'History? I got TV shows to watch'

Not everyone has been riveted, reports Michael Ellison
THE 50th anniversary production of Death of a Salesman has just opened on Broadway. But for many it would be more appropriate if it were another Arthur Miller classic, the Crucible, that was playing at the Eugene O'Neill theatre.

Many New Yorkers, but by no means all, believe that Bill Clinton has been the quarry in a witchhunt. But the opinion polls have not been reflecting the whole picture.

Bill Stanton, for instance, has particular evidence for his view that the president should not be trusted with the nation's business.

'He's had this reputation for years,' said the 51-year-old investment adviser over an early lunch of salad and the Wall Street Journal as the vote came in by television in Figaro, a restaurant and bar dominated by middle-class professionals in midtown Manhattan.

'Last year a group of my friends, all professional speakers from Tennessee, were at a White House reception. My friend Don and his wife Jean were there and the president called her aside and asked for her private phone number,' claimed Mr Stanton, from Charlotte in North Carolina.

'And that's in front of everybody. Nobody could believe it. She's a much more attractive woman than any of those he's been linked with and she said, 'No, I'm not going to do that'.

'The man obviously has a lot of character flaws. It takes character to resign and I don't think he's got that. The problem I have is that what he's done is a very poor example as a leader.

'If I was a world leader I'd wonder if what he said was true, if he was a straight shooter. But today or next week people won't even be talking about it, most Americans want to put it behind them.' John Keene, a trademark lawyer, aged 56, was toying with a vodka martini. He would rather put the Clinton presidency behind him.

'The only thing I think is historic about this is that it's a smudge on our reputation as a moral and ethical nation. The United States has wandered a little in the last 50 years but this is the most serious.

'But I don't think he should resign because that would give us Al Gore and I don't like Albert Gore. It would give him a walk-in as president next time too. What's also serious is that a high percentge of the people doesn't think that it matters.' That certainly seems to be true of younger people.

'History? I couldn't care less,' said Jacob Langley, aged 19. 'I got TV shows to watch. He's a good president, done what he said he would do, it's like when they burned all the witches, it's the same thing. I think he was set up, like, who records all their phone calls?' And Mike McNamee, the 24-year-old bartender, said: 'It's been a total witchhunt. People just want it over and for him to carry on dealing with the financial side of things. People are more concerned about interest rates.

'The United States is doing well economically and that's all people care about.' But not people like 57-year-old Norman Usen, a vice-president of product development at a dental care firm. She was grabbing a coffee before a meeting at the Harvard Club on the other side of West 44th Street.

'Are the Congress going to remember where they left off before all this happened? The sad thing is now we'll never know what kind of leader he would have been.

'People have lost interest in government because it's not a life-threatening situation any more, not like world war II or afterwards or during the cold war,' she said.

'America has got to the point where it feels very secure. If he goes, Gore takes over. People don't live and die by what happens in government.' Peter Larsen, a 50-something reinsurance broker, saw the split in opinion this way: 'Clinton's marching to a different drum. The old guard, both Democrats and Republicans have a set of ethics that's different to the 60s generation and the yuppies.

'But I truly believe there are more shoes to fall, this guy Starr is not going quietly into the night. But for now - you know the movie? - this is Free Willy day.'

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