单选题
The American Presidential Gala of 1993
Mixing populism and celebrity, Clinton dances into office with a week-long multimillion-dollar party full of stars, saxophone music and presidential hugs.
The Party was held in a way never seen since World War Ⅱ. Many movie and music stars showed up, offering their wishes to a new administration. They sang songs like "You know Bill's gonna get this Country straight. " "93! You and me! U-hi-tee! /Time to past with Big Bill and Hillaree. "
The stars came out in constellation because they recognized Clinton one of their own.Not just that he plays the saxophone, a little. Or that Hillary is a smart, tough lawyer,like most Hollywood moguls. What matters is that Clinton is a beacon of middle-class charm, a love of being loved, a believer in the importance of image, metaphor, style. And he is an ace manipulator of media, selling his symbols directly to the people on TV, without the interference of nosy journalists. It all makes for a wondrous' 90s blend of show biz and politic.
"This is our time," Clinton said in his Inaugural Address. "Let us embrace it." Last week he had an embrace for everyone, and not just the stars. This huge bear President needs to feel the public's approval.
At one of the balls of the week, Clinton was like the college student who drops in the night before the exam to show he's one of the guys, then sneaks back to his dorm to cram.Perhaps there is as much Nixon in him (the ambition, the intellect) as Kennedy (the charm, the recklessness, his position as centrist custodian of liberal dreams). He will need to be the best of both men if he is to close, as he said last week, "the gap between our words and our deeds."
During the gala, actor Edward James Olmos quoted Lincoln: "We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country." Clinton, a good student with a good memory, mouthed the words as Olmos spoke them. Clinton must have realized that, in a different sense and different era, America faces the task of disenthralling itself, of shaking off the Hollywood stardust and facing facts.
In 1992 Clinton vended optimism; now he must be careful in saying so. He sold the nation a miracle product, ALL-NEW HOPE: it gives you cleaner, cheaper government with a fresh minty flavor. But if it doesn't get the stains out, the electorate's high hopes could sour into despair. Then the man called Hope will become the man called Hype. All the big stars and better angels will leave him out in the spotlight, stranded, unmasked.