MISSOURI COMMENTARY: PLAY IN PEORIA ONE MORE TIME?

If President Clinton had made half of last week's State of the Union Message one year ago, Congress would have passed most of his proposals and his congressional audience in 1995 might have been composed of a majority of Democrats. His speech on Tuesday night came a year too late.

A year ago, Clinton launched his ill-fated health care proposal with Mrs. Clinton placed in charge. It bombed, taking both of the Clintons approval ratings down with it.

This time, a year too late, Clinton returned to his 1992 presidential campaign mode. He was Mr. Moderate and Mr. Middle. He was against all extremes wherever they were to be found. He was for square right in the middle of the American political process, where in 1992 he perceived most Americans to be.

-- He returned to his 1992 pledge of a middle-income tax cut. Never mind that such a proposal is rather dubious if your principal focus is on reducing the federal deficit of $175 billion and, if you are guaranteeing to protect Social Security and Medicare while proposing increased defense expenditures.

Never mind that American tax rates are amongst the lowest in the industrialized world. Tax cuts for the middle class are popular. The middle class voted overwhelmingly Republican last November. Just as irresponsibly, the Republicans are proposing a middle income tax cut, so many Democrats believe they had better climb on board the tax cut train.

This year there will be no revolution in health care -- not even much of a skirmish. "We bit off more than we could chew," the president said. "This year, let's work together."

The health care retreat was essential. It would have been foolhardy to come forth with anything resembling last year's proposal, which became the Clinton family albatross. A good politician knows when to cut his losses. A losing politician repeatedly butts his head against a stone wall and screams how much he is enjoying it.

-- Minimum wage. The Kennedy Democrats want to go from $4.25 to around $5.50. The Republicans want no increase whatsoever. Clinton doesn't quite say what he wants, but "something in the middle" might be just fine -- maybe $5. Again, he's the man in the middle.

-- Immigration reform. Clinton mentioned this in 1992, but it somehow disappeared from the landscape in 1993 and 1994. With Gov. Pete Wilson, father of Proposition 187, emerging as a presidential possibility, and with California an absolutely "must" state for Clinton in 1996, the immigration issue had to be addressed.

Clinton has adopted the middle position between doing nothing and Wilson's draconian Proposition 187. His friend, former Rep. Barbara Jordan of Texas, had suggested the creation of a national computer system to keep tabs on aliens authorized to work in the United States. Various immigration organizations have criticized the Jordan proposal, but it is far more acceptable to them than anything that might approach Proposition 187.

-- Lobbying and campaign spending reform. This was one of Clinton's best themes of the presidential campaign. Time and again, he elicited cheers with a pledge to drive the special interests out of Washington. He decried money-soaked political campaigns. It was often his most moving, most fervent message.

After he took the presidential oath, the lobby/campaign spending message evaporated. Clinton somehow seemed tongue-tied on the issue.

Win or lose, this is one of Clinton's best political messages. He should beat Congress to death with it. Now that the Republicans are in the majority, many hesitant Democrats can now join ranks with the president and demand that Capitol Hill be cleaner than clean. There is no attack issue that will more befuddle the majority Republicans in Congress than the reform of the lobbying mess and the obscene campaign spending system. The Feinstein-Huffington Senate race in California ought to be enough to make a persuasive case.

As Clinton looks forward to the 1996 presidential campaign, he thinks back to what he said and pledged in 1992. Forget 1993 and 1994, he is saying. Wash the slate clean. "We have made some mistakes." Full steam back to 1992 and maybe -- just maybe -- it will play one more time in Peoria.

~Tom Eagleton is a former U.S. senator from Missouri and a columnist for the Pulitzer Publishing Co.