Anger From the Grass Roots

By JON D. HULL/DAYTON

The Secret Service would surely have had a fit if President Clinton had attempted to address the 35,000 voters assembled in a field just off the Dayton International Airport last week. It's not that the crowd was especially dangerous, just that everyone carried at least one gun, a whole lot of shells and often several grudges against Clinton's attempts to run the country. Of course, it's unlikely that the Grand American Trapshoot Tournament would invite Clinton in the first place. "We need someone like George Patton for President. That'll cut crime," said Bill Dirr, 69, a retired service manager with Pitney Bowes. Jim Holian, 55, a gunstock manufacturer, grumbled that "instead of paying for kids to play basketball at 2 a.m., we should be building more prisons." Friends nodded furiously as Holian lambasted Clinton over the din of 500 shooters standing in a row 1.5 miles long and blasting away, part of a 10-day-long ritual slaughter of 4.5 million clay pigeons. The only thing thicker than the gunpowder that laced the air was the cynicism directed toward both Clinton and Congress. Said Bob Walden, 52, a retired supervisor: "It's not that I've lost faith in our nation's principles. It's just that I've lost all faith in our leaders."

Good thing Clinton isn't made of clay. Or is he? That question perplexes even many of his supporters in the rolling hills of southwestern Ohio's Montgomery County. TIME first profiled the region two months before the 1992 election, when both the Bush and Clinton campaigns were battling for this key swing county in a critical state. Angst over the economy won out over the county's latent conservatism, and Clinton beat Bush 41% to 40%, with Ross Perot taking 18%. Two months into the Clinton presidency, when campaign pledges were evolving into a flurry of presidential proposals and Executive Orders, TIME returned to the region to find voters eager for change yet squirming like patients in a dentist's waiting room.

Now many are wondering what ever happened to the dentist. "So far, Clinton really hasn't done anything good or bad," shrugs Karen Harris-Heidenreich, 32, sitting in the emergency room at the Good Samaritan Hospital last week with her six-year-old daughter, who hurt her arm jumping off a couch. A Clinton supporter who also backs universal coverage, Harris-Heidenreich couldn't care less about the President's personal and legal scandals -- so long as he gets results. "Look, if Clinton can change this country, then he can have all the affairs he wants and he can even run his own savings and loan," she says. Notes Dayton's Republican Mayor Mike Turner: "I don't think the character issue would be such a problem if Clinton were more effective."

Clinton's difficulties have divided those who voted for him into two camps: those who are disappointed with what the President has done in Washington and those who are disappointed by what Washington has done to the President. Back in February 1993, Steve Cordow, a 34-year-old furniture repairer, boasted that he voted for Clinton because "I figured he'd stick it to the fat cats." Now, says Cordow, "it looks like the fat cats are sticking it to Clinton; I mean it's getting embarrassing. Sure the guy means well, but don't we all?" Even Montgomery County Democratic Party chairman Dennis Lieberman concedes that "Clinton's position in Montgomery County is not as strong as it was."

On a national level, Americans still blame Congress more than the President for the aimlessness of the Federal Government. Indeed, a new TIME poll shows that 48% believe Republicans in Congress are more responsible for gridlock, against 32% who fault the Administration. However, the President's support continues to erode. The same poll shows that only 40% are "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to vote for Clinton in 1996. The figure was 57% just seven months ago, and 43% of voters actually cast their ballots for him in 1992.

In Dayton, for example, Clinton ought to be coasting about now. Like many cities, it has grappled with a shrinking industrial base since the 1970s, when the NCR Corp. -- the town's main employer for nearly a century -- shed 15,000 workers while Firestone's Dayton Tire & Rubber Co., Frigidaire and Dayton Press all pulled out or closed down. But lately the economy has stabilized, anchored by the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which supports local high- tech industries, and General Motors, which employs 20,000 workers at eight plants. Since 1992 unemployment has dropped a full point, to 5.4%, in contrast to 6.1% nationwide. Next month Victoria's Secret will open a catalog center, creating more than 1,000 jobs, while both Best Buy and Kohl's are expected to open local outlets by year's end. Says Bill Odorizzi of the Dayton Development Council: "Retail is really exploding, and that's not just Chamber of Commerce talk."

All of which seems to do Clinton absolutely no good. "People just don't see that anything he has done has made much of a difference with the economy," says Turner. Yet not much is expected of him in dealing with problems like crime, even though homicides in Dayton have risen from 27 in 1984 to 47 so far this year. Numbed by apathy, many voters view Washington not as a force for good or evil in their day-to-day lives but rather as just a very noisy and expensive irrelevancy. "Sure we want money from Washington to hire more police, but otherwise crime is a local problem," says Matt Wring, 38, a painter. "It's parents not raising their kids right and neighbors not looking out for each other. If we wait for Washington to solve our problems, then we might as well just kiss our butts goodbye."

In the fall of 1992, health-care reform was a major vote getter in Montgomery County. Now it's more of a brain teaser. "To tell the truth, I'm totally confused on the health-care stuff, and that's why I voted for Clinton," says construction worker Bill Wright, 37. "I still want reform, but now I'm not sure whose reform I want. Which bill is Clinton's anyway?" That kind of talk delights state representative Jeff Jacobson, who heads the county's Republican Party. "There was a whole group of people who hadn't had any hope for a long time, and they came out of the woodwork to vote for the first time in 20 years, which really killed us," says Jacobson. "Now they are back in the woodwork, and they won't vote again for another 20 years."

Yet for all the frustration, many voters are quick to credit Clinton for at least trying to tackle the big issues. "He is addressing all the major problems we care about. It's just a matter of whether he can do anything about them," says truck driver Michael Matthews, 34, who voted for Perot "for the hell of it." Mathews is not optimistic. "I blame Congress," he says. "That place has become a joke." Lieberman says that "Clinton's biggest achievement is bringing the question of health care to the forefront of American politics, and that is a major accomplishment even if nothing gets completed in his term and even if he is not re-elected."

For Dayton Democrats, that is quite a comedown from the heady days of 1992. "Clinton won't be re-elected unless he gets a grip on things," says James Sullivan, assistant director of the county board of elections. "The guy is just being nibbled to death by his enemies. The nuns taught me that you had to get them before they got you. He needs to stand and fight." Or stay out of Montgomery County come 1996.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE

CREDIT: From a telephone poll of 1,000 adult Americans taken for TIME/CNN on Aug. 17-18 by Yankelovich Partners Inc. Sampling error is plus or minus 3% Not Sures omitted

CAPTION: Who do you have more confidence in to deal with the main problems facing the country today?

Who is more responsible for today's gridlock in government?

Does the description "out of touch with the American people" apply to:

Is Clinton trying to change too many things too quickly or too little too slowly?

What is the main problem facing the country today?