From the Publisher

By Elizabeth P. Valk

THE story of Bill Clinton's long march from the Governor's mansion to within striking distance of the Oval Office is a narrative with many threads. It is not solely about Clinton's triumphs and falterings, strategies and dumb luck. To grasp fully this remarkable odyssey requires an understanding of how the successes and failures of political opponents both impeded and abetted Clinton's journey. In short, it is a story tailor-made for TIME magazine.

From the start of the campaign season, chief political correspondent Michael Kramer has monitored the ebb and flow of the entire process. Senior writer Walter Shapiro, Washington deputy bureau chief Margaret Carlson and contributor Laurence Barrett also roamed widely, exploring the different candidacies. As the Democratic race heated up, various bureau chiefs were enlisted: Jordan Bonfante zeroed in on Jerry Brown's campaign, Jon Hull tracked Bob Kerrey, and Sam Allis followed Paul Tsongas, while Michael Riley scrutinized Clinton's Arkansas record. In Washington, correspondent Nancy Traver kept tabs on Tom Harkin.

At the Democratic Convention in July, Shapiro joined forces with associate editor Priscilla Painton to cover the final months of Clinton's quest. Correspondent Elizabeth Taylor took up the Al Gore watch, while Richard Woodbury followed Ross Perot's on-again-off-again crusade. Through it all, White House correspondents Michael Duffy and Dan Goodgame monitored the Bush- Quayle campaign. And P.F. Bentley continued his exclusive photographic coverage of the Governor. The result is more than just Clinton's story. "You have to understand all those campaigns to write insightfully about why Clinton has been so successful," says senior editor Joelle Attinger, who helped coordinate and deploy the troops.

Managing editor Henry Muller used this space last week to tell you about our objections to a Bush-Quayle television commercial that centered on our April 20, 1992, cover showing a negative photographic image of Bill Clinton. The use of that cover was not authorized by TIME, nor did we sanction the commercial's implicit message that we were taking sides in the election. We asked the Bush- Quayle campaign to withdraw the ad, and when they refused, we filed suit. , Last week, in a hearing before a federal judge in Washington, lawyers for the Bush-Quayle campaign said the commercial had been withdrawn as of Oct. 21 and would not be used again.