a huge grin, Clinton gazed at his own supporters and told them, “I’ll tell you what I’ll do.” Then he pointed to the hecklers and laughed, saying, “I’ll bet you they won’t be doing that a week from today.”
Once more they tried to throw Clinton off balance and once more he showed them up, visibly fighting to contain his laughter.
“I would be screaming, too,” he said, “if I wanted a country that took Head Start and Big Bird away from 5-year-olds, school lunches away from 10-year-olds, summer jobs away from 15-years-olds and college loans away from 20-year-olds.”
He then finished up with a comedian’s perfect timing, “I might be screaming if I had that kind of record. Either that or running for a rock to hide behind.”